In the traditionally taught view of perception, data from the sensorium pours into the brain, works its way up the sensory hierarchy, and makes itself seen, heard, smelled, tasted, felt - "perceived." But a closer examination of the data suggests this is incorrect. The brain is properly thought of as a mostly closed system that runs on its own internally generated activity.

What a life in science really teaches you is the vastness of our ignorance.

Behavior is the outcome of the battle among internal systems.

One of the most impressive features of brains - and especially human brains - is the flexibility to learn almost any kind of task that comes its way.

This is what consciousness does: it sets the goals, and the rest of the system learns how to meet them.

Many people prefer a view of human nature that includes a true side and a false side - in other words, humans have a single genuine aim and the rest is decoration, evasion, or cover-up. That's intuitive, but it's incomplete. A study of the brain necessitates a more nuanced view of human nature.

I spent my adult life as a scientist, and science is, essentially, the most successful approach we have to try and understand the vast mysteries around.