Yet as human beings we have to accept-with humility-that the question of ultimate origins will always remain with us, no matter how deeply we understand the brain and the cosmos that it creates.

The visual system of the brain has the organization, computational profile, and architecture it has in order to facilitate the organism's thriving at the four Fs: feeding fleeing, fighting, and reproduction.

Our ability to perceive the world around us seems so effortless that we tend to take it for granted.

Curiosity illuminates the correct path to anything in life. If you're not curious, that's when your brain is starting to die.

Great art allows you to transcend your mortal frame and to reach for the stars. I think great science does the same thing.

Indeed, the line between perceiving and hallucinating is not as crisp as we like to think. In a sense, when we look at the world, we are hallucinating all the time. One could almost regard perception as the act of choosing the one hallucination that best fits the incoming data.

A culture without mythology is not really a civilisation.