David Eagleman

And so somehow when everything balances out, we've ended up exactly as we are.

Yeah.

That's right.

Well, both statements are true.

I mean, we are really special because our brains are running algorithms just slightly differently.

And I can talk about that, why we have taken over the whole planet.

compared to all our brethren in the animal kingdom.

But yes, it's all made of the same stuff.

If I showed you a brain cell, a neuron from a human, a horse, a cow, an insect, a squid, you couldn't tell me what's... I mean, they all look the same.

They're doing exactly the same thing.

It's just...

a cell that has these things that these sort of roadways that come off of it.

And we give them fancy names and they have, you know, but it's just a cell.

It's just trafficking proteins around and putting receptors there and spitting out chemicals.

And it looks exactly the same across the animal kingdom.

And so all that we're doing, all mother nature is doing, I should say, is, you know, just wiring this up in different ways.

Yeah, brain plasticity is what we term this in the field.

And this just means the ability of the brain to reconfigure itself.

So neurons, the cells in the brain, are spending their whole lives plugging and unplugging and seeking and finding other places and changing the strength of their connection with other neurons.

Each neuron connects to about 10,000 other neurons.