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David Eagleman

๐Ÿ‘ค Speaker
See mentions of this person in podcasts
1934 total appearances

Appearances Over Time

Podcast Appearances

The Jordan Harbinger Show
1123: David Eagleman | Your Prehistoric Brain on Modern Problems

Exactly right. And Darren did that experiment. But this was actually an experiment done at Harvard originally with some colleagues of mine who did this. They were very interested in this concept of change blindness, which is... How much do we notice changes in the world? Now, the fact is that the world tends to be stable. So I'm talking to you now, Jordan.

The Jordan Harbinger Show
1123: David Eagleman | Your Prehistoric Brain on Modern Problems

Exactly right. And Darren did that experiment. But this was actually an experiment done at Harvard originally with some colleagues of mine who did this. They were very interested in this concept of change blindness, which is... How much do we notice changes in the world? Now, the fact is that the world tends to be stable. So I'm talking to you now, Jordan.

The Jordan Harbinger Show
1123: David Eagleman | Your Prehistoric Brain on Modern Problems

And if I look somewhere else and then I look back, you're really likely to still be here because that's just how physics works. But so they wanted to know, but what does that mean? If I'm assuming that I'm talking to you and then I look somewhere and you turn into somebody else, would I even notice? And so they did this experiment in the Harvard quad with the door passing in between people.

The Jordan Harbinger Show
1123: David Eagleman | Your Prehistoric Brain on Modern Problems

And if I look somewhere else and then I look back, you're really likely to still be here because that's just how physics works. But so they wanted to know, but what does that mean? If I'm assuming that I'm talking to you and then I look somewhere and you turn into somebody else, would I even notice? And so they did this experiment in the Harvard quad with the door passing in between people.

The Jordan Harbinger Show
1123: David Eagleman | Your Prehistoric Brain on Modern Problems

And if I look somewhere else and then I look back, you're really likely to still be here because that's just how physics works. But so they wanted to know, but what does that mean? If I'm assuming that I'm talking to you and then I look somewhere and you turn into somebody else, would I even notice? And so they did this experiment in the Harvard quad with the door passing in between people.

The Jordan Harbinger Show
1123: David Eagleman | Your Prehistoric Brain on Modern Problems

But there are many different versions. Just the simplest is you show a photograph and then the photograph goes away and you show the photograph again. And maybe you swap back and forth between A and B and A and B with a little blank space in between each time. You tell the person there's some massive difference between photo A and photo B. Can you tell me what the difference is?

The Jordan Harbinger Show
1123: David Eagleman | Your Prehistoric Brain on Modern Problems

But there are many different versions. Just the simplest is you show a photograph and then the photograph goes away and you show the photograph again. And maybe you swap back and forth between A and B and A and B with a little blank space in between each time. You tell the person there's some massive difference between photo A and photo B. Can you tell me what the difference is?

The Jordan Harbinger Show
1123: David Eagleman | Your Prehistoric Brain on Modern Problems

But there are many different versions. Just the simplest is you show a photograph and then the photograph goes away and you show the photograph again. And maybe you swap back and forth between A and B and A and B with a little blank space in between each time. You tell the person there's some massive difference between photo A and photo B. Can you tell me what the difference is?

The Jordan Harbinger Show
1123: David Eagleman | Your Prehistoric Brain on Modern Problems

And people are terrible at it. And once they finally do see it or you tell them the answer, they think, how could I not have seen that? There's like a major difference. A car disappears from one to the other or the railing in the background moves by three feet up and down. The engine of the airplane is missing or not missing from photo A to B. But we just don't see that. Why?

The Jordan Harbinger Show
1123: David Eagleman | Your Prehistoric Brain on Modern Problems

And people are terrible at it. And once they finally do see it or you tell them the answer, they think, how could I not have seen that? There's like a major difference. A car disappears from one to the other or the railing in the background moves by three feet up and down. The engine of the airplane is missing or not missing from photo A to B. But we just don't see that. Why?

The Jordan Harbinger Show
1123: David Eagleman | Your Prehistoric Brain on Modern Problems

And people are terrible at it. And once they finally do see it or you tell them the answer, they think, how could I not have seen that? There's like a major difference. A car disappears from one to the other or the railing in the background moves by three feet up and down. The engine of the airplane is missing or not missing from photo A to B. But we just don't see that. Why?

The Jordan Harbinger Show
1123: David Eagleman | Your Prehistoric Brain on Modern Problems

It's because all we ever see is our internal model of the world. So when I look at a photograph, let's say it's a bunch of soldiers lined up to get on an airplane, big Hercules jet. When I'm asked to look at the photograph and see the details there, I think, okay, soldiers, jet, aircraft.

The Jordan Harbinger Show
1123: David Eagleman | Your Prehistoric Brain on Modern Problems

It's because all we ever see is our internal model of the world. So when I look at a photograph, let's say it's a bunch of soldiers lined up to get on an airplane, big Hercules jet. When I'm asked to look at the photograph and see the details there, I think, okay, soldiers, jet, aircraft.

The Jordan Harbinger Show
1123: David Eagleman | Your Prehistoric Brain on Modern Problems

It's because all we ever see is our internal model of the world. So when I look at a photograph, let's say it's a bunch of soldiers lined up to get on an airplane, big Hercules jet. When I'm asked to look at the photograph and see the details there, I think, okay, soldiers, jet, aircraft.

The Jordan Harbinger Show
1123: David Eagleman | Your Prehistoric Brain on Modern Problems

Sky, tarmac, and then I'm crawling around the scene with my attentional capacities and I'm trying to pull in more details to figure out what is the difference between these two photos that look the same to me. Okay, what are the soldiers wearing? What color is their thing? How many soldiers are there? And so on.

The Jordan Harbinger Show
1123: David Eagleman | Your Prehistoric Brain on Modern Problems

Sky, tarmac, and then I'm crawling around the scene with my attentional capacities and I'm trying to pull in more details to figure out what is the difference between these two photos that look the same to me. Okay, what are the soldiers wearing? What color is their thing? How many soldiers are there? And so on.

The Jordan Harbinger Show
1123: David Eagleman | Your Prehistoric Brain on Modern Problems

Sky, tarmac, and then I'm crawling around the scene with my attentional capacities and I'm trying to pull in more details to figure out what is the difference between these two photos that look the same to me. Okay, what are the soldiers wearing? What color is their thing? How many soldiers are there? And so on.

The Jordan Harbinger Show
1123: David Eagleman | Your Prehistoric Brain on Modern Problems

But it takes me a while before I land on, oh, the jet engine that's appearing and disappearing between photos A and B. I just don't notice it. So the thing is, when I look at the photo, this is the important part. I'm not seeing it as though I am a camera of some sort. All I ever see. is however rich my model is. So all I see is, oh, there's people and plane and sky.

The Jordan Harbinger Show
1123: David Eagleman | Your Prehistoric Brain on Modern Problems

But it takes me a while before I land on, oh, the jet engine that's appearing and disappearing between photos A and B. I just don't notice it. So the thing is, when I look at the photo, this is the important part. I'm not seeing it as though I am a camera of some sort. All I ever see. is however rich my model is. So all I see is, oh, there's people and plane and sky.

The Jordan Harbinger Show
1123: David Eagleman | Your Prehistoric Brain on Modern Problems

But it takes me a while before I land on, oh, the jet engine that's appearing and disappearing between photos A and B. I just don't notice it. So the thing is, when I look at the photo, this is the important part. I'm not seeing it as though I am a camera of some sort. All I ever see. is however rich my model is. So all I see is, oh, there's people and plane and sky.