Dr. David Eagleman

We're always a moving target.

And who you will be in five or 10 years will be different.

But I don't think we'd want the plasticity of an infant, even though when you're doing, let's say, language learning, you say, oh, I wish I could learn this as well as I did when I was seven.

But generally, it's not a state that you would desire, I think.

Yeah.

Our capacity to think about our future selves is the most special part of being humans.

And if we didn't do it, if we said, I'm going to be stoked about it, yeah, you'd eat the cupcake and you'd do what, like all the things that wouldn't serve your future self.

So, yeah, we actually spend most of our time not in the here and now.

We're reminiscing about the past and we're simulating possible futures.

Your mind is a movie theater.

We're constantly thinking about where things are going.

But this is great.

This is what makes us able to do all the things that humans do successfully.

And in our own lives, this matters so much because we're able to think about who do I want to be?

Now, as you know, we've got this rivalry in the brain.

You've got all these voices going on at the same time, all these different networks running.

So, for example...

if I put the cupcake down in front of you, you know, part of your brain wants to eat that.

It's delicious.

It's a rich energy source.