Episode 6 | The Connectome: Mapping the Brain
Sebastian Seung explains how he and his team are beginning to build a three dimensional map of the brain’s connections, starting with a mouse brain.
Who will we Be? | Preview
Dr. David Eagleman journeys into the future, and asks what’s next for the human brain, and for our species. He reveals that in the future our descendants may be so different to us that we will be strangers to them.
Episode 6 | Cryonic Preservation of the Brain and Body
David visits Alcor Life Extension Foundation where CEO Max More explains that the team’s aim is to give people a second chance at life.
Episode 6 | Attempting to Create Artificial Intelligence
David meets iCub, a humanoid robot that is designed to interact and learn from the world.
Episode 6 | The Chinese Room Thought Experiment
Dr. David Eagleman demonstrates the Chinese Room thought experiment, which exposes the enduring mystery of how physical pieces and parts give rise to our experience of the world.
Episode 6 | Digital Life
Imagine life inside a computer, in a simulated world. Could we be there already?
Episode 6 | Emergence: What Ants can Teach Us
Dr. David Eagleman visits the Houston Zoo to see how a colony of ants, working together, can give rise to something much greater than the sum of its parts. And so it may be with the brain.
Episode 6 | Take Control of Your Future
Science and technology are giving us the tools to push the boundaries of the human life cycle.
Episode 6 | Brain Uploading
It may be the case that the software of the brain can run on different platforms. Swapping out cells for circuits; oxygen for electricity it may be possible for the mind to one day exist digitally.
Episode 6 | Expanding Our Sensory Horizons
Although we come to the table with the senses that we have evolved with, like our eyes, ears, and our sense of touch, in theory there is no limit to the number of new senses we may create in the future. The brain is so flexible that it may be possible that, for instance, we develop new sensory channels that allow us to perceive weather data or stock market data.
Episode 5 | What Is Empathy?
When we watch someone else in pain our brains run a simulation of what that pain feels like. This ability to imagine another's pain is the basis of how we relate to each other and explains why stories can be so powerful.
Episode 5 | Discerning Babies
One of the ways we navigate the social world is by judging other people’s intentions. David hosts a puppet show for babies to demonstrate that humans come equipped with social antennae.
Episode 5 | Mirroring Others
David measures the movement of facial muscles in two group of subjects and reveals why we mirror each other’s facial expressions - with important ramifications for botox-users.
Episode 5 | Social Pain Is Real Pain
An experiment to mimic social rejection reveals that being socially excluded activates networks involved in pain.
Episode 5 | The Amazing Case of John Robison
The amazing case of John Robison, whose Aspergers changed following a course of transcranial magnetic stimulation, or TMS. John’s transformation reveals something that we all unconsciously do every day when we interact with each other.
Episode 5 | The Massacre of Srebrenica
David meets Hasan Nuhanovic who describes his harrowing experiences of genocide during the Bosnian war. Can genocide be understood as a neural phenomenon?
Episode 5 | Destroying Empathy
Genocide is only possible when dehumanization happens on a massive scale, and propaganda is the tool used to do that. Propaganda plugs directly into neural networks, and dials down the degree to which one group cares about another.
Episode 5 | In-Group/Out-Group
David shows that a single word label can decide over how much you care for another person in pain.
Why Do I Need You? | Preview
Dr David Eagleman explores how the brain relies on other brains to thrive and survive. This neural interdependence underpins our need to group together, and our ability to do the very best and the very worst of things to each other.
Episode 4 | Energy and Judgement
An analysis of 1,000 decisions made by judges in parole hearings revealed that one factor made prisoners three times more likely to be granted parole.
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