Chapter 1
The Invisible Problem
Men ought to know that from the brain, and from the brain
only, arise our pleasures, joys, laughter and jests, as well as
our sorrows, pains, griefs and tears. Through it, in particular,
we think, see, hear and distinguish the ugly from the
beautiful, the bad from the good, the pleasant from the
unpleasant. It is the same thing which makes us mad or
delirious, inspires us with fear, brings sleeplessness and
aimless anxieties. . . . In these ways I hold that the brain is
the most powerful organ in the human body.
–HIPPOCRATESReady for the good news?
Nestled within your skull, mere inches from your eyes,
are eighty-six billion of the most efficient transistors in the
known universe. This neural network is you, running the
operating system we know as life, and no computer yet
conceived comes close to its awesome capabilities. Forged
over millions and millions of years of life on Earth, your
brain is capable of storing nearly eight thousand iPhones’
worth of information. Everything you are, do, love, feel,
care for, long for, and aspire to is enabled by an incredibly
complex, invisible symphony of neurological processes.