Jonah Lehrer: Humanity

Jonah Lehrer is American science writer. Explore interesting quotes on humanity.

Jonah Lehrer: 12 quotes0 likes

“We feel like more than just the sum of a trillion neurons. We feel like more than just three pounds of wet flesh, and so simply describing the brain in terms of its neurotransmitters and neurons and all these chemicals and exciting ingredients doesn't fully grapple with what it feels like to be human, the first person subjective experience of being a conscious being. When you think about the really grand epic questions of neuroscience … what is consciousness? How can we form a scientific explanation for consciousness, for human experience? That is the holy grail.”

Chimeras of Experience: A Conversation with Jonah Lehrer (2009)

“Neuroscience has contributed so much in just a few decades to how we think about human nature and how we know ourselves.”

Chimeras of Experience: A Conversation with Jonah Lehrer (2009)

“After all, we're a brain embedded in this larger set of structures. You can call it culture, call it society, call it your family, call it your friend, call it whatever it is. It's the stuff that makes people sign onto their Facebook a thousand times a day. It's the reason Twitter exists. We have got all these systems now that really make us fully aware of just how important social interactions are to what it is to be human. The question is, how can we study that? Because that, in essence, is a huge part of what's actually driving these enzymatic pathways in your brain. What's triggering these synaptic transmissions and these squirts of neurotransmitter back and forth is thoughts of other people, what other people say to us, interacting with the world at large.”

Chimeras of Experience: A Conversation with Jonah Lehrer (2009)