Publisher's Synopsis
This book explores the evolution of the human mind from exploding stars to neural networks. The basis of consciousness and thought, neural networks, in the author's view, are the physical manifestations of what we commonly refer to as "generalizations". Various chapters in this book describe how language, communication, religion, science, philosophy, economics and even art arise naturally from our generalization-making minds. The author defines creativity as the process of making our own generalizations as opposed to learning them from others. Therefore, by being creative, critically-thinking people, we are actually sculpting the neural networks in our brains. As such we can take some control of our lives and how and what we think, leading to the possibility of happier, more rewarding lives. The author's intense curiosity combined with his love of natural beauty led him to study science. He currently does research on nanometer-size diamonds at Stanford University.
