Your Brain is a Time Machine with Dean Buonomano

About This Episode

Is time fundamental to the universe or a human construct? Neil deGrasse Tyson, Chuck Nice, and Gary O’Reilly explore our brain’s relationship with time, how we remember the past, and project the future with Dean Buonomano, Professor of Neurobiology and Psychology at UCLA.

Why do we measure time more accurately than any other dimension in physics? How do our brains even tell time? We compare man-made oscillators to our biological hardware. How did ancient cyanobacteria predict the sunrise before the first eye ever evolved? We look at how the invention of the pendulum clock synchronized human behavior to spark the Industrial Revolution and why being able to tell time is such a core function of life.

What separates humans from a squirrel burying nuts? We explore the concept of mental time travel and our unique ability to project ourselves into the past and future. We dive into the philosophical battle between Presentism and Eternalism. Buonomano explains the mechanics of memory and how neural dynamics physically remember things for us.

We discuss the tension between neuroscience and physics. Is the “flow” of time an illusion? We explore time dilation, the McGurk effect, explain how your brain syncs vision with sound, and whether we could ever truly upload knowledge like in Total Recall. Finally, is the brain the only time machine physics will ever allow? Can the brain truly ever understand itself and the universe?

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