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9781609389895

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"""How do we make sense of the 'blooming, buzzing confusion' that exists in the world around us--the sight of trees, the sounds of birds, and the smell of our grandmother's kitchen--and even store memories of those things? And what are the consequences when those processes breakdown? In From Chaos to Stability, Rosenfield and Ziff wonderfully work through the argument that sensory perception and memory is a creative, personalized, generative process of the brain to simplify and make sense of a complicated world. If a tree falls in the forest and no one is there, does it make a sound? No, argue the authors. Sounds, and other sensory perceptions, are the creation of the brain in the attempt to make sense of the different, dynamic forms of energy and matter with which we are surrounded. Some, but not all, of those experiences reach our consciousness and allow us to experience our lives within what appears to be a stable temporal and spatial flow. The book is written for a lay audience and sets the arguments within a rich overview of the history of these fundamental questions. For those wanting a more detailed understanding of some of the underlying science, there is an outstanding appendix that gives a brief background on the neuroscientific basis of the book's main points. A very enjoyable read, including rich historical references and case studies on how the brain helps create our experienced lives and what happens when it fails to do so.""--Donald A. Wilson, coauthor, Learning to Smell: Olfactory Perception from Neurobiology to Behavior"

“How do we make sense of the ‘blooming, buzzing confusion’ that exists in the world around us—the sight of trees, the sounds of birds, and the smell of our grandmother’s kitchen—and even store memories of those things? And what are the consequences when those processes breakdown? In From Chaos to Stability, Rosenfield and Ziff wonderfully work through the argument that sensory perception and memory is a creative, personalized, generative process of the brain to simplify and make sense of a complicated world. If a tree falls in the forest and no one is there, does it make a sound? No, argue the authors. Sounds, and other sensory perceptions, are the creation of the brain in the attempt to make sense of the different, dynamic forms of energy and matter with which we are surrounded. Some, but not all, of those experiences reach our consciousness and allow us to experience our lives within what appears to be a stable temporal and spatial flow. The book is written for a lay audience and sets the arguments within a rich overview of the history of these fundamental questions. For those wanting a more detailed understanding of some of the underlying science, there is an outstanding appendix that gives a brief background on the neuroscientific basis of the book’s main points. A very enjoyable read, including rich historical references and case studies on how the brain helps create our experienced lives and what happens when it fails to do so.”—Donald A. Wilson, coauthor, Learning to Smell: Olfactory Perception from Neurobiology to Behavior

Author Information

Israel Rosenfield taught at the City University of New York. His books include Freud’sMegalomania, a New York Times Notable Book of the Year. He was a Guggenheim Fellow and a longtime contributor to the New York Review of Books. Edward Ziff is professor emeritus of biochemistry and molecular pharmacology at New York University Grossman School of Medicine. Among others, he is coauthor of DNA for Beginners. Ziff divides his time between New York City and the Catskill Mountains. Fiammetta Ghedini received a PhD in Innovative Technology from Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna (Pisa) and UCL (London). She combines her scientific background with a life-long passion for drawing by producing comics and illustrations. She wrote and comanages ERCcOMICS.

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