Science and Nature

The Brain with David Eagleman

Neuroscientist David Eagleman explores the human brain in an epic series that reveals the ultimate story of us, why we feel and think the things we do. This ambitious project blends science with innovative visual effects and compelling personal stories, and addresses some big questions. By understanding the human brain, we can come close to understanding humanity.

Who will we Be?

54m 41s

Dr. David Eagleman journeys into the future and asks what’s next for the human brain, and for our species. He reveals that in the future our descendants may be so different to us that we will be strangers to them.

Episodes

  • Who will we Be?: asset-mezzanine-16x9

    Who will we Be?

    S1 E6 - 54m 41s

    Dr. David Eagleman journeys into the future and asks what’s next for the human brain, and for our species. He reveals that in the future our descendants may be so different to us that we will be strangers to them.

  • Why Do I Need You?: asset-mezzanine-16x9

    Why Do I Need You?

    S1 E5 - 55m 11s

    Dr. David Eagleman explores how the brain relies on other brains to thrive and survive. This neural interdependence underpins our need to group together, and our ability to do the very best and the very worst of things to each other.

  • How Do I Decide?: asset-mezzanine-16x9

    How Do I Decide?

    S1 E4 - 55m 11s

    Dr. David Eagleman takes a journey through the unseen world of decisions and how they get made inside your brain. Your emotions, your energy level, and your memories all come together in concert to help you neural networks decide what to do next.

  • Who Is in Control?: asset-mezzanine-16x9

    Who Is in Control?

    S1 E3 - 55m 11s

    Dr. David Eagleman explores the great deception that greets us each morning when we awake: it feels as though we are in conscious control of our lives but the truth is that we are not. Instead almost every action, every decision, every belief that we hold is driven by parts of the brain that we have no access to.

  • What Makes Me?: asset-mezzanine-16x9

    What Makes Me?

    S1 E2 - 55m 11s

    Dr. David Eagleman explores memory as an important pillar of self, and reveals that rather than being a faithful record of our past, memory is fallible and often unreliable, making our life of memories more personal mythology than digital recording.

  • What is Reality?: asset-mezzanine-16x9

    What is Reality?

    S1 E1 - 55m 11s

    Dr. David Eagleman takes viewers on an extraordinary journey, exploring how the brain, locked in silence and darkness without direct access to the world, conjures the rich and beautiful world we all take for granted.

Extras + Features

  • Episode 6 | The Chinese Room Thought Experiment: asset-mezzanine-16x9

    Episode 6 | The Chinese Room Thought Experiment

    S1 E6 - 2m 19s

    Dr. David Eagleman demonstrates the Chinese Room thought experiment, which exposes the enduring mystery of how physical pieces and parts give rise to our experience of the world.

  • Who will we Be? | Preview: asset-mezzanine-16x9

    Who will we Be? | Preview

    S1 E6 - 30s

    Dr. David Eagleman journeys into the future, and asks what’s next for the human brain, and for our species. He reveals that in the future our descendants may be so different to us that we will be strangers to them.

  • Episode 6 | Brain Uploading: asset-mezzanine-16x9

    Episode 6 | Brain Uploading

    S1 E6 - 2m 50s

    It may be the case that the software of the brain can run on different platforms. Swapping out cells for circuits; oxygen for electricity it may be possible for the mind to one day exist digitally.

  • Episode 6 | Emergence: What Ants can Teach Us: asset-mezzanine-16x9

    Episode 6 | Emergence: What Ants can Teach Us

    S1 E6 -

    Dr. David Eagleman visits the Houston Zoo to see how a colony of ants, working together, can give rise to something much greater than the sum of its parts. And so it may be with the brain.

  • Episode 6 | Expanding Our Sensory Horizons: asset-mezzanine-16x9

    Episode 6 | Expanding Our Sensory Horizons

    S1 E6 - 1m 21s

    Although we come to the table with the senses that we have evolved with, like our eyes, ears, and our sense of touch, in theory there is no limit to the number of new senses we may create in the future. The brain is so flexible that it may be possible that, for instance, we develop new sensory channels that allow us to perceive weather data or stock market data.

  • Episode 6 | Digital Life: asset-mezzanine-16x9

    Episode 6 | Digital Life

    S1 E6 - 2m 46s

    Imagine life inside a computer, in a simulated world. Could we be there already?

  • Episode 5 | What Is Empathy?: asset-mezzanine-16x9

    Episode 5 | What Is Empathy?

    S1 E5 - 1m 58s

    When we watch someone else in pain our brains run a simulation of what that pain feels like. This ability to imagine another's pain is the basis of how we relate to each other and explains why stories can be so powerful.

  • Episode 5 | Destroying Empathy: asset-mezzanine-16x9

    Episode 5 | Destroying Empathy

    S1 E5 - 2m 29s

    Genocide is only possible when dehumanization happens on a massive scale, and propaganda is the tool used to do that. Propaganda plugs directly into neural networks, and dials down the degree to which one group cares about another.

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