Incognito by David Eagleman - Book Report/Review Example

 Incognito by David Eagleman The book, Incognito by David Eagleman notes that the human conscious mind is just a tip of the iceberg and poses a question to readers to define the rest of the mind. In this book, the author navigates the depth of the subconscious brain illuminating surprising mysteries. The author shoots many questions to help readers understand the operations of the brain, as well as its influence. For instance, the author asks why one is unable to move a foot to the brake of a pedal before being aware of danger ahead. Similarly, how do one hear his or her name being mentioned in a conversation not indulged? The book asks many questions that help the author offer a thrilling subsurface exploration of the mind as well as its contradictions. Overall, the book, Incognito, is interesting in covering intricacies of the human brain. The author presents interesting dimensions about ways the brain operates under varying conditions as well as circumstances in real life (Eagleman, 2012). The book, Incognito, is critical in helping us understand the common assumptions we make or encounter at the commonplace. The conscious tells us the reality as it is while the subconscious part makes us live in fantasy. This is done using various tricks of the brain. Most parts of the book deal with these methods and ways they always influence our life. The book notes that brain offers seamless impressions concerning reality, which is an illusion (Eagleman, 2012). The author gives countless examples towards demonstrating that vision is not a passive process as it appears to humankind. The author asserts that people see using their brain and not the eyes (Eagleman, 2012). This makes brain generate expectations of what is seen before modulating the signals coming in. The phenomenon is practical because it can be used in explaining how a fielder sprints catches a skier falling kilometers away from him or her (Eagleman, 2012). It is also true that the brain can compute trajectories from the experiences. The equations may appear complicated, but humankind has no control over them since the brains work is unconscious. The book is also valuable and informing through the author’s description of the perceptual process (Eagleman, 2012). The author has used an array of deceptive figures and case histories to make the readers understand the influence of the brain. The most stunning example in the false figures is the sensory substitution (Eagleman, 2012). The author asserts that all the brain activity is the same and no specialized neuron from touch, hearing, and vision as they work the same. The author has proved that it is possible for the blind to see as they perceive the layout of a room and can catch a ball among other activities. This is through electronic signals from a video camera relayed to other body parts (Eagleman, 2012). The waves of the input make patterns over time and combines with other sensory knowledge from touch, sound, and this makes them build a visual space. It is a justification that people do not see using their eyes, but because the brain interprets the data from light waves. Moreover, the author has moved from analyzing the brain to making action urgent and nature very clear. The book entails many cases where brain lesions that result from either disease or injury have changed one's behavior (Eagleman, 2012). Hence, the author poses a question to the readers concerning the implication of this change to the moral responsibility. Through this question, the author assumes that brain chemistry is more complicated in bad behavior such as criminal than the law. In this argument, the author means that not all individuals' behavior emanates from the brain, but there are other factors that influence one's conduct (Eagleman, 2012). For instance, the author mentions some biological processes such as injury and diseases to be responsible for some individual actions. Through this argument, the author has successfully shifted from blame to biology (Eagleman, 2012). Furthermore, the book is very interesting in discussing different factors that affect one’s conscious mind. The author has provided different examples in supporting his notion as many factors alter one’s perception of the reality (Eagleman, 2012). This is true because not many people if not all understands their motivations. Similarly, many people do not know where the motivation comes from even though they may think they know. Through this, it is evident that people live in illusions as what they think is not the real. Different things affect people’s senses, making them believe in things that are not real and are in the unconscious mind (Eagleman, 2012). They later become surprised on realizing that they are far away from reality. Additionally, the book is real in presenting the model of the brain called “team of rivals” (Eagleman, 2012). In this part, the author discusses the different components of the brain that sometimes oppose one another and have different views of behaviors (Eagleman, 2012). The author has eased readers' understanding of this model by outlining it using an example. For instance, the author gives a possible reaction of a person offered a sweet dessert to eat. In this example, there are two conflicting parts of the brain, which opposes one another to the behavior or action to implement. One impulse may push the person to eat the sweet dessert while the other may pull one from eating the dessert because of the health implications. The author asserts that the conflicting impulses come from the unconscious mind, whereas the conscious mind acts as the overall and makes decisions about eating or not eating. The reflection of this model is very real and applies to everyday life. The book is also important because it links to class materials learned. For instance, it relates to three modes of learning, which are operant conditioning, classical conditioning, and observational learning (Washington.edu, 2015). The Brain plays an essential role in triggering other body parts toward reacting to the response. This makes one to judge the action to either take or abscond. Similarly, the book links to class notes because it discusses the role of conscious and unconscious parts of the mind. For instance, the conscious part of our mind represents the reality as an unconscious denotes illusion. The book has relayed how these play a role in influencing one's behaviors. Although the book is very insightful and shows how different factors affect brain, it has shortfalls in discussing some phenomenon. For example, chapter two of the book that presents an introduction to perception as inferences is a downhill (Eagleman, 2012). Keen reading of this chapter shows that the author is not systematic in reviewing the factors influencing our decisions but interested in presenting flashy examples. This makes the study or the book un-objective since there are many borrowed information from other authors or studies conducted before. For instance, there is much information acquired from Ramachandran. Although the author has adopted more information from others, there is a misinterpretation of some facts making the book ridiculous. For instance, the extract, "why do gentlemen prefer blondes" is misinterpreted as it does not denote the real meaning the original writer wanted to convey (Eagleman, 2012). In the original work, it was satirical, and Eagleman did not consider this in his work hence causing embarrassment to him. Moreover, chapter five of the book is also flashy since the information conveyed is difficult to understand. For examples, he uses the title, "Team of Rivals" which is in reference to DK Goodwin’s book about Lincoln (Eagleman, 2012). This makes Eagleman’s title very vague and unfortunate. In his discussion, the author failed to define “rivals” and variable that it encompasses (Eagleman, 2012). Similarly, the author failed to acknowledge the competing circuits and their respective computations. Sticking to rational-emotional dichotomy implies that the goal of rationality is not a rival emotion. It is known and common knowledge that emotions form all rational computation. This implies that there is no goal without emotions. However, his notion of the corporation between the conscious and the unconscious where one is the overall and determines the activity the body indulges is justified. It is true that consciousness acts as the body CEO. Lastly, chapter six of the book seems to oppose the current arrangement of the criminal justice system in the US, which is a misleading notion the author is bringing. The author believes that the legal system should focus on the rehabilitation rather than punishment. The author also speculates that future brain science will tell readers about “modifiable circuits” making him believe that “prefrontal workout” could be used in rehabilitating some transgressors (Eagleman, 2012). The author’s view is naïve in the current societal set-up since punishment plays a role in deterring offenders. In conclusion, the book has stayed focus to the topic and answered the questions prompted at the beginning. It has clearly stated and defended the notion that the non-conscious brain is made of many signal processors combined by eons of evolution. These processors compete and cooperate to make decisions that make their way to the tip of the cognitive iceberg. Similarly, there are many evidences from case studies and examples that validate the author’s argument. However, the book has some shortfalls such as ignoring the role of punishment and failing to define some terms and variable that leaves room for readers to guess the answer and their interconnection. References Eagleman, D. (2012). Incognito. New York: Howes. Washington.edu. (2015). Three major types of learning. Retrieved from http://faculty.washington.edu/robinet/Learning.htm Read More