The Brain: The Story of You

by David Eagleman

Although this sounds like science fiction, we’re not far off from this future – all thanks to the brain’s talent at extracting patterns, even when we’re not trying. That is the trick that can allow us to absorb complex data and incorporate it into our sensory experience of the world. Like reading this page, absorbing new data streams will come to feel effortless. Unlike reading, however, sensory addition would be a way to take on new information about the world without having to consciously attend to it. At the moment, we don’t know the limits – or if there are limits – to the kinds of data the brain can incorporate. But it’s clear that we are no longer a natural species that has to wait for sensory adaptations on an evolutionary timescale. As we move into the future, we will increasingly design our own sensory portals on the world. We will wire ourselves into an expanded sensory reality.