Genomes, Menomes, Wenomes Quotes

“Twain broke with the tradition of asking “Who Am I?” and its species-wide variant “Who Is Man?” on the grounds that a “who-question” is a leading question. It predisposes us to expect the answer to be a sentient being, not unlike ourselves, “whom” we’re trying to characterize.”
― Robert W. Fuller, Genomes, Menomes, Wenomes: Neuroscience and Human Dignity

“The elderly will tell you that although their bodies have aged and their minds have changed, their witness is much the same as always. Even in old age, it remains a young upstart voice—detached, observant, occasionally rude. Whether ignored or embraced, the witness continues to whisper the truth to us as long as we live.”
― Robert W. Fuller, Genomes, Menomes, Wenomes: Neuroscience and Human Dignity

“We must believe in free will. We have no choice. – Isaac Bashevis Singer”
― Robert W. Fuller, Genomes, Menomes, Wenomes: Neuroscience and Human Dignity

“Although not exceptional in ways we once believed, we remain exceptionally good at building tools and machines. And that includes machines that do what we do. Machines that dig, sow, and reap. Machines that kill and machines that prolong life. Machines that calculate, and, before long, machines who think.”
― Robert W. Fuller, Genomes, Menomes, Wenomes: Neuroscience and Human Dignity

“The inability to recruit recognition from others cripples an identity.”
― Robert W. Fuller, Genomes, Menomes, Wenomes: Neuroscience and Human Dignity

“The self does not stand alone; as we’ve seen, the self is not a thing, let alone a thing in itself. Rather, we experience selfhood as a renewable capacity to construct and field identities. Like evanescent particles in a cloud chamber, the existence of the self is inferred from its byproducts.”
― Robert W. Fuller, Genomes, Menomes, Wenomes: Neuroscience and Human Dignity

“Why are you unhappy? Because 99.9 percent Of everything you think, And of everything you do, Is for yourself — And there isn’t one. – Wei Wu Wei”
― Robert W. Fuller, Genomes, Menomes, Wenomes: Neuroscience and Human Dignity

“The ‘I’ that we confidently broadcast to the world is a fiction—a jerry-built container for the volatile unconscious elements that divide and confound us. In this sense, personal history and public history share the same dynamic principle: both are fables agreed upon. – John Lahr”
― Robert W. Fuller, Genomes, Menomes, Wenomes: Neuroscience and Human Dignity

“Who has not sometimes wondered: suppose I had been born somewhere else, in another country, in another time, what would my life have been? The question contains within it one of mankind’s most widespread illusions, the illusion that brings us to consider our life situation a mere stage set, a contingent, interchangeable circumstance through which moves our autonomous, continuing “self.” Ah, how fine it is to imagine our other lives, a dozen possible other lives! But enough daydreaming! We are all hopelessly riveted to the date and place of our birth. Our “self” is inconceivable outside the particular, unique situation of our life; it is only comprehensible in and through that situation. – Milan Kundera”
― Robert W. Fuller, Genomes, Menomes, Wenomes: Neuroscience and Human Dignity

“Distinct identities are strung together on the thread of memory, all of them provisional and perishable. No less fascinating than the birth, life, and death of our bodies are the births, lives, and deaths of these makeshift, transient identities. Reincarnation of the body is arguable; metamorphosis of identity is not.”
― Robert W. Fuller, Genomes, Menomes, Wenomes: Neuroscience and Human Dignity

“The inner voice we sometimes hear shaming us is not that of the witness, which is indifferent to our ups and downs. Self-accusation is rather the result of internalizing others’ judgments.”
― Robert W. Fuller, Genomes, Menomes, Wenomes: Neuroscience and Human Dignity