Overview

""Time"" is the most common noun in the English language yet philosophers and scientists don't agree about what time actually is or how to define it. Perhaps this is because the brain tells, represents and perceives time in multiple ways. Dean Buonomano investigates the relationship between the brain and time, looking at what time is, why it seems to speed up or slow down and whether our sense that time flows is an illusion. Buonomano presents his theory of how the brain tells time, and illuminates such concepts as free will, consciousness, space-time and relativity from the perspective of a neuroscientist. Drawing on physics, evolutionary biology and philosophy, he reveals that the brain's ultimate purpose may be to predict the future?and thus that your brain is a time machine.

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Our experience of time is not the same as time itself; the former is largely our creation. French philosopher Henri Bergson once publicly debated this point with Einstein - and lost. If only he'd had recourse to this book, written by one of the first neuroscientists to ask how the human brain encodes time. Take that, Albert! -- Science books we're keen to read in 2017 - New Scientist

Our experience of time is not the same as time itself; the former is largely our creation. French philosopher Henri Bergson once publicly debated this point with Einstein - and lost. If only he'd had recourse to this book, written by one of the first neuroscientists to ask how the human brain encodes time. Take that, Albert! -- Science books we're keen to read in 2017 - New Scientist ... a readable exploration of how the architecture of the human brain shapes our understanding of the nature of time. -- The Bookseller

Why does time seem to flow from moment to moment? It's a mystery because physics tells a different story: time simply is, a passive label on different parts of the universe. Dean Buonomano cooks a rich stew of ideas, from philosophy to neuroscience, to help understand this question, and thereby paints a clearer picture of our place in the physical world. -- Sean Carroll, author of The Big Picture: On the Origins of Life, Meaning, and the Universe Itself This book awakened me to the possibility that the nature of time may very well come from a marriage between neuroscience and fundamental physics. Dean Buonomano provides astonishingly new insights. His writing is so clear and captivating that I felt like we were having a conversation at my favorite cafe-I simply couldn't put it down. -- Stephon Alexander, author of The Jazz of Physics Dean Buonomano has a light touch and a sure hand in addressing complex scientific issues. Your Brain Is a Time Machine is filled with vivid examples of how time weaves its web in the physical world and in our brains. A pleasure for anyone interested in the deepest questions about how the brain and the universe work. -- Chris Impey, author of Beyond

Author Information

Dean Buonomano is a professor of neurobiology and psychology at UCLA and a leading theorist on the neuroscience of time. His previous book, Brain Bugs: How the Brain’s Flaws Shape Our Lives, was a Wall Street Journal bestseller.

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