Quotes by Edward Boyden

Edward Boyden

A big part of my job is to remember failure, and reboot failure, when the timing is right.

Jobs

Remember

Timing

A lot of good ideas are actually bad ideas because, since they sound good, everybody’s already doing them.

Good Ideas

Ideas

Sound

Behavioral economics can explain some things, but it’s hard to explain a lot of the underlying processes that generate these decisions, much less some of these unconscious things that we don’t have a handle on at all.

Decision

Economics

Process

For the last century of neuroscience, lots of people have tried to control neurons using all sorts of different technologies – pharmacology (drugs), electrical pulses, and so on. But none of these technologies are precise. With optogenetics, we can aim light at a single cell, or a set of cells, and turn just that set of cells on or off.

Cells

Light

Technology

I often try to think about, What sounds like a bad idea, but if you find the right plan of attack, it’s actually a really good idea? I spend a lot of time really trying to systematically tackle problems from different angles.

Ideas

Thinking

Trying

I spend a lot of time going over old conversation summaries. A lot of the old ones are about ideas that ended in failure, the project didn’t work. But hey, you know what? That was five years ago, and now computers are faster, or some new information has come along, the world is different. So we’re able to reboot the project.

Ideas

Information

Years

I think the definition will change as we learn more, but my working definition of solving the brain is: one, we can model, maybe in a computer, the processes that generate things like thoughts and feelings, and two, we can understand how to cure brain disorders, like Alzheimer’s and epilepsy. Those are my two driving goals. One is more human-condition oriented, and one more clinical.

Epilepsy

Thinking

Two

I worry that we don’t have a very good definition of consciousness yet which makes it hard to tackle.

Consciousness

Definitions

Worry

I would argue that if you understand how the cells of the brain are organized into circuits, almost computational circuits if you will, and we see how information flows through those circuits and how it’s transformed, we might have a much firmer grasp on why our brains make decisions the way that they do. If we get a handle on that, maybe we can overcome some of our limitations and at the very least we’ll understand why we do what we do.

Cells

Decision

Information Flow

If our brain is understanding some parts of the universe and not understanding other parts, and those understandings are about the laws of physics that our brains are built on top of, then it’s kind of a loop, right?

Brain

Law

Understanding

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Adventure

Alzheimer's

Answers

Asking Why

Brain

Cells

Computer

Conscious

Consciousness

Decision

Definitions

Destiny

Dna

Economics

Epilepsy

Force

Gaps

Giving

Goal

Good Ideas

Helping

Ideas

Identity

Ifs

Impact

Information

Information Flow

Inspiration

Interesting

Jobs

Kind

Law

Life Is

Light

Long

Might

Morning

Motivation

Motivational

Needs

Nonprofits

People

Philosophy

Phones

Physical Science

Play

Problem

Process

Projects

Reading

The Future Blueprint

Tool

The Home Therapist: Anti Anxiety

Tool

The Autobiography

Tool

The Behaviour Diary

Tool

The Dating Diary

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The Relationship Therapist

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Quotes by Edward Boyden

Edward Boyden

A big part of my job is to remember failure, and reboot failure, when the timing is right.

A lot of good ideas are actually bad ideas because, since they sound good, everybody’s already doing them.

Behavioral economics can explain some things, but it’s hard to explain a lot of the underlying processes that generate these decisions, much less some of these unconscious things that we don’t have a handle on at all.

I often try to think about, What sounds like a bad idea, but if you find the right plan of attack, it’s actually a really good idea? I spend a lot of time really trying to systematically tackle problems from different angles.

I worry that we don’t have a very good definition of consciousness yet which makes it hard to tackle.

If our brain is understanding some parts of the universe and not understanding other parts, and those understandings are about the laws of physics that our brains are built on top of, then it’s kind of a loop, right?

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Topics by Edward Boyden

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The Future Blueprint

The Home Therapist: Anti Anxiety

The Autobiography

The Behaviour Diary

The Dating Diary

The Relationship Therapist

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