TagIain McGilchrist
The Limits of What We Can Learn From Studying Creativity
In this third and final part of my essay, I look at what sets us apart from machines: Our capacity to leap from commonsense inferences to entirely new ways of understanding reality
Stranger Things: Why Mad Scientists Are Mad
At the highest levels, creativity seems to bypass the deliberate, structured thought process altogether
The Left Brain Delusion: Are We Steamrolling Human Agency?
The two hemispheres of our brain really do see the world differentlyTechno-futurists love to dream up visions of the future. Invariably, these are worlds where everything is under control—where every problem has a solution, and the future unfolds exactly as planned. We do seem to be moving toward some sort of centralized loss of agency. But what’s distinctive about the techno-futurist vision is the belief that this is not only inevitable but wonderful. Self-driving cars eliminate wasted time in traffic; smart cities like Songdo or Masdar City adjust every streetlight and service in real-time to optimize efficiency. AI-driven healthcare, like the tools developed by Google’s DeepMind, promises to pinpoint diagnoses. Automated finance uses algorithms to manage our money and secure our futures. Everything works, all the time. But doomsday visions flip Read More ›
Is AI the Triumph of Left-Brained Thinking? What Follows?
Psychiatrist Iain McGilchrist argues that it is and asks us to consider what its cultural lean toward the “left brain” is doing to us
The Left and Right Brain Both Want Pop Science Media to Chill
Neuroscience is not an especially rewarding field for the pursuit of dogma
Does Left Brain-Only Thinking Impoverish Our Mental World? How?
A discussion of the left brain vs the right brain that avoids pop science can set us thinking, as psychiatrist McGilchrist and neurologist Dirckx show