Date: 2006

"We were not one, continuous, indivisible whole, but instead, hundreds of separate subsystems, with changes in any one sufficient to disperse the provisional confederation into unrecognizable new countries."

— Powers, Richard (b. 1957)

Date: 2006

"Conciousness works by telling a story, one that is whole, continuous, and stable. When that story breaks, consciousness rewrites it. Each revised draft claims to be the original."

— Powers, Richard (b. 1957)

Date: 2006

"Back at Dayton Chaminade High, Weber had begun intellectual life as a confirmed Freudian--brain as hydraulic pipe for mind's spectacular waterworks--anything to confound his priest teachers."

— Powers, Richard (b. 1957)

Date: 2006

"He knew the drill: throughout history, the brain had been compared to the highest prevailing level of technology: steam engine, telephone switchboard, computer."

— Powers, Richard (b. 1957)

Date: 2006

"Now, as Weber approached his own professional zenith, the brain became the Internet, a distributed network, more than two hundred modules in loose, mutually modifying chatter with other modules."

— Powers, Richard (b. 1957)

Date: 2006

"He stumbled through an answer that had once been automatic: The brain was not a machine, not a car engine, not a computer."

— Powers, Richard (b. 1957)

Date: 2006

"Weber had told the story years ago, concluding with a few thoughts about the locked room of personal experience."

— Powers, Richard (b. 1957)

Date: 2006

"While the amygdala's role as a sentinel and trigger for distress is old news to neuroscience, its social role, as part of the brain's system for emotional contagion, has been revealed only recently."

— Goleman, Daniel (b. 1946)

Date: 2006

"More generally, the amygdala acts as a radar for the brain, calling attention to whatever might be new, puzzling, or important to learn more about."

— Goleman, Daniel (b. 1946)

Date: 2007

"One's collection comes to symbolize the contents of one's mind."

— Updike, John (1932-2009)