We Know It When We See It

By: Richard Masland

Narrated by: Matt Kugler

Publisher's summary

A Harvard researcher investigates the human eye in this insightful account of what vision reveals about intelligence, learning, and the greatest mysteries of neuroscience.

Spotting a face in a crowd is so easy, you take it for granted. But how you do it is one of science's great mysteries. And vision is involved with so much of everything your brain does. Explaining how it works reveals more than just how you see. In We Know It When We See It, Harvard neuroscientist Richard Masland tackles vital questions about how the brain processes information - how it perceives, learns, and remembers - through a careful study of the inner life of the eye.

Covering everything from what happens when light hits your retina, to the increasingly sophisticated nerve nets that turn that light into knowledge, to what a computer algorithm must be able to do before it can be called truly "intelligen", We Know It When We See It is a profound yet approachable investigation into how our bodies make sense of the world.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

©2020 Richard Masland (P)2020 Basic Books

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Critic reviews

"A masterful page-turner that braids science and the stories behind the science. Wise, insightful, and written with the approachability and wisdom that only a veteran of the field can achieve." (David Eagleman, neuroscientist at Stanford, New York Times best-selling author)

"How do we recognize a face in a crowd? Starting with this question, Masland teaches us not only how we see but how we think and remember. Step by step, he paints a picture of the brain as a dynamic, wide-ranging coalition of nerve nets. This picture provides striking parallels with artificial intelligence and highlights the remarkable adaptability, creativity, and resilience of the brain." (Susan R. Barry, author of Fixing My Gaze and professor emeritus of neuroscience and behavior, Mount Holyoke College)

"We Know It When We See It is the definitive description of the neuroscience of perception. Using language anyone can understand, Masland teaches us about the hardware - the cells and circuits, and the software - the logic and computations, that our brains use to create our experience of the world. Anyone interested in perception, machines that can learn, or how the brain works should read it." (Andrew D. Huberman, professor of neurobiology and ophthalmology, Stanford University School of Medicine)

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5 out of 5 stars

By Person on 02-13-21

Fantastic and Entertaining Neuroscience Book

Excellent book about the neuroscience of vision, touch, and the achievements and challenges of clinical and experimental medical neurosurgery. The author explained these difficult and complex topics in a smooth, clear, structured manner allowing most anyone to learn a great deal about the subjects. The narrator did a phenomenal job and their voiceover was very smooth and eaay to follow. I highly recommend this book!

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4 out of 5 stars

By Draperbart on 12-26-21

Good overall explanation of what we know

I chose this book to explain the thousands of questions I have on sight and perception.

On the positive side, he does a good job on explaining what we know.

On the downside, we don’t seem to know very much. But that also is good to know. A great sampler on the state of neuroscience for no scientific types.

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5 out of 5 stars

By Amazon Customer on 04-12-21

Full of science

This book is outstanding. Masland is brilliant. I like how he tells us how experiments are carried out in detail, something few science authors do. I learned a lot about the neuroscicence of vision. Thank you Richard Masland.

I hope Amazon promotes more books like this.

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