David Linden
Describe your latest project.
My first and only book is called The Accidental Mind. My goal is to guide you through the strange and often illogical world of neural function, with the particular charge of pointing out the most unusual and counterintuitive aspects of brain and neural design and explaining how they mold our lives. In particular, I shall try to convince you that the constraints of evolved brain design have ultimately led to almost every transcendent human foible: our long childhoods, our extensive memory capacity (which is the substrate upon which our individuality is created by experience), our search for long-term love relationships, our need to create compelling narrative and ultimately, the universal cultural impulse to create both religious and scientific explanations.
What inspires you to sit down and write?
I'm a full-time working scientist, so most of the writing I do is for specialist journals, grant applications, and so on. This is not an enjoyable task. In truth, it is less like writing and more like coughing up a hairball. When I get a chance to do some real writing, the inspiration comes from imagining a conversation with someone I like.
Have you ever taken the Geek Test? How did you rate?
Not surprisingly, I rated "Extreme Geek." Then again, I'm sure that test was flawed and that I could improve it considerably with just a few minor tweaks...
Chess or video games?
Whiskey.
What do you do for relaxation?
I chase my children around the yard.
Douglas Adams or Scott Adams?
Ryan Adams, or perhaps, Gomez Addams.
What are some of the things you'd like your computer to do that it cannot now do?
Backrubs and psychotherapy would be nice.
What was your favorite book as a kid?
Hands down: It was Centerburg Tales: More Adventures of Homer Price by Robert McCloskey. My favorite story in this collection was "Ever-So-Much-But-More-So," about a magical chemical that increases the intensity of all sensations and actions: "quiet becomes quieter, fast becomes faster," and so on. It got really interesting when the residents of Centerburg began eating the stuff, thereby causing their personality traits to become that much more exaggerated. I credit this story with sparking my nascent interest in mental function, sometime during elementary school.
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