Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
A brain scientist and Oxford professor, noted for human brain research, science communication, and animal experiments that sparked activist attacks.
On the island
Eight records
O zittre nicht, mein lieber Sohn (from The Magic Flute)Favourite
Edita Gruberová, with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Bernard Haitink
It has this amazingly uplifting spirit of optimism and enthusiasm for life. It's an opera that I've been to and seen with my family, so I'll remember my daughters and my wife when I hear this.
This is a memory of my childhood. This is a song that I remember my parents playing when we went on holiday to my mother's family home in Eastbourne.
Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Leonard Bernstein
I'd like to think experiencing something of the shock and the revelation and the excitement of those French people in the audience at the first performance in Paris... And also it represents the ballet. My wife is a dancer... so this will be a chance to remember.
I remember going to the dressing room of Thelonius Monk, cutting through the fog of dope smoke to discover him in the corner room and guiding him out to the stage. I think he's just wonderful.
Detroit Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Antal Doráti
I chose that as well because I'm a socialist and a humanist by inclination, so I thought this would remind me of that sentiment.
I went to the last live concert of the Beatles in Candlestick Park in in San Francisco. And another reason is that I knew very well a marvellous man, Ivan Vaughan, who... introduced John Lennon to Paul McCartney, so he has his place in history.
They're musicians, but they chose to play instruments that they hadn't actually been trained to play. So this is a serious attempt. It's a difficult piece of music, as you'll see.
Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Herbert von Karajan
I love it, but mainly because it's my wife's favorite piece of music. So, I'll remember her.
In conversation
Presenter asks
2:22Does your analytical, rather no nonsense approach to the world in any way impede your appreciation of music?
Just because one thinks that the mind is a mechanistic thing, that it's created by the the physics and the chemistry of the brain, doesn't mean that you can't think that human beings are the sort of machines that are able to appreciate music, to fall in love, to have passions and desires and so on. That is the kind of machine we are. I mean, we're a wonderful emotional machine.
Presenter asks
6:43What sort of attacks have you suffered over the years [from animal rights activists]?
Everything from threatening phone calls and abusive letters to bombs delivered to my home and razor blades in envelopes and my car being painted with paint stripper and all of these kinds of things.
Presenter asks
10:36Did you feel that pressure [from your parents scraping money together for school], and is that why you suffered from ulcers?
I don't think that any has much to do with pressure on me. Certainly not from my parents. I never felt pressure from my parents. Just support, actually. But yes, I did have a I had an ulcer which I think probably began at about the age of eleven and caused r really great difficulties through my teenage years.
The keepsakes
The luxury
a solar-powered computer with satellite internet link (receive only)
I just want to know what's going on in the world and be able to explore the internet and see how it grows, this marvelous repository of knowledge.
Presenter asks
19:01Is the brain quite simply a machine, and is it understandable ultimately?
I think the starting point for any discussion has to be to believe that there's n nothing in it which is beyond, as it were, the kinds of explanations that scientists give about the natural world. That doesn't mean that we understand everything about how the brain works... but there's no reason to believe that there's anything in it that is magical in the sense that it couldn't be explained by the scientific approach.
Presenter asks
29:02How do you cope without God to turn to?
I don't see how God would help. I mean, I think turning to God is in a sense an act of desperation... I would rather cultivate the goodness in human beings than resort to explanations that are beyond us. I mean, we have our future in our own hands, and we have to accept that.
“I've never really expected to live very long. I seem to be doing okay, actually. I think I'm very healthy now, but I've never had the expectation of living for long. I think that's part of the reason why I've always wanted to cram so much into every minute of the day.”
“I think a nice way of putting it is that the mind is what the what the brain does. So it's as it were the product of the machinery of the brain. And that product is very peculiar in the sense that it expresses itself through our awareness of the world. It creates this amazing property of being conscious and being aware.”
“We must stop asking the question why about ourselves and the world and ask the question how. I mean simply how do we work? How can we do our bit, rather than why are we here and what's the future about.”