The Jordan Harbinger Show
1123: David Eagleman | Your Prehistoric Brain on Modern Problems
04 Mar 2025
David Eagleman explains why counterfeiting works, how our empathy fails, why mind reading remains elusive, and if we'll ever upload our minds to computers. What We Discuss with David Eagleman: Dr. David Eagleman worked with the European Central Bank on anti-counterfeiting measures, and his research revealed that most people don't notice security features on bills. His key recommendation was to use faces rather than buildings for watermarks since our brains have specialized neural real estate for recognizing faces, making counterfeit detection easier. Research shows our brains have less empathy for people we consider part of our "outgroup." FMRI studies demonstrated that even simple one-word labels (like religious affiliations) can trigger this differential response in the brain's pain matrix when witnessing someone experiencing pain. True mind reading via brain scanning is likely impossible in our lifetime. While we can decode basic sensory input (like visual or auditory cortex activity), actual thoughts involve complex personal experiences, memories, and creative combinations that would be impossible to capture without knowing someone's entire life history. Uploading a human brain to digital form presents enormous technical challenges and philosophical questions. The computational requirements exceed our current global capacity, and questions about identity (is the upload "you" if your physical body dies?) remain unresolved. Brain plasticity would also need to be captured for the upload to remain dynamic. Understanding our brain's natural tendency toward ingroup/outgroup thinking gives us the opportunity to consciously overcome these biases. By recognizing our shared humanity and finding common interests with those different from us, we can build bridges across divides and develop greater empathy for all people. This awareness can help us make more compassionate choices in our daily interactions. And much more... Full show notes and resources can be found here: jordanharbinger.com/1123 And if you're still game to support us, please leave a review here — even one sentence helps! Consider including your Twitter handle so we can thank you personally! This Episode Is Brought To You By Our Fine Sponsors: jordanharbinger.com/deals Sign up for Six-Minute Networking — our free networking and relationship development mini course — at jordanharbinger.com/course! Subscribe to our once-a-week Wee Bit Wiser newsletter today and start filling your Wednesdays with wisdom! Do you even Reddit, bro? Join us at r/JordanHarbinger!See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
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Just visit jordanharbinger.com slash start or search for us in your Spotify app to get started. Neuroscientist Dr. David Eagleman is back on the show. He's been on several times. He's always a huge hit with all y'all.
Today, we're talking about counterfeiting money, why a neuroscientist was brought in to help solve this complex problem that largely relies on our brain's ability to detect counterfeits in the first place. Also, will we be able to upload our brains to the internet? How would that work? Of course, there's a lot that goes into this. Also, some philosophical questions come up as a result.
Who's the real me after that? My body or my virtual self? Do I have to kill one of them? That seems a little creepy. Maybe we'll get into that here on the show. And will we be able to read people's thoughts using fMRI or some other similar technology? Why or why not? And more importantly, when? All this and a whole lot more here today with Dr. David Eagleman. Alright, here we go.
Thanks for coming back to your semi yearly appearance on the Jordan Harbinger show, man. I love it. I say this every time I think, but we met through our mutual friend, John Levy, who runs the unfortunately named influencers dinners, which he picked that word before it was like a slur influencer. Oh, And he was great at connecting people. And I'm almost sure I've told this before, too.
But somebody had not shown up. And then you and I were tapped to give like a in the pinch five minute TED talk. You did something about the brain and I did something about North Korea because whoever it was didn't make it. They were stuck in traffic or something. Right. And then a woman asked, if this thing with the brain, that means telepathy must be real.
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