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I think that the brain is so complicated and its functioning in many ways is so mysterious
that we're still just at the very beginning. But of course the more technological advances
we get, and the more windows we have into the brain, the more we can understand what's
going on in there. I'm excited about so many things about the way the brain works. One
thing is that the brain is a social organ and that's an incredible discovery over the
last twenty years or so. Because we tend to think about the brain as an organ, like other
organs. But the brain evolved really to connect with other brains. So the fact that the brain
is a social organ gives us an understanding of why we are all connected. So when people
feel something, we feel it, too. And that happens by the brain creating an internal
model of the experience of the other. So when we see a child walking off the pitch after
a soccer game if they've lost, and they look sad, there's a part of us that turns, and
curls down as well, that feels that sadness. And so it really is the foundation not only
of what's human but of empathy. �