The Power of a Single Cell: The Deep History of Ourselves | Joseph Ledoux + Jeffrey Sachs

Consciousness has given humans the power to transcend our physical limitations and exert an unprecedented influence on the world around us. Renowned neuroscientist Joseph LeDoux, author of The Deep History of Ourselves: The Four-Billion-Year Story of How We Got Conscious Brains, returns to the Rubin to argue that the key to understanding all human behavior lies in viewing evolution through the prism of our really earliest selves: the first living organisms. Even the earliest single cell organisms had to solve the same problems we and our cells have to solve today in order to survive and thrive. LeDoux invites Dr. Jeffrey Sachs to explore how the development of nervous systems powered human consciousness, which made our greatest and most horrendous achievements as a species possible.

A book signing for Professor LeDoux’s new book, The Deep History of Ourselves, takes place after the talk.