Read Montague’s book originally titled Why Choose This Book? now titled Your Brain Is (Almost) Perfect, is an absolutely fascinating and easily accessible book on the latest in brain science.

One of the things that appealed to me a great deal about this book is that it deals with many of the fundamental aspects of the brain. First it discusses the brain (and the body) as a physical object, and how as such it must obey the laws of physics. So that means that your brain has certain power requirements that are a byproduct of the amount of energy you can supply your brain. One of the fascinating topics is why it takes so long to remember certain things, it turns out that there is an energy price to performing thought (apparently thinking is hard work after all).

Montague compares how your brain works as a Turing machine, and how computers work. When discussing the economics of the situation, he shares that computers consume a great deal of power relative to their computational power. This is due to a couple of items, first the evolution of the computer as a wartime device that consumed large portions of the available energy in order to solve enigmas (pun intended), and second the need for exacting certitude. One of the great thought experiments is to think of how hot the CPU which is powering your computer is running (even with the fins and fans dissipating the heat) its still very hot to the touch and would burn you if you kept your hand on it, and compare that to the temperature of your head right now which even if you were running a fever due to reading this post would still be a cool 100 degrees.

Another topic that Montague discusses is what makes us human, and separates us from the rest of the animal kingdom. Montague talks about how humans are the only animals that can override our desire to live for an abstract idea.

One area that I think some of my economics friends would appreciate is around some of the game theory rounds played while the brain is under an MRI. It turns out that some of the signals and breaks from norm would encourage tit for tat behavior, from a neutral trust situation. They are also finding some interesting cross-cultural differences to trust games.

Another great topic the book discusses is the role of regret in learning. Montague discusses the result of a gambling game where each person is given $100 and has 5 rounds where they can invest a specific percentage of their money, and then find out the results prior to the next round of investing. In actuality the participants were going against real historical market bubbles. Interestingly all 52 participants in the study were victim of the 1929 market run-up and crash. With most walking away with less than 50% of what they started with.