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CONSCIOUSNESS

Program 07-02-11-A

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Daniel Tammet has an amazing mind. He can recite from memory 22 thousand digits in the number pi. He can learn a foreign language in a week. But he also has trouble with simple directions, like telling the difference between left and right, and he's had to teach himself to laugh at jokes. Tammet is an autistic savant, and sees the world in a very different way. In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge we'll explore the mystery of consciousness.

SEGMENT 1:

Steve Paulson prepared this report on the state of thinking about consciousness. We hear from Artificial Intelligence pioneer Marvin Minsky, physicist Roger Penrose, philosopher Daniel Dennett, New Age guru Deepak Chopra, and many more.

SEGMENT 2:

Louann Brizendine is a neuro-psychiatrist and the author of "The Female Brain." She tells Jim Fleming that male brains are fueled by testosterone and female brains are fueled by estrogen and that they are chemically and physically different from each other. Also, Alan Wallace is an ex-Buddhist monk who runs the Santa Barbara Institute for Consciousness Studies, and is the author of "Contemplative Science." He tells Steve Paulson that the long tradition of rigorous investigation of the mind undertaken by Buddhism has a lot to teach Western science. For a transcript of Steve's interview that ran in Salon magazine, click here:.
Alan Wallace
http://www.salon.com/books/int/2006/11/27/wallace/

SEGMENT 3:

Daniel Tammet is an autistic savant and the author of "Born on a Blue Day." He loves numbers, can do calculations in his head into the millions, and can recite pi to more than 22,000 digits. But he has trouble telling right from left and looking people in the eye. Tennet talks with Anne Strainchamps about life on the autistic spectrum and how he sees numbers.

CD copies are available at 1-800-747-7444. Ask for program number 07-02-11-A.

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Books:

Louann Brizendine, The Female Brain (Morgan Road Books)
Daniel Tammet, Born on a Blue Day: Inside the Extraordinary Mind of an Autistic Savant (Free Press)
Alan Wallace, Contemplative Science (Columbia)
Marvin Minsky, The Emotion Machine (Simon & Schuster)

Websites:

• Daniel Tammet
  http://www.optimnem.co.uk/
• Louann Brizendine
  http://www.louannbrizendine.com/
• Alan Wallace
  http://www.salon.com/books/int/2006/11/27/wallace/

Music:

• music
  

Distribution dates: week of 03/02/2008 - hour 2 week of 02/11/2007 - hour 1

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Questions and comments can be addressed to: flemingj@wpr.org

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