Guy P. Harrison
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Guy P. Harrison

Social Sciences Human Brain Inspiring
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I’m a Big Bang refugee. An unintended consequence of the Cambrian. A molecular pattern in flux. A temporary blob of matter cursed with consciousness. A minority lifeform toiling away somewhere inside a microbial cloud. A human in search of humanity. A free man without free will. Domesticated primate. Confused hominin stumbling through the Holocene, groping about in time and space. An urbanized eukaryote writing books on the road to extinction. I think; therefore, I'm never quite sure. Run fast and lift heavy. Breathe trees. Touch the ocean. Watch insects. Hear the wind. I am only 98.7% Bonobo genes, but a full 100% ancient atoms. Positive, humble, and constructive skeptic. We all believe silly things. What matters is how silly and how many. I am a human who warns humans about being human. I use my imperfect brain to talk and write about the human brain’s imperfections. I try my best to overcome my own irrational beliefs and subconscious derangements while helping others navigate theirs. There are worse ways to spend one’s existence. Think before you believe. History matters. Those who know little or nothing about the past cannot understand the present. The road to salvation runs through anthropology because we must understand ourselves to survive ourselves. Science is the best tool we have for discovering, learning, and appreciating what the hell is going on. The more we know, the more we can imagine. The more we can imagine, the more we can do. Science fiction warms my imaginary soul. It is our great gateway to anywhere, sprinkled with just enough possibility to matter. Science fiction is the pulsing heart of humanity. It stretches perceptions, confronts tired traditions, and inspires us to convert wild dreams into mundane realities. So much more than robots and ray guns, it is a ceaseless storm of thoughts that perfectly illuminates the boundless creativity of a three-pound blob of electrochemical magic known as the human brain. I am an award-winning journalist, science writer, and author of nine books. My work has been translated into Japanese, Italian, Korean, Czech, and Belarusian. My writing has appeared in Reader’s Digest, Big Think, The Institute of Arts and Ideas, Skeptical Inquirer, Psychology Today, Free Inquiry, Skeptic, and more. I contributed a chapter on race and racism to The Cognitive Science of Belief (Cambridge University Press), a graduate-level textbook. I have won several awards, including the World Health Organization’s National Award and the Commonwealth Media Award for Excellence in Journalism (first place among 54 countries). Random House selected one of my books as recommended reading for all first-year university students, while another was incorporated into an anti-racism program in South Africa. The San Diego Union-Tribune named one of my books a “top-five summer read.” My book Damn You, Entropy! 1,001 of the Greatest Science Fiction Quotes was a New Scientist magazine “best science-fiction books of the month” selection. Most of my work is an attempt to uplift humanity, make our world saner and safer—or at least a little less disappointing. Yes, I know, Don Quixote had a more sensible mission statement. Mayflies have better life plans. But I have helped some people along the way, and writing serves me well as a distraction until entropy shows up to reclaim the atoms I’ve been borrowing. My Books: • Damn You, Entropy! 1,001 of the Greatest Science Fiction Quotes • At Least Know This: Essential Science to Enhance Your Life • Think Before You Like: Social Media’s Effect on the Brain and the Tools You Need to Navigate Your Newsfeed • Good Thinking: What You Need to Know to Be Smarter, Safer, Wealthier, and Wiser • 50 Popular Beliefs That People Think Are True • Race and Reality: What Everyone Should Know About Our Biological Diversity • 50 Simple Questions for Every Christian • Think: Why You Should Question Everything • 50 Reasons People Give for Believing in a God Chapter Contributions: • The Cognitive Science of Belief (Cambridge University Press) • Christianity in the Light of Science: Critically Examining the World’s Largest Religion (2016) This world is both vast and small. I have gotten lost in 40 countries on six continents. I’ve been a thousand feet deep in the ocean and stood alone and breathless inside a cool cloud at the roof of the world. A shark and a lion almost ate me—though not at the same time. I touched a sad tree stump in the Amazon, watched a purple bird sleep in Papua New Guinea, and felt the warmth of a thousand Caribbean sunsets. I walked in the footsteps of Australopithecines in Africa and made a friend on a long wall in China. I have interviewed a long list of people who shaped history, hung out with beggars in the world’s worst slums, shook hands with Pelé and met Queen Elizabeth. Humankind disappoints me, but humans can be amazing. I never met a tree I didn't like. The human brain is a tiny and temporary machine capable of glimpsing the universe and eternity. The unexamined mind is not worth thinking with. There is a neural garden inside your skull. Tend to it with all the dedication and love you can muster. Plant the right seeds. Work the soil. Weed out mistakes every chance you get. Admire the beauty and power of what grows there. Learn as much as you can about the scientific magic within you. Appreciate it every day. The current best version of reality that we can experience is infinitely beautiful and endlessly fascinating. It is tragic that so many people—unmotivated or too distracted by desires, deceptions, and delusions—never quite notice the wonder of it all. I love sharing, teaching, and inspiring people to better connect with this wild ride we call existence. Be kind to others as often as you can. Everyone is hurting in some way. Remember this when people are mean to you. It saddens me to know that my feet are stuck to the lithosphere of one lonely planet. I feel like a doomed little bug that stepped in glue. But I am grateful to at least live in a time when science has revealed enough to gift me with a slight understanding of how spectacular and exciting my larger home—the cosmos—really is. Never walk up a hill you can run up. Star Trek is hope. The gravity well of my diversions and passions runs wide and deep. Its contents include: Nature, space exploration, science, history, anthropology, microbes, books, running, philosophy, Homo erectus, photography, weight training, Australopithecines, and science fiction. Imagine. Question. Explore. Learn. Create. Teach. Laugh. Love. — Guy P. Harrison Marooned in the 21st century Earth, Virgo Supercluster
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50 Popular Beliefs That People Think Are True

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  • Good Thinking Audiobook By Guy P. Harrison cover art

    • Good Thinking

    • What You Need to Know to Be Smarter, Safer, Wealthier, and Wiser
    • By: Guy P. Harrison
    • Narrated by: Walter Dixon
    • Length: 9 hrs and 47 mins
    • Release date: 02-18-16
    • Language: English
    • 4.5 out of 5 stars 24 ratings

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  • Think Audiobook By Guy P. Harrison cover art

    • Think

    • Why You Should Question Everything
    • By: Guy P. Harrison
    • Narrated by: George Newbern
    • Length: 6 hrs and 43 mins
    • Release date: 04-23-14
    • Language: English
    • 4.5 out of 5 stars 88 ratings

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