Neuroscientist David Eagleman and composer Anthony Brandt explain how creativity works
What makes humans special? Some credit should go to the opposable thumb and the larynx, says neuroscientist David Eagleman, but a lot of it has to do with our ability to be creative and constantly think up new ideas.
Eagleman, a professor at Stanford University and writer, collaborated with composer and Rice University professor Anthony Brandt to write The Runaway Species: How Human Creativity Remakes the World, published this month by Catapult. Throughout the book, which is filled with photographs and illustrations, they narrow down and explain the three main components of creativity: bending elements (Frank Gehry’s buildings), blending elements (mash-ups), and breaking (Picasso).
The Verge spoke...