Skip to content

Your Brain, the CEO

Think of consciousness as essentially the company president that has to arbitrate all the different mechanisms. 
Sign up for Big Think on Substack
The most surprising and impactful new stories delivered to your inbox every week, for free.

Whenever a system becomes sufficiently complex, like a giant company, it needs a CEO, and that’s essentially the role of consciousness in the brain.  The brain is made up of many different subparts and systems that are always competing for control.

So what I suggest in my book is that consciousness is essentially the company president that has to arbitrate all the different mechanisms. 

60 Second reads is recorded in Big Think’s studio.

Image courtesy fo Shutterstock

Sign up for Big Think on Substack
The most surprising and impactful new stories delivered to your inbox every week, for free.
Related
A bearded man wearing glasses and a plaid shirt speaks with a microphone clipped to his collar in front of a purple background with white dots.
The Well
How Rainn Wilson discovered sacredness
The hospital where Rainn Wilson’s wife and son nearly died became his own personal holy site. There, he discovered that the sacred can exist in places we least expect it. During his talk at A Night of Awe and Wonder, he explained how the awe we feel in moments of courage and love is moral beauty — and following it might be the start of our spiritual revolution.
▸
13 min
—
with
Rainn Wilson
Up Next