The power of a single cell: The deep history of ourselves

Consciousness has given humans the power to transcend our physical limitations and exert an unprecedented influence on the world around us. Renowned neuroscientist Joseph LeDoux, author of The Deep History of Ourselves: The Four-Billion-Year Story of How We Got Conscious Brains, returns to the Rubin to argue that the key to understanding all human behavior lies in viewing evolution through the prism of our really earliest selves: the first living organisms. Even the earliest single cell organisms had to solve the same problems we and our cells have to solve today in order to survive and thrive. LeDoux invites Dr. Jeffrey Sachs to explore how the development of nervous systems powered human consciousness, which made our greatest and most horrendous achievements as a species possible.

A book signing for Professor LeDoux’s new book, The Deep History of Ourselves, takes place after the talk.

About the Speakers

Joseph LeDoux has spent over 30 years studying the biological underpinnings of memory and emotion, especially the mechanisms of fear. He is a university professor at NYU in the Center for Neural Science and the Department of Psychology, directing the Emotional Brain Institute (at the Nathan Kline Institute and at NYU). He is member of the National Academy of Science and is the author of Synaptic Self and The Emotional Brain. LeDoux is also a member of two bands, The Amygdaloids and So We Are, both of which play original songs about the mind, brain, and mental disorders. LeDoux lives in Brooklyn, New York, and this is his fifth appearance at the Rubin. His previous sold-out appearance on the Rubin stage was in 2015, with Dr. Mark Epstein, on the publication of his book Anxious.

Jeffrey D. Sachs is a world-renowned professor of economics, leader in sustainable development, senior UN advisor, bestselling author, and syndicated columnist whose monthly newspaper columns appear in more than 100 countries. He is the co-recipient of the 2015 Blue Planet Prize, the leading global prize for environmental leadership. He has twice been named among Time magazine’s 100 most influential world leaders. The New York Times called him “probably the most important economist in the world,” and Time magazine described him as “the world’s best-known economist.” A recent survey by The Economist ranked Professor Sachs as among the world’s three most influential living economists of the past decade. His previous appearances at the Rubin included the Bhutanese prime minister and the Venerable Bhikkhu Bodhi.