“The memorable peaks in life come scattered among the many hard and often dreary days of work.” -Michael Gazzaniga

In an interview with National Geographic on the occasion of his new book, Michael Gazzaniga, a founder of CNS, talks about his work on the “split brain,” his early years at Caltech, the nature of consciousness, and much more. He also reflects on where the next big breakthroughs in understanding the brain will come from in the next 50 years:

There have been tremendous technological breakthroughs in the way we can look at the wiring of the brain in great detail. And we’re going to get better and better at really defining what it is.

The second big question is: “Well, how does it work?” That’s where the next big effort and understanding will come: how the mind is enabled by the brain and how it all interacts together through time. That’s where the breakthroughs will come.

And when asked what each side of his brain would say if his left brain were having a conversation with his right brain about his life’s most important achievements, Gazzaniga said this:

The right side would just list the names of my six children; my left side would tell you their glorious life history. It’s nothing unique. I’m just a person who loves life, loves the family and the people you brought into this world.

What are we all trying to do? We’re all just trying to be less stupid, right? Being less stupid is the goal of our families, and I’ve managed to communicate that to all our kids. So, we have a good life because of that. [Laughs] We’re all out there just trying to be less stupid.

Read the full interview here.