Emotions and Reason - The Extended Mind Model

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i read in the book about how awe can act as a kind of reset button for the human brain. And i think those soaring spaces in the cathedrals were evoking that same kind of awe that we feel in vast natural settings. I don't touch so much on emotion per se in the book, but i am interested, again, in the limitations of this brain as computer. emotions are our mind's way of tagging things with significance for us. We wouldn't have any way to make decisions or have preferences or make choices if we didn't have emotions.

In this conversation about her new book, the acclaimed science writer Annie Murphy Paul explodes the myth that the brain is an all-powerful, all-purpose thinking machine that works best in silence and isolation. We are often told that the human brain is an awe-inspiring wonder, but its capacities are remarkably limited and specific. Humanity has achieved its most impressive feats only by thinking outside the brain: by “extending” the brain’s power with resources borrowed from the body, other people, and the material world. The Extended Mind tells the stories of scientists and artists, authors and inventors, leaders and entrepreneurs — Jackson Pollock, Charles Darwin, Jonas Salk, Friedrich Nietzsche, Watson and Crick, among others — who have mastered the art of thinking outside the brain. It also explains how every one of us can do the same, tapping the intelligence that exists beyond our heads — in our bodies, our surroundings, and our relationships.