Congratulations, you are in possession of a rare jewel. It is often said that the human brain is the most complex object in the known universe. While incredibly intricate—with its 86 billion neurons forming trillions of connections—it remains far less complex than the universe itself. The universe contains billions of galaxies, each with billions of stars, planets, and possibly many other brains. Logically, our brains, incredible as they are, must be simpler than the universe they aim to comp...

Look around the room right now. What do you see? Patterns of light resolve into objects—your screen, a cup, a book, a desk. You don’t think much about it because you don’t have to. That’s the point of perception: to distill the chaos of the world into something actionable. You don’t need to analyze every photon or angle of light. You just know there’s a cup, so you reach for it and drink. No surprises. But this act—seeing, understanding, and trusting the scene—relies on layers upon layers of ...