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When fishing for happiness, catch and release. Remember these seven words—they are the keys to being happy. So says Shimon Edelman, an expert on psychology and the mind. In __The Happiness of Pursuit__, Edelman offers a fundamental understanding of pleasure and joy via the brain. Using the concept of the mind as a computing device, he unpacks how the human brain is highly active, involved in patterned networks, and constantly learning from experience. As our brains predict the future through pursuit of experience, we are rewarded both in real time and in the long run. Essentially, as Edelman discovers, it’s the journey, rather than the destination, that matters. The idea that cognition is computation—the brain is a machine—is nothing new of course. But, as Edelman argues, the mind is actually a bundle of ongoing computations, essentially, the brain being one of many possible substrates that can support them. Edelman makes the case for these claims by constructing a conceptual toolbox that offers readers a glimpse of the computations underlying the mind’s faculties: perception, motivation and emotions, action, memory, thinking, social cognition, learning and language. It is this collection of tools that enables us to discover how and why happiness happens. An informative, accessible, and witty tour of the mind, __The Happiness of Pursuit__ offers insights to a thorough understanding of what minds are, how they relate to each other and to the world, and how we can make the best of it all. “The brain is a computer. With it, we are able to solve, without thinking about it twice, some pretty tough problems. For instance, we can turn the light captured by our eyes into an experience of a friend’s face, or plan our turn in an ongoing conversation with almost the same ease that we predict the course of an apple falling from a tree. What’s more, we are getting quite good at understanding the computations that make those feats of the mind possible. The question now is: can we use this new understanding to improve our lives - or even figure out how to compute happiness? In The HAPPINESS OF PURSUIT, cognition expert Shimon Edelman takes us on a neuroscientific odyssey toward a new level of self-knowledge. Offering an empirical, quantitative understanding of how the brain gives rise to the mind, he shows that the more deeply we grasp how that system works the easier it is to be happy. He describes the computations underlying the mind’s faculties - perception, motivation and emotions, action, memory, thinking, social cognition, learning and language - pondering all the while how and why happiness occurs. As our brains predict the future through experiences, we are rewarded both in real time and in the long run. As inspired by Homer and Philip K. Dick as he is by cognitive science, Edelman takes us on a memorable journey populated with flying marmots and rebellious adolescent mole rats, among other creatures, in an exploration of travel and freedom, memory and desire, thinking and knowing. An expansive work in the tradition of David Deutsch and Douglas Hofstadter, The Happiness of Pursuit stands to be a classic, stretching the limits of our knowledge of our brain - and of ourselves.” BOOK JACKET When fishing for happiness, catch and release. Remember these seven words -- they are the keys to being happy. So says Shimon Edelman, an expert on psychology and the mind. In The Happiness of Pursuit, Edelman offers a fundamental understanding of pleasure and joy via the brain. Using the concept of the mind as a computing device, he unpacks how the human brain is highly active, involved in patterned networks, and constantly learning from experience. As our brains predict the future through pursuit of experience, we are rewarded both in real time and in the long run. Essentially, as Edelman discovers, it's the journey, rather than the destination, that matters. The idea that cognition is computation -- the brain is a machine -- is nothing new of course. But, as Edelman argues, the mind is actually a bundle of ongoing computations, essentially, the brain being one of many possible substrates that can support them. Edelman makes the case for these claims by constructing a conceptual toolbox that offers readers a glimpse of the computations underlying the mind's faculties: perception, motivation and emotions, action, memory, thinking, social cognition, learning and language. It is this collection of tools that enables us to discover how and why happiness happens. An informative, accessible, and witty tour of the mind, The Happiness of Pursuit offers insights to a thorough understanding of what minds are, how they relate to each other and to the world, and how we can make the best of it all. Draws On Philosophy, Literature, And Brain Science To Explain Why The Pursuit Of Happiness Is A More Complicated Effort Than Understood By Most People, Sharing Insights Into How To Apply Scientific Methods For Increasing One's Chances Of Achieving Happiness. Home Is Where The Mind Is -- Computing The Mind -- The Republic Of Soul -- Learning To Think For Yourself -- You Can Talk To Me -- Nobody, At Home -- An Irresistible Call To Depart. Shimon Edelman. Includes Bibliographical References And Index. CONTENTS 8 AUTHOR'S NOTE ix 10 1 Home Is Where the Mind Is 1 12 2 Computing the Mind 7 18 3 The Republic of Soul 35 46 4 Learning to Think for Yourself 71 82 5 You Can Talk to Me 95 106 6 Nobody, at Home 131 142 7 An Irresistible Call to Depart 159 170 ALWAYS COMING HOME 177 188 Why and how a clear understanding our computational minds can help us make the most of the journey of our lifetimes