Chapter Nine: Blue Brain

Summary

• The chapter discusses the concept of "Blue Brain," investigating why human brains have excess storage capacity that seems unused and the idea that all human knowledge might be innately stored within us.
• Different philosophies and philosophies, such as Daoism, Plato's innatism, and Chomsky's nativism, suggest that knowledge is innate and our experiences unlock this hidden knowledge.
• Neuroscientists from the Blue Brain Project have provided evidence supporting the idea of innate knowledge through brain activity simulations.
• The narrator reflects on an instance where the phrase "happiness quotient" suddenly comes to mind without any recollection of having learned it, considering it could be an example of accessing collective knowledge.
• When discussing her father's notebook with the detective and her mother, the narrator tempts to share her intuition about "happiness quotient" but refrains due to her policy of not trusting unverified information.
• Despite offering a potential clue to the notebook's content, the narrator feels overlooked by her family and the detective, only receiving a small gesture of encouragement from Detective Janus.
• The discussion transitions into the narrator’s mother's focus on finding her husband's wallet, speculating that it may have fallen out during the accident due to the missing wallet.
• The chapter features the family dynamics and interactions, including the moment when the narrator attempts to communicate with her brother Eugene about "happiness quotient."
• The narrator regrets doubting Eugene's understanding and potentially patronizing him during the investigation, and contemplates her habit of letting false hope consume her emotions.
• Back in the kitchen, the narrator resists sharing her experience with the term "happiness quotient," considering her distaste for theories about innate knowledge, citing her negative experience with a college professor's discussion about it.
• She recalls two past conversations with her father about the quantification of happiness that lead her to consider why her father might be interested in happiness quotients.
• The narrator ponders over an altercation with her father about the relativity of emotions, which she dismissed as a teenager, and wonders what could have been if she had shown more interest in her father’s research.