Yume wo kanaerutameni no ha aru (The Brain Is There to Make Dreams Come True - The Phenomenon of Me," Discussing the Brain with High School Students)

My book, "The Brain Is There to Make Dreams Come True," is a compilation of three intensive lectures I gave to high school students at Eiko Gakuen. Its greatest originality lies in its transcending the framework of a neuroscience textbook into a philosophical adventure that reexamines the existence of the "self." While many previous books on neuroscience mainly explained the brain's functions, structure, or mechanisms, this book focuses on the fundamental "why", i.e., why the brain exists and why we perceive the world the way we do.
 
The latest findings in neuroscience and AI have revealed the shocking fact that the "reality" we perceive is nothing more than a "hallucination" created by the brain's arbitrary annotation of electrical signals. Within the darkness of the skull, the brain constructs the “world” as a full-color simulation (dream) based on sparse information from the outside world. The "dream" in the title of this book does not simply refer to a future goal, but to this "virtual reality" created by the brain.
 
Academically, the book's significance lies in the way it sheds light on the true nature of "intelligence" by contrasting rapidly evolving AI with the biological brain. By comparing the similarities and crucial differences between the principles of deep learning and the brain's neural circuits (the brain's fluctuations and instability), I have presented a scientific answer from the perspective of thermodynamics (the law of increasing entropy) to the questions of why "death" is necessary for life and why we are "imperfect." This is an integrated intellectual endeavor that spans biology, information science, physics, and philosophy.
 
This book was awarded the 23rd Kobayashi Hideo Prize in 2024. This award is given to outstanding prose works other than novels written in Japanese, and it is rare for a science book to be selected. The selection committee highly praised the book's critical aspects, which, despite being a scientific text, tackle the realms of literature and philosophy and the depths of human existence. This demonstrates to society that science is by no means a dry collection of data, but rather a passionate story for understanding humanity.
 
As the author, I have received many positive responses from readers, which makes me very happy. In addition to comments such as "As I continued reading, I felt as if the ground was crumbling beneath my feet," "I experienced an intellectual thrill as if my very existence were undergoing a Gestalt collapse," and "I thought I was reading a science book, but before I knew it, I had become lost in a philosophical labyrinth," some readers even described the book as "a powerful medicine" and "a reading drug." It gives readers a sense of satisfaction in being able to share the thrill of breaking out of the shell of common sense and gaining a new perspective.
 
In an age where the rise of AI is calling into question "what does it mean to be human," I believe this book will serve as a compass. Clarifying what AI can do and what only the brain as a living organism can do (for example, a "sense of reality" based on survival instinct, and living with contradictions) will be essential knowledge for everyone living in the society of the future. I hope that through this book you will experience the power of science to vividly repaint the world.
 

(Written by IKEGAYA Yuji, Professor, Graduate School of Pharmaceutical Sciences / 2025)