Nothing on Earth plans like we do. A chimpanzee will use a tool, then walk away from it. A child takes years to learn that tomorrow is coming. Somewhere in our past, an ape started saving tools for a day that didn't exist yet. That move gave us agriculture, markets, and the knowledge that we will die. The future isn't out there waiting. The brain built it.
In this episode, Dean Buonomano, the UCLA neuroscientist behind Your Brain Is a Time Machine, follows that invention through the mind. There is no clock in the head; every circuit keeps its own time. Consciousness is a process, not a state. The brain stays blind to itself. The modern world moves faster than it can absorb. Psychedelics, he argues, reveal no truer reality than the one evolution already tested. And our fear of AI, he suspects, is an older fear of each other.
Subscribe to Futurology on YouTube:
https://bit.ly/subscribe_futurology
The Futurology Podcast – full episodes on YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLwkiuf1eRbAAHP4p–2IFJbn0CIdaZMva
Apple Podcasts
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/futurology/id1821718921
Spotify
https://open.spotify.com/show/2I38HvHP6KlXrD5ysfygxk
Mentioned in this Episode:
Your Brain Is a Time Machine: The Neuroscience and Physics of Time — Dean Buonomano (Book, 2017)
How to Change Your Mind — Michael Pollan (Book, 2018)
The Time Machine — H.G. Wells (Book, 1895)
Bridging the Neuroscience and Physics of Time — Dean Buonomano & Carlo Rovelli (Preprint, 2021)
The Perception of Time (The Principles of Psychology, Ch. XV) — William James (Book chapter, 1890)
Where to find Dean Buonomano:
Lab: buonomanolab.com
UCLA: faculty profile
Bluesky: @deanbuono.bsky.social
Book: Your Brain Is a Time Machine
Show ideas and feedback?
Email:
futurology@berggruen.org
Learn more about the Berggruen Institute
Follow Futurology!
Instagram: / futurologypod
Twitter/X: / futurologypod
Tiktok: / futurologypod
Facebook: / berggrueninst
LinkedIn: / berggrueninst
Bluesky: / futurologypod
Credits
Executive Producers: Nicolas Berggruen, Nathan Gardels, Nils Gilman, Dawn Nakagawa, & Jason Hoch
Producers: Grant Slater, Alex Gardels, & Nathalia Ramos
Associate Producer: Elissa Mardiney
Theme Music: Marcus Bagala
Audio Engineer: Aaron Bastinelli & Kyle Scott Wilson
Futurology is a production of Studio B and Wavland for the Berggruen Institute in Los Angeles, California.
November 10, 2026
