# The Brain Goes Beyond Nature Through External Memory by Timothy Taylor > "The human brain has a capacity to go not just beyond nature, but beyond culture too, by dissenting from old norms and establishing others. The emergence of the high arts and science is part of this process of the human brain, with its instrumental extra-somatic adaptations and memory stores (books, laboratories, computers), and is underpinned by the most critical thing that has been brought into being in the encultured human brain: free will." > **— Timothy Taylor**, *2006, Edge Annual Question, “What Is Your Dangerous Idea?”* ## Sources and Context - **Direct Edge response and surrounding essay:** [The human brain is a cultural artefact.](https://www.edge.org/response-detail/11835) — Edge published this passage in its 2006 Annual Question collection, *What Is Your Dangerous Idea?*. The full response preserves the qualifications and argument surrounding this exact extract. - **Complete local collection index:** [[research/Edge 2006 Full Quotation Curation|Edge 2006 Full Quotation Curation]] — retained source-first archive record for the complete yearly response cohort. ## Related Articles and Collections - **Collection:** [[collections/Edge|Edge]] - **Collection:** [[collections/Consciousness Continuity|Consciousness Continuity]] - **Article:** [[articles/Escape Hatch in the Skull|Escape Hatch in the Skull]] - **Article:** [[articles/Mind Uploading and AI — The Host is Reusable and the Person is the Delta|Host Infrastructure Overview]] - **Article:** [[articles/Science of Digital Consciousness|Science of Digital Consciousness]] - **Wiki map:** [[wiki/Consciousness Mapping and Transfer|Consciousness Mapping and Transfer]] ## Related Topics - [[wiki/Cognitive Exteriorization|Cognitive Exteriorization]] - [[wiki/Cognitive Prosthesis|Cognitive Prosthesis]] - [[wiki/Technological Evolution|Technological Evolution]] - [[wiki/Human-Machine Symbiosis|Human-Machine Symbiosis]] ## Share on Social Media ``` "The human brain has a capacity to go not just beyond nature, but beyond culture too, by dissenting from old norms and establishing others. The emergence of the high arts and science is part of this process of the human brain, with its instrumental extra-somatic adaptations and memory stores (books, laboratories, computers), and is underpinned by the most critical thing that has been brought into being in the encultured human brain: free will." — Timothy Taylor, 2006, Edge Annual Question, “What Is Your Dangerous Idea?” https://bryantmcgill.com/simple-reminders-timothy-taylor-human-brain-cultural-artifact ```