Synapse & Soul

Imagine you are hanging out with friends or eating at a restaurant with your family. When someone picks up the menu and asks, "What should we eat?" many of us quickly say, "Order anything for me. Whatever you guys are having is fine." We think this is very polite. We believe we are being flexible and easygoing. But have you ever thought about how much stress this "polite" behavior puts on the other person's brain? The Burden of Decision When you say "anything is fine," you are actually pushing the responsibility of the decision onto someone else. In computer science terms, you are giving your "cognitive load" (mental effort) to another person. Now your friend has to do several difficult tasks for you: They have to think about what you like or dislike. They have to remember if you have any allergies or a specific diet. They have to search the entire menu to find something that works for both of you. This whole process is very tiring ...

Today, 15/03/2026 We usually think that we are the owners of the free will behind every action we take. From waking up in the morning to choosing what clothes to wear or making big life decisions, we believe that we have our own control over everything. But modern science says that this idea of free will is actually a complete illusion. If we compare our life to a giant ship floating on the sea, it will be easier to understand. You might be holding the steering wheel of the ship tightly and thinking that you are the one turning the ship to the right or left. However, this vast sea, the path of the wind, or the ship you are standing on, none of these were created by you. The biggest scientific truth is that the moment you decided to turn the wheel, that decision was also the result of a process that had already happened in your brain. Various studies by scientists have shown that our brain's motor cortex completes the preparation for an action a few seconds before we do it. This mea...

The Crisis of Existence and Our Daily Anxiety (Part 1) If we look closely at the heavy anxiety or deep unease we feel in our daily lives, we notice something strange. Usually, we think this unease comes from intense work pressure, traffic jams, or tomorrow's deadlines. We treat our mental state like a routine checkup. We feel that if we just find the immediate cause, we can easily find a quick solution. This tendency to look for easy answers is very normal. We like to put everything into neat little boxes. Finding a logical explanation gives us a sense of comfort. We love to think that the problem is created by some external situation and that we will feel better overnight if the situation changes. But when we enter the deep world of the human subconscious and existential crisis, this comforting framework completely falls apart. If we dig into Ernest Becker's groundbreaking book "The Denial of Death" and various psychological research papers, we find that many of our ...

I read Dr. Anna Lembke's book "Dopamine Nation" a few months ago. Since then, I had been thinking about writing something about it on my personal blog. At that time, I roughly noted down some thoughts in my diary. Yesterday, the university gave us a long 15-day vacation. Our university usually never gives such long vacations. Taking advantage of this free time, I am organizing those scattered thoughts from my diary and sharing them with you today. While reading the book, I learned some truths that we all need to know. This is a very important topic, especially for our current generation. What I learned from my reading experience is presented simply to you below. Our brain works in a very strange way. When we get pleasure from something, like eating a favorite food, getting a like on social media, or taking drugs, a chemical called dopamine is released in our brain. Dr. Lembke explained that the place in our brain where we feel pleasure and pain is actually the same. It wo...

I often look up at the night sky and wonder, is what I am seeing actually real? That distant star, whose light traveled for thousands of years to reach my eyes, is it merely some laws of physics? Or is some artist within me rearranging that light in its own way with new colors? While reading Richard Dawkins' Unweaving the Rainbow , I discovered a world that taught me that none of us actually sees the 'real' world. Each of us walks around with an incredible 'virtual reality' or imaginary reality inside our heads. Today, I will take you deep into that story. We have heard since childhood that we have five senses through which we experience the world. But Dawkins says these senses do not actually present us with a complete picture of the world. What our eyes or ears receive are merely some chaotic signals. Our brain is that magical factory where these isolated signals are pieced together to create a seamless and meaningful world. This is what he calls 'reweaving ...