“When an animal is looking for something that increases its chances of survival and reproduction (e.g. food, partners or social status), the brain produces sensations of alertness and excitement, which drive the animal to make even greater efforts because they are so very agreeable. In a famous experiment scientists connected electrodes to the brains of several rats, enabling the animals to create sensations of excitement simply by pressing a pedal. When the rats were given a choice between tasty food and pressing the pedal, they preferred the pedal (much like kids preferring to play video games rather than come down to dinner). The rats pressed the pedal again and again, until they collapsed from hunger and exhaustion”

Israeli historian and popular science writer

Yuval Noah Harari is an Israeli historian, military historian, public intellectual, and popular science writer. He is a professor of history at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and is known for his widely read books on human history and the future. His first bestseller, Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind, grew out of lectures he gave to an undergraduate world history class. He later published Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow, 21 Lessons for the 21st Century, and Nexus: A Brief History of Information Networks from the Stone Age to AI. His work often examines free will, consciousness, intelligence, happiness, suffering, and the place of storytelling in human evolution.