Espacio Fundación Telefónica EncuentrosTelos July 16, 2025
Rafael Yuste, a renowned researcher of broad international prestige — neuroscientist, director of the NeuroTechnology Center at Columbia University, and creator of the BRAIN Initiative — closed the season of Telos events on a high note in a conversation with journalist and science communicator Pere Estupinyà. The dialogue addressed the principal discoveries laid out in his latest book The Brain, the Theater of the World (Editorial Paidós, 2024), but also touched on topics related to his career as a scientist, his upcoming projects, the importance of neurorights, and various aspects connected to the latest issue of Telos magazine (Telos 127, Generation Alphabeta: In Search of Well-Being in a Hyperconnected World). This latest issue of Telos underscores the importance of comprehensive digital literacy that not only teaches technical skills but also forms critical citizens capable of protecting their privacy, exercising their rights, and building safer and more humane digital environments.
Rafael Yuste proposes a genuine paradigm shift in the study of the brain by understanding it through neural networks. His theory, “The Theater of the World” (“El Teatro del Mundo”), conceives of the brain as a machine for predicting the future that uses neural networks to generate a model of the world as if it were a virtual reality prototype.
Through the narrative of the principal discoveries made by scientists, Yuste reveals to us — in a simple and engaging style — what the nervous system is, how it arose through evolution, and how the brain uses the senses to predict the future and choose an intelligent course of action that allows us to engage with the world. We also learn what memory is, what emotions reveal to us, and how the brain makes decisions.
Filled with personal anecdotes, The Brain, the Theater of the World is an extraordinary journey through the recent history of neuroscience. It explains how philosophers such as Kant and writers such as Calderón de la Barca and Proust were ahead of their time and capable of conceiving theories that are now being confirmed. Welcome to a fascinating voyage through modern neuroscience that will reveal one of the greatest mysteries of science: how eighty billion neurons organize themselves to create the human mind.
This event included auditory accessibility measures (induction loop, Spanish Sign Language, and sound amplification via headphones). The talk could be followed via open streaming on this website and on social media with the #EncuentrosTelos hashtag. You can enjoy it again in our media library.
Rafael Yuste (@yusterafa)
A physician and neurobiologist by training, he is a professor of Biological Sciences and director of the NeuroTechnology Center at Columbia University. His laboratory studies neural circuits in cnidarians and in the cerebral cortex of mammals. Yuste is the driving force behind the BRAIN Initiative, a project funded by the Obama administration that seeks to unlock the mysteries of the brain by developing new neurotechnology tools. He currently also serves as president of the NeuroRights Foundation, which fights to protect people’s brain activity as a new human right.
Pere Estupinyà (@Perestupinya)
He is a Spanish biochemist recognized for his work in science communication. He directs and hosts the program “El Cazador de Cerebros” (“The Brain Hunter”) on TVE, leads the science section of “A Vivir” on Cadena Ser, and has published four popular science books, including El Ladrón de Cerebros (The Brain Thief) and La Ciencia del Sexo (The Science of Sex). He lived in the United States for seven years, working for institutions such as the NIH and MIT. He has received the award for best science journalist in Spain, granted by the BBVA Foundation and the CSIC.
