Adam Zeman was born in London in 1957. He is a neurologist with a philosophy and psychology background. He coined the term “aphantasia” for an inability to create mental images.
What’s your earliest memory?
The sun shining into the top floor of a townhouse in St Andrews where I was unpacking with my grandmother after the family move from London that introduced me to magnificent Scotland.
Who are your heroes?
In childhood D’Artagnan, one of the Three Musketeers – I relished chanting, “All for one and one for all!” In adulthood, it’s difficult to choose, but having reread A Tale of Two Cities over Christmas I’ll go for Charles Dickens, for the breadth of his understanding, the warmth of his compassion, and the sheer energy of his imagination.
What book last changed your thinking?
I read The Power by Naomi Alderman late last year. This gripping tale of teenage girls’ discovery that they can deliver more or less lethal electric shocks made me think seriously about the power dynamic between men and women (and how terrifying it would be if the tables were turned).
In which time and place, other than your own, would you like to live?
Among our hominin ancestors Homo erectus, one million years ago in Africa or Asia – I want to know how they spoke, or at least communicated.
What would be your Mastermind specialist subject?
The science of subjectivity – how brains and minds relate. It got under my skin when I was 19 and has stayed there ever since.
What political figure do you look up to?
Barack Obama, who really tried, and thought on his feet.
Who would paint your portrait?
Rembrandt, as I would love to watch him at work and see the result. If he was unavailable, then I’d choose David Hockney, with whom I would love to chat.
What’s your theme tune?
Bach’s first prelude seems to contain the rest of music.
What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever received?
The only clear advice my historian father ever gave me was to study medicine if I was interested in the brain. I followed it and it was, for me, the right advice – I have loved being a doctor.
What’s currently bugging you?
The use of sophisticated IT to accomplish (or confound) tasks better achieved on the back of an envelope – that much underestimated medium! We need to reclaim our humanity and common sense.
What single thing would make your life better?
A parallel life – time is so short, there is so much to learn and do.
When were you happiest?
In the beguiling company of small children. I have been luckier than I deserve in helping to bring up three wonderful daughters and two equally wonderful sons. They are the future.
In another life, what job might you have chosen?
A psychiatrist – a lifetime spent in neurology has been very rewarding, but understanding mental disorder is the next great challenge, one for which we are now better equipped than in the past.
Are we all doomed?
So far life has, sadly, been a fatal condition, and our sun has a finite lifespan too. But creativity is limitless – who knows what the future holds?
Adam Zeman’s “The Shape of Things Unseen” is published by Bloomsbury
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This article appears in the 05 Feb 2025 issue of the New Statesman, The New Gods of AI