Chapter 8 Summary

Later in the day, Howie realizes that he is not as set in stone as he thought. However, his childhood still ended at twenty-three. From this point, each day Howie assumes he has a constant number of new thoughts and each new thought maintains enough integrity that it can be recalled later through network connections in the brain. In a footnote, Howie notes that he decides this when he is driving home from work in the dark. To reach majority reliance on new thoughts from adulthood, Howie only must have the same number of new thoughts each day until he is forty. The new thoughts will then be a majority. This becomes his goal—to reach neurological middle age.

At his current age, which now appears to be twenty-five, 12% of his thoughts are adult; Howie realizes that he must accept this. He...