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Being You: A New Science of Consciousness Hardcover – October 19, 2021
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A Best Book of 2021—Bloomberg Businessweek;A Best Science Book of 2021—The Guardian;A Best Science Book of 2021—Financial Times;A Best Philosophy Book of 2021—Five Books; A Best Book of 2021—The Economist
Anil Seth's quest to understand the biological basis of conscious experience is one of the most exciting contributions to twenty-first-century science.
What does it mean to “be you”—that is, to have a specific, conscious experience of the world around you and yourself within it? There may be no more elusive or fascinating question. Historically, humanity has considered the nature of consciousness to be a primarily spiritual or philosophical inquiry, but scientific research is now mapping out compelling biological theories and explanations for consciousness and selfhood.
Now, internationally renowned neuroscience professor, researcher, and author Anil Seth is offers a window into our consciousness in BEING YOU: A New Science of Consciousness. Anil Seth is both a leading expert on the neuroscience of consciousness and one of most prominent spokespeople for this relatively new field of science. His radical argument is that we do not perceive the world as it objectively is, but rather that we are prediction machines, constantly inventing our world and correcting our mistakes by the microsecond, and that we can now observe the biological mechanisms in the brain that accomplish this process of consciousness.
Seth has been interviewed for documentaries aired on the BBC, Netflix, and Amazon and podcasts by Sam Harris, Russell Brand, and Chris Anderson, and his 2017 TED Talk on the topic has been viewed over 11 million times, a testament to his uncanny ability to make unimaginably complex science accessible and entertaining.
- Print length352 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherDutton
- Publication dateOctober 19, 2021
- Dimensions6.2 x 1.2 x 9.29 inches
- ISBN-101524742872
- ISBN-13978-1524742874
Book recommendations, author interviews, editors' picks, and more. Read it now.
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Editorial Reviews
Review
—Current Biology
“Whenever I hear that someone has found a new theory of consciousness, I start to lose my own… So when the latest would-be Einstein announces yet another theory, my eyes start to glaze over in anticipation of drivel and disappointment. Neuroscientist Anil Seth’s Being You is the exception that proves the rule. If you only read one book about consciousness, it must be his… An impressive work that handles complex issues with exceptional insight and beautiful clarity.”
—Julian Baggini, Wall Street Journal
“[Seth] tells us about the Japanese roboticist who builds ‘Geminoids’—robots as similar to human beings as possible, including one resembling himself, which delivered a 45-minute lecture to a large audience of students. It is a brilliant book…”
—Claire Tomalin, New York Times Book Review
"Exhilarating... a vast-ranging, phenomenal achievement that will undoubtedly become a seminal text."
—The Guardian
“Seth makes a convincing case that perception masquerades as conscious reality… Fluent and accessible.”
—Financial Times
“Drawing on philosophy, biology, cognitive science, neuroscience and artificial intelligence, he argues that our brains are prediction machines that constantly invent our world and then correct our mistakes, so that our sense of self derives from our body.”
—Nature
“Imaginative and compelling…”
—Scientific American
“A fantastic exposition to a family of revolutionary ideas gaining increasing support both from neuroscience and artificial-intelligence research. It is a much-rewarding read, both for people familiar with the central questions of consciousness and the interested newcomer.”
—World Literature Review
“Exhilarating, informed, passionate and provocative in equal measure—as much a groundbreaking work of philosophy as of science. It’s a book that lingers with you, while at the same time forcing you to rethink exactly who and what “you” are."
—Research Professional News
“In lucid, engaging prose Seth deftly navigates long-standing philosophical debates over the nature of consciousness… awe-inspiring.”
—New Statesman
“An accessible, unfailingly interesting look inside the workings of the human brain, celebrating its beguiling nature.”
—Kirkus
“[Seth’s] extraordinary debut sets out his exhilarating new theory about how we experience the world.”
—The Bookseller (Editor's Choice)
“[Anil Seth] takes on the prodigious task of defining consciousness and explaining its origins in this intense survey.”
—Publishers Weekly
“One of the most authoritative voices in a central question of neuroscience: what is consciousness? His new book is a page-turner and a mind-blower. If you've ever wondered how billions of neurons chattering in the dark equate to your experience, start here... Beautifully written, crystal clear, deeply insightful.”
—David Eagleman, neuroscientist at Stanford University, author of Livewired and Incognito
“A brilliant beast of a book. A wide ranging synthesis pulling together disparate stands—from philosophy, science, literature, personal experience and speculation—this latter being the most exciting for me, despite some proposals being as yet unproven. Seth proposes to explain not just what and how we are, but probably provocative for some folks, why we are the way we are. Why do we have the feeling of continually being the same person? (When obviously I, at least, am not.) Why do we have this feeling of being self aware? What is it for? Hugely inspirational—I filled up 10 pages with exuberant notes. Keep a pencil handy.”
—David Byrne, founding member of Talking Heads
“There could hardly be a better guide to the theories—good and bad—currently swirling around the science of consciousness. Seth writes with grace and charm, gently demolishing bad ideas—such as panpsychism, and Integrated Information Theory—while building a case for his own very good idea that consciousness is a kind of controlled hallucination, the brain’s best guess at inventing the future.”
—Nicholas Humphrey, neuropsychologist and author A History of the Mind and Soul Dust
“Seth provokes us to think about thinking. And he offers what the interested reader always needs—a book which makes complex ideas readable, relatable, and gripping. If you want to understand his subject better—he’ll help you. And who wouldn’t want to better understand consciousness? In our lives, there is nothing weirder or more fundamental.”
—Alex Garland, director of EX MACHINA
“Being You offers us new cause for astonishment and wonder. Through expert science writing and engaging personal narrative, Anil gives us a new perspective on everything we perceive, down to space and time itself. Being You is a must read for anyone seeking a better understanding of the brain and how nature sculpts the human experience.”
—Annaka Harris, author of Conscious
“Reality is real, but how our brains construct a picture of reality—perceiving, integrating, predicting—is far from direct. It's a complicated, fascinating mess, which neuroscientists are just beginning to piece together. Anil Seth's Being You is a wonderfully accessible and comprehensive account of how our minds capture the world, and how that makes us who we are.”
—Sean Carroll, author of Something Deeply Hidden
“In this lucid and thought-provoking exploration of the nature of consciousness, Seth takes us closer than ever to making sense of our experience of being conscious selves. A must-read.”
—Anil Ananthaswamy, award-winning journalist and author of Through Two Doors at Once and The Man Who Wasn’t There
“A fascinating book. A joy to read. Anil Seth explores fundamental questions about consciousness and the self from the perspective of a philosophically-informed neuroscientist. Highly recommended.”
—Nigel Warburton, author of A Little History of Philosophy and Philosophy
“Insightful and profound. The nature of consciousness is still one of the hardest problems in science, but Anil Seth brings us closer than ever before to the answer. This a hugely important book.”
—Jim Al-Khalili, author of The World According to Physics
“What makes you, you? What explains your consciousness and sense of self? In this remarkable and ground-breaking work, Anil Seth offers a surprising answer, rooted in the new science of the predictive brain. Compulsory reading for anyone who wants to better understand their inner ‘beast machine.’”
—Andy Clark, author of Surfing Uncertainty: Prediction, Action, and the Embodied Mind
“Seth is uniquely placed to truly advance our understanding of one of humanity’s deepest riddles.”
—Chris Anderson, Curator of TED
“The treatment of consciousness on offer is eclectic and delivered with a particular kind of generosity: it is both generous to the reader, in its earnest (and successful) attempt to lay bare the essentials of different contributions. It is generous to these contributions per se: ranging from anaesthesia—the art of turning people into objects—from information theory to the Wizards of Odds (abductive Bayesian inference), from the Beholder's Share to the free energy principle—aptly defined as there are more ways of being mush than there are of being alive. It's dénouement is a millennial take on being A Beast Machine: a potent account of embodied sentience and selfhood. An account that is rendered irresistible by Anil Seth’s gentle and inclusive arguments.”
—Karl Friston, University College London
“Anil Seth is one of the world’s leading consciousness researchers—his take on the subject is unique and refreshing, and his talks and writing always exciting, accessible, and engaging. I look forward to his book-length account concerning experience and its place in nature.”
—Christof Koch, Allen Brain Institute, author of Consciousness: Confessions of a Romantic Reductionist
“Anil Seth thinks clearly and sharply on one of the hardest problems of science and philosophy, cuts through weeds with a scientist’s mind and a storyteller’s skill.”
—Adam Rutherford, author of A Brief History of Everyone Who Ever Lived
“Anil Seth was my most anticipated guest in 2021, and our conversation was one of the highlights of the year. If you can only read one book this year, it should be Being You.”
—Ginger Campbell, MD, host of Brain Science, the world’s leading neuroscience podcast
About the Author
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
1
The Real Problem
What is consciousness?
For a conscious creature, there is something that it is like to be that creature. There is something it is like to be me, something it is like to be you, and probably something it is like to be a sheep, or a dolphin. For each of these creatures, subjective experiences are happening. It feels like something to be me. But there is almost certainly nothing it is like to be a bacterium, a blade of grass, or a toy robot. For these things, there is (presumably) never any subjective experience going on: no inner universe, no awareness, no consciousness.
This way of putting things is most closely associated with the philosopher Thomas Nagel, who in 1974 published a now legendary article called "What is it like to be a bat?" in which he argued that while we humans could never experience the experiences of a bat, there nonetheless would be something it is like for the bat, to be a bat. I've always favored Nagel's approach because it emphasizes phenomenology: the subjective properties of conscious experience, such as why a visual experience has the form, structure, and qualities that it does, as compared to the subjective properties of an emotional experience, or of an olfactory experience. In philosophy, these properties are sometimes also called qualia: the redness of red, the pang of jealousy, the sharp pain or dull throb of a toothache.
For an organism to be conscious, it has to have some kind of phenomenology for itself. Any kind of experience-any phenomenological property-counts as much as any other. Wherever there is experience, there is phenomenology; and wherever there is phenomenology, there is consciousness. A creature that comes into being only for a moment will be conscious just as long as there is something it is like to be it, even if all that's happening is a fleeting feeling of pain or pleasure.
We can usefully distinguish the phenomenological properties of consciousness from its functional and behavioral properties. These refer to the roles that consciousness may play in the operations of our minds and brains, and to the behaviors an organism is capable of, by virtue of having conscious experiences. Although the functions and behaviors associated with consciousness are important topics, they are not the best places to look for definitions. Consciousness is first and foremost about subjective experience-it is about phenomenology.
This may seem obvious, but it wasn't always so. At various times in the past, being conscious has been confused with having language, being intelligent, or exhibiting behavior of a particular kind. But consciousness does not depend on outward behavior, as is clear during dreaming and for people suffering states of total bodily paralysis. To hold that language is needed for consciousness would be to say that babies, adults who have lost language abilities, and most if not all nonhuman animals lack consciousness. And complex abstract thinking is just one small part-though possibly a distinctively human part-of being conscious.
Some prominent theories in the science of consciousness continue to emphasize function and behavior over phenomenology. Foremost among these is the "global workspace" theory, which has been developed over many years by the psychologist Bernard Baars and the neuroscientist Stanislas Dehaene, among others. According to this theory, mental content (perceptions, thoughts, emotions, and so on) becomes conscious when it gains access to a "workspace," which-anatomically speaking-is distributed across frontal and parietal regions of the cortex. (The cerebral cortex is the massively folded outer surface of the brain, made up of tightly packed neurons.) When mental content is broadcast within this cortical workspace, we are conscious of it, and it can be used to guide behavior in much more flexible ways than is the case for unconscious perception. For example, I am consciously aware of a glass of water on the table in front of me. I could pick it up and drink it, throw it over my computer (tempting), write a poem about it, or take it back into the kitchen now that I realize it's been there for days. Unconscious perception does not allow this degree of behavioral flexibility.
Another prominent theory, called "higher-order thought" theory, proposes that mental content becomes conscious when there is a "higher-level" cognitive process that is somehow oriented toward it, rendering it conscious. In this theory, consciousness is closely tied to processes like metacognition-meaning "cognition about cognition"-which again emphasizes functional properties over phenomenology (though less so than global workspace theory). Like global workspace theory, higher-order thought theories also emphasize frontal brain regions as key for consciousness.
Although these theories are interesting and influential, I won't have much more to say about either in this book. This is because they both foreground the functional and behavioral aspects of consciousness, whereas the approach I will take starts from phenomenology-from experience itself-and only from there has things to say about function and behavior.
The definition of consciousness as "any kind of subjective experience whatsoever" is admittedly simple and may even sound trivial, but this is a good thing. When a complex phenomenon is incompletely understood, prematurely precise definitions can be constraining and even misleading. The history of science has demonstrated many times over that useful definitions evolve in tandem with scientific understanding, serving as scaffolds for scientific progress, rather than as starting points, or ends in themselves. In genetics, for example, the definition of a "gene" has changed considerably as molecular biology has advanced. In the same way, as our understanding of consciousness develops, its definition-or definitions-will evolve too. If, for now, we accept that consciousness is first and foremost about phenomenology, then we can move on to the next question.
How does consciousness happen? How do conscious experiences relate to the biophysical machinery inside our brains and our bodies? How indeed do they relate to the swirl of atoms or quarks or superstrings, or to whatever it is that the entirety of our universe ultimately consists in?
The classic formulation of this question is known as the "hard problem" of consciousness. This expression was coined by the Australian philosopher David Chalmers in the early 1990s and it has set the agenda for much of consciousness science ever since. Here is how he describes it:
It is undeniable that some organisms are subjects of experience. But the question of how it is that these systems are subjects of experience is perplexing. Why is it that when our cognitive systems engage in visual and auditory information-processing, we have visual or auditory experience: the quality of deep blue, the sensation of middle C? How can we explain why there is something it is like to entertain a mental image, or to experience an emotion? It is widely agreed that experience arises from a physical basis, but we have no good explanation of why and how it so arises. Why should physical processing give rise to a rich inner life at all? It seems objectively unreasonable that it should, and yet it does.
Chalmers contrasts this hard problem of consciousness with the so-called easy problem-or easy problems-which have to do with explaining how physical systems, like brains, can give rise to any number of functional and behavioral properties. These functional properties include things like processing sensory signals, selection of actions and the control of behavior, paying attention, the generation of language, and so on. The easy problems cover all the things that beings like us can do and that can be specified in terms of a function-how an input is transformed into an output-or in terms of a behavior.
Of course, the easy problems are not easy at all. Solving them will occupy neuroscientists for decades or centuries to come. Chalmers's point is that the easy problems are easy to solve in principle, while the same cannot be said for the hard problem. More precisely, for Chalmers, there is no conceptual obstacle to easy problems eventually yielding to explanations in terms of physical mechanisms. By contrast, for the hard problem it seems as though no such explanation could ever be up to the job. (A "mechanism"-to be clear-can be defined as a system of causally interacting parts that produce effects.) Even after all the easy problems have been ticked off, one by one, the hard problem will remain untouched. "[E]ven when we have explained the performance of all the functions in the vicinity of experience-perceptual discrimination, categorization, internal access, verbal report-there may still remain a further unanswered question: Why is the performance of these functions accompanied by experience?"
The roots of the hard problem extend back to ancient Greece, perhaps even earlier, but they are particularly visible in RenŽ Descartes's seventeenth-century sundering of the universe into mind stuff, res cogitans, and matter stuff, res extensa. This distinction inaugurated the philosophy of dualism, and has made all discussions of consciousness complicated and confusing ever since. This confusion is most evident in the proliferation of different philosophical frameworks for thinking about consciousness.
Take a deep breath, here come the "isms."
My preferred philosophical position, and the default assumption of many neuroscientists, is physicalism. This is the idea that the universe is made of physical stuff, and that conscious states are either identical to, or somehow emerge from, particular arrangements of this physical stuff. Some philosophers use the term materialism instead of physicalism, but for our purposes they can be treated synonymously.
At the other extreme to physicalism is idealism. This is the idea-often associated with the eighteenth-century bishop George Berkeley-that consciousness or mind is the ultimate source of reality, not physical stuff or matter. The problem isn't how mind emerges from matter, but how matter emerges from mind.
Sitting awkwardly in the middle, dualists like Descartes believe that consciousness (mind) and physical matter are separate substances or modes of existence, raising the tricky problem of how they ever interact. Nowadays, few philosophers or scientists would explicitly sign up for this view. But for many people, at least in the West, dualism remains beguiling. The seductive intuition that conscious experiences seem nonphysical encourages a "na•ve dualism" where this "seeming" drives beliefs about how things actually are. As we'll see throughout this book, the way things seem is often a poor guide to how they actually are.
One particularly influential flavor of physicalism is functionalism. Like physicalism, functionalism is a common and often unstated assumption of many neuroscientists. Many who take physicalism for granted also take functionalism for granted. My own view, however, is to be agnostic and slightly suspicious.
Functionalism is the idea that consciousness does not depend on what a system is made of (its physical constitution), but only on what the system does, on the functions it performs, on how it transforms inputs into outputs. The intuition driving functionalism is that mind and consciousness are forms of information processing which can be implemented by brains, but for which biological brains are not strictly necessary.
Notice how the term "information processing" sneaked in here unannounced (as it also did in the quote from Chalmers a few pages back). This term is so prevalent in discussions of mind, brain, and consciousness that it's easy to let it slide by. This would be a mistake, because the suggestion that the brain "processes information" conceals some strong assumptions. Depending on who's doing the assuming, these range from the idea that the brain is some kind of computer, with mind (and consciousness) being the software (or "mindware"), to assumptions about what information itself actually is. All of these assumptions are dangerous. Brains are very different from computers, at least from the sorts of computers that we are familiar with. And the question of what information "is" is almost as vexing as the question of what consciousness is, as we'll see later on in this book. These worries are why I'm suspicious of functionalism.
Taking functionalism at face value, as many do, carries the striking implication that consciousness is something that can be simulated on a computer. Remember that for functionalists, consciousness depends only on what a system does, not on what it is made of. This means that if you get the functional relations right-if you ensure that a system has the right kind of "input-output mappings"-then this will be enough to give rise to consciousness. In other words, for functionalists, simulation means instantiation-it means coming into being, in reality.
How reasonable is this? For some things, simulation certainly counts as instantiation. A computer that plays Go, such as the world-beating AlphaGo Zero from the British artificial intelligence company DeepMind, is actually playing Go. But there are many situations where this is not the case. Think about weather forecasting. Computer simulations of weather systems, however detailed they may be, do not get wet or windy. Is consciousness more like Go or more like the weather? Don't expect an answer-there isn't one, at least not yet. It's enough to appreciate that there's a valid question here. This is why I'm agnostic about functionalism.
There are two more "isms," then we're done.
The first is panpsychism. Panpsychism is the idea that consciousness is a fundamental property of the universe, alongside other fundamental properties such as mass/energy and charge; that it is present to some degree everywhere and in everything. People sometimes make fun of panpsychism for claiming things like stones and spoons are conscious in the same sort of way that you or I are, but these are usually deliberate misconstruals designed to make it look silly. There are more sophisticated versions of the idea, some of which we will meet in later chapters, but the main problems with panpsychism don't lie with its apparent craziness-after all, some crazy ideas turn out to be true, or at least useful. The main problems are that it doesn't really explain anything and that it doesn't lead to testable hypotheses. It's an easy get-out to the apparent mystery posed by the hard problem, and taking it on ushers the science of consciousness down an empirical dead end.
Finally, there's mysterianism, which is associated with the philosopher Colin McGinn. Mysterianism is the idea that there may exist a complete physical explanation of consciousness-a full solution to Chalmers's hard problem-but that we humans just aren't clever enough, and never will be clever enough, to discover this solution, or even to recognize a solution if it were presented to us
by super-smart aliens. A physical understanding of consciousness exists, but it lies as far beyond us as an understanding of cryptocurrency lies beyond frogs. It is cognitively closed to us by our species-specific mental limitations.
What can be said about mysterianism? There may well be things we will never understand, thanks to the limitations of our brains and minds. Already, no single person is able to fully comprehend how an Airbus A380 works. (And yet I'm happy to sit in one, as I did one time on the way home from Dubai.) There are certainly things which remain cognitively inaccessible to most of us, even if they are understandable by humans in principle, like the finer points of string theory in physics. Since brains are physical systems with finite resources, and since some brains seem incapable of understanding some things, it seems inescapable that there must be some things which are the case, but which no human could ever understand. However, it is unjustifiably pessimistic to preemptively include consciousness within this uncharted domain of species-specific ignorance.
Product details
- Publisher : Dutton; First Edition (October 19, 2021)
- Language : English
- Hardcover : 352 pages
- ISBN-10 : 1524742872
- ISBN-13 : 978-1524742874
- Item Weight : 1.25 pounds
- Dimensions : 6.2 x 1.2 x 9.29 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #31,276 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #29 in Cognitive Neuroscience & Neuropsychology
- #65 in Medical Cognitive Psychology
- #132 in Cognitive Psychology (Books)
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About the author
Anil Seth is a neuroscientist, author, and public speaker who has pioneered research into the brain basis of consciousness for more than twenty years. He is the author of Being You: A New Science of Consciousness (September 2021) - a Sunday Times Top 10 bestseller and a Book of the Year for many listings. He also authored the best-selling 30 Second Brain. His 2017 TED talk on consciousness has been viewed more than fourteen million times, he has appeared in several films (The Most Unknown, The Search), and he has written for Aeon, The Guardian, Granta, New Scientist, and Scientific American. In 2023 he was awarded the Royal Society Michael Faraday Prize for his contributions to communicating advances in neuroscience and consciousness, and what it means to be human. He has published more than 200 academic apers and is has since 2019 been listed in the Web of Science ‘highly cited researcher’ index, which recognizes the world’s most influential researchers over the past decade.
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Customers find the book insightful and meaningful, providing great examples of current research in consciousness studies. They describe it as well-written, easy to read, and a must-read for anyone interested in consciousness. However, some customers have reported missing pages.
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Customers find the book insightful and lucid, providing an honest and systematic overview of various topics in consciousness studies. They find it meaningful and well-constructed, explaining complex and novel ideas in a clear manner. The book has a holistic approach that resonates with life experiences.
"...He also does a wonderful job at constructing the current philosophy around the issues of qualia subjective experience and "what it's like" to be YOU...." Read more
"...While this approach is more grounded in objective, measurable phenomena than, say, Integrated Information Theory, it ultimately falls prey to the..." Read more
"This is a great book on consciousness however the printing is faulty. My book has multiple pages missing and or incorrectly paged...." Read more
"...But it still is beautiful and meaningful. At least, it hints of mysteries that maybe ione day we will solve." Read more
Customers find the book well-written and easy to read. They appreciate the lucid scientific writing and consider it a must-read for anyone interested in consciousness.
"Anil Seth's "Being You" is a triumph of lucid scientific writing...." Read more
"I loved this book, both for the beauty of its writing, and the bravery of its author to challenge conventions...." Read more
"Interesting book that is coherent and easy to read." Read more
"...read through the entire book, I have to say that the first few chapters are unreadable for that matter, and the index is not helpful because of the..." Read more
Customers are unhappy with the missing pages in the book. They mention that the book has multiple missing pages, incorrectly paged pages, and sections missing. Some say 10% of the material is missing.
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"...In addition to missing pages, there are duplication of pages and page insertions completely out of order: ・next to page 22 is page 87 (!?),..." Read more
"...Many of the pages are not in consecutive order and pages are missing or hard to locate. It is not readable..." Read more
"...Then on page 118 it goes back to page 55. 33 pages gone. I’m still going read it but I’m disappointed that I missed out on the first two chapters." Read more
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One of my top two favorite books on the science of human consciousness.
Top reviews from the United States
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- Reviewed in the United States on August 5, 2023I really like this authors approach To The Mystery of consciousness. A lot of people seem to hold rather fixed assumptions the author is careful to point out how these assumptions most often mask as much as they contribute to science. He gives a positive affirmation towards the issue of the hard problems of Consciousness David Chalmers laid out in the 1990s. He's not so hasty to throw in this out as it is the most salient feature of our experience more so than reality it's self. But be that as it may he uses a very pragmatic approach and consider the possibility that Consciousness can be one of many different aspects which may be amendable to the scientific method. He also does a wonderful job at constructing the current philosophy around the issues of qualia subjective experience and "what it's like" to be YOU. He believes like other phenomena and other questions in science Consciousness may be analogous to the mysteries of temperature and the Very definition of living things all of which eventually become understood in surprising new ways through the use of measurement.
He treats the issues of measurement very carefully in his book since this is the basis of science and our ability to quantify phenomena has had a rather successful track record in solving what was previously a mystery.
I do appreciate his approach on the conceivability argument and the thought experiment using the philosophical zombie he's definitely changed my perspective on that key topic.
I would put this book right alongside the conscious mind by David Chalmers they both compliment each other and they build upon an understanding of the issue of consciousness that is accessible yet weighty.
5.0 out of 5 stars One of my top two favorite books on the science of human consciousness.I really like this authors approach To The Mystery of consciousness. A lot of people seem to hold rather fixed assumptions the author is careful to point out how these assumptions most often mask as much as they contribute to science. He gives a positive affirmation towards the issue of the hard problems of Consciousness David Chalmers laid out in the 1990s. He's not so hasty to throw in this out as it is the most salient feature of our experience more so than reality it's self. But be that as it may he uses a very pragmatic approach and consider the possibility that Consciousness can be one of many different aspects which may be amendable to the scientific method. He also does a wonderful job at constructing the current philosophy around the issues of qualia subjective experience and "what it's like" to be YOU. He believes like other phenomena and other questions in science Consciousness may be analogous to the mysteries of temperature and the Very definition of living things all of which eventually become understood in surprising new ways through the use of measurement.
Reviewed in the United States on August 5, 2023
He treats the issues of measurement very carefully in his book since this is the basis of science and our ability to quantify phenomena has had a rather successful track record in solving what was previously a mystery.
I do appreciate his approach on the conceivability argument and the thought experiment using the philosophical zombie he's definitely changed my perspective on that key topic.
I would put this book right alongside the conscious mind by David Chalmers they both compliment each other and they build upon an understanding of the issue of consciousness that is accessible yet weighty.
Images in this review - Reviewed in the United States on May 13, 2024Anil Seth's "Being You" is a triumph of lucid scientific writing. He tackles the age-old question of consciousness with clarity and a refreshing directness. Unlike many academics, Seth doesn't shy away from providing conclusions, albeit tentative ones, which makes the book both thought-provoking and accessible to a wider audience.
The author’s central thesis - that our conscious experience is a kind of "controlled hallucination" constructed by our brains - is novel, even if not immediately intuitive. The framework rests on the theory of Predictive Processing, which posits that our brains are constantly generating predictions about the world based on prior experiences and incoming sensory data. Consciousness, as per this theory, arises from the brain's efforts to minimize "free energy," the discrepancy between its predictions and the actual sensory input. In essence, we are continuously striving to make sense of the world by refining our internal model of reality.
While this approach is more grounded in objective, measurable phenomena than, say, Integrated Information Theory, it ultimately falls prey to the same unfalsifiable claims. The very concept of "free energy" hinges on elusive notions of "predictions" and "expectations" that are inherently subjective and difficult to quantify. How do we accurately measure the gap between prediction and reality within the brain? Without a concrete means of measuring these variables, Predictive Processing, despite its elegance, risks becoming another subjective explanation with limited practical utility.
Furthermore, as our understanding of the brain advances, with increasingly sophisticated neural mapping techniques, any single-measure definition of consciousness is likely to fall short. We will inevitably face a future where machines surpass any predetermined threshold we set for consciousness, rendering our definitions unacceptable to everyone who would want to keep humanity as something unique. As we delve deeper into the intricate signal-processing mechanisms of the brain, theoretical frameworks like Predictive Processing will face mounting challenges, with each new discovery potentially exposing flaws in their assumptions.
Ultimately, our psychological need for a fixed definition of consciousness - something to cling to as machines outpace us in cognitive abilities, just as they did in physical prowess - may force us to keep shifting the definition to ensure we keep calling ourselves superior.
- Reviewed in the United States on August 31, 2023This is a great book on consciousness however the printing is faulty. My book has multiple pages missing and or incorrectly paged. It makes using the index impossible and is frustrating not knowing if information is missing. Amazon has refused to replace the book with a correctly paged volume.
- Reviewed in the United States on October 10, 2022It took me a very long time to get through this book. Perhaps, I didn't really get through it. It certainly opens up a lot of disturbing and different perspectives on our place in the universe that most of us have been living with for our whole lives. But it is a chance to come to grips with what some sophisticated scientists are suggesting makes us tick. I can't fully accept that our consciousness is merely a big hallucination designed to keep us focused on survival. I am left with the confidence that the master design of life is still not known or perhaps knowable. But it still is beautiful and meaningful. At least, it hints of mysteries that maybe ione day we will solve.
- Reviewed in the United States on July 25, 2024Used book was listed as "Very good condition. Clean, bright cover and pages with no writing or marks inside." It indeed is like new, literally, and was very protectively wrapped. Arrived days ahead of promised time. It even includes a cutout newspaper review of the book folded inside. I am delighted and thank you so much!!! Hugely recommend!!
Top reviews from other countries
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Jose Hurtado RamirezReviewed in Mexico on December 21, 2023
5.0 out of 5 stars Excelente libro
Me llegó muy bien
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VarantesReviewed in Brazil on March 22, 2022
5.0 out of 5 stars Alucinação controlada - revolução copernicana nas teorias da Consciência
A alucinação controlada é o grande modelo sobre a consciência apresentado aqui. Outros modelos também são abordados e explicados de forma bastante compreensível. Não encontrei aqui um texto fluido, com toques de domínio da escrita e do uso palavra, como por vezes encontramos em outros livros de temática técnico-científicas. Mas é absolutamente fascinante entrar em contato com ideias tão incomuns para teorizar sobre nossos pensamentos, nossa mente.
- mlepageReviewed in Canada on March 12, 2022
5.0 out of 5 stars Intriguing and well-written
I came across this book via Anil Seth's 1 hr lecture on YouTube for the Royal Institution, covering the same material. I'm glad I purchased it for the greater depth afforded by the written work. I do agree with most of Anil's views, but even so, they are well explained and considered, so I think it's worth reading even if your views differ. (After all, we have no definite answers on the topic!) The core idea (clumsily summarized here by me) of the self as a constructed hallucination for controlling the body is intriguing. Consciousness, and self-consciousness, is one of the great mysteries and I'm glad talented thinkers are tackling the hard problem in practical ways.
- FunOneReviewed in the United Kingdom on December 26, 2024
5.0 out of 5 stars deep insights and excellent explication
Fascinating and informative. Told as a coherent story deeply rooted in thorough research. Explains the nature and origins of consciousness. Has provided me with a scaffold for my own research into modelling and its requirements for efficacy and efficiency. Bravo!
- Nisarg SutariaReviewed in India on October 18, 2024
5.0 out of 5 stars Awesome Book :-)
Really Wonderful :-)