Being You

This multi-award-winning book is yet another addition to the confusing but vibrant field of consciousness studies. There are too many of these books, and I nearly didn’t persevere, but after a slow start (yeah, yeah, the ‘hard problem’ etc.), it got really interesting.

I don’t think he has really given us a radical new theory of consciousness,’ but I love his ‘Beast theory’ of being human. We are beasts through and through but concoct models of self that make us out to be something much more exotic than a bundle of neurally encoded predictions that serve to keep our bodies… show more.

I have been suspicious about the construct of consciousness, thinking that it was not scientifically tractable. This book changed my mind. It is written by a hard-core neuroscientist who turned my mental world upside down by showing that perception, both external and internal, is not an inner representation of reality. Perception relies on Bayesian predictions (best guesses) leading to ‘controlled hallucinations’ (including your sense of self!) rather than recreating reality. Consciousness is the ‘red pill’ that allows us to break out of the Matrix. Check out his TED talk with 12 million views.