Nineteen Ways of Looking at Consciousness
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3.2 • 6 Ratings
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- $12.99
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
A concise, elegant, and thought-provoking exploration of the mystery of consciousness and the functioning of the brain.
Despite decades of research, remarkable imagery, and insights from a range of scientific and medical disciplines, the human brain remains largely unexplored. Consciousness has eluded explanation.
Nineteen Ways of Looking at Consciousness offers a brilliant overview of the state of modern consciousness research in twenty brief, revealing chapters. Neuroscientist and author Patrick House describes complex concepts in accessible terms, weaving brain science, technology, gaming, analogy, and philosophy into a tapestry that illuminates how the brain works and what enables consciousness. This remarkable book fosters a sense of mystery and wonder about the strangeness of the relationship between our inner selves and our environment.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Neuroscientist House debuts with a quirky "collection of possible mechanisms, histories, observations, data, and theories of consciousness" modeled on the the 1987 book Nineteen Ways of Looking at Wang Wei. While the author expertly explores the evolution of the brain and the biological processes that underlie consciousness, he posits neither a definition nor a theory of consciousness. Instead, he offers 19 pieces that take different tacks in examining the topic. "Like the Rise and Fall of Pinball" compares consciousness to the arcade game, as "pinball machines were forced to evolve into both story and storyteller as, once, the brain did too, en route to consciousness." "The Music While the Music Lasts," meanwhile, compares it to a bowl with 86 billion fish, where ripples in the water are like the "ripples of electrical activity across the surface of the brain's cells" that "cause" consciousness. "An Itsy-Bitsy Teeny-Weeny Quantum-Dot-like Non-Machiney" explores the implications of a 1990 neurosurgery experiment in which a spot on a teenager's brain was electrically stimulated as she looked at a picture of a horse and she laughed, prompting House to wonder: "Are we fully determined? Was Anna, in her responses?" Though the conceit can feel forced at times, House's observations are intriguing, and the short essays are impressively rich. This is bursting with insight.
Customer Reviews
Not a good read
Poorly written.