Being You
A New Science of Consciousness
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3.9 • 9 Ratings
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- $18.99
Publisher Description
INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER
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.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Seth (Eye Benders), professor of neuroscience at the University of Sussex, takes on the prodigious task of defining consciousness and explaining its origins in this intense survey. His goal is "to understand how the inner universe of subjective experience relates to, and can be explained in terms of, biological and physical processes unfolding in brains and bodies." To that end, he breaks down the neuroscience, psychology, and a hefty dose of philosophy, as well as his own research, to conclude that rather than perceiving reality, "we're all hallucinating all the time. It's just that when we agree about our hallucinations, that's what we call reality." Consciousness is all about human bodies, in an attempt to survive, using their senses to predict how the world is constructed and likely to change; he argues he thus views perception as a creative act. Seth explores consciousness in nonhuman animals (they have it, he writes: "consciousness has more to do with being alive than with being intelligent") and the probability that it might arise via artificial intelligence, a prospect that he deems unlikely. A slew of terms and theories are introduced that may be difficult to get through for readers without a neuroscience background. But those who stay the course will find much to consider.
