Conscious

An exploration of consciousness, neuroscience, and philosophy.

I was expecting this book to go over my head after hearing the author as a guest speaker on her husband’s podcast. Instead, it begins with simple ideas and she explains things incredibly well as it goes on. Mycorrhizal networks, qualia, binding processes, toxoplasma, and panpsychism are introduced and explained for anyone to understand. This may not be interesting to readers familiar with this area of study, but for an outsider it was great.

She explores different possible resolutions to finding consciousness, and discusses brain-based and panpsychic possibilities. One of the main questions seemed to be how deep consciousness runs in nature. She also emphasizes the importance of further understanding as AI advances and the lines between us and AI become blurred. She suggests creating new branches of study in consciousness, similar to branches of physics. This is a short, enjoyable, and important book.

The acknowledgements at the end are great. So many different people are mentioned and thanked.