Consciousness and Science Fiction

by Damien Broderick

Overview

Science fiction explores the wonderful, baffling and wildly entertaining aspects of a universe unimaginably old and vast, and with a future even more immense. It reaches into that endless cosmos with the tools of rational investigation and storytelling. At the core of both science and science fiction is the engaged human mind--a consciousness that sees and feels and thinks and loves. But what is this mind, this aware and self-aware consciousness that seems unlike anything else we experience? What makes consciousness the Hard Problem of philosophy, still unsolved after millennia of probing? This book looks into the heart of this mystery - at the science and philosophy of consciousness and at many inspiring fictional examples - and finds strange, challenging answers.

The book's content and entertaining style will appeal equally to science fiction enthusiasts and scholars, including cognitive and neuroscientists, as well as philosophers of mind. It is a refreshing romp through the science and science fiction of consciousness.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9783030005993
Publisher:	Springer-Verlag New York, LLC
Publication date:	11/30/2018
Series:	Science and Fiction
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	1 MB

About the Author

Damien Broderick, PhD, is an award-winning science fiction and science writer, editor and critic who has published more than 70 books. He has received the Distinguished Scholarship Award of the International Association for the Fantastic in the Arts. A former Senior Fellow in the School of Culture and Communication at the University of Melbourne, Australia, and founding science fiction editor of Cosmos magazine, he now lives in Texas. 

Table of Contents

Preface.- The Machine in the Ghost.- The Language of the Mind.- What Is It Like to Be a Consciuos SF Writer?.- The First Century-Plus.- The Second Golden Age.- Entering the Mainstream.- Radically Different Minds.- L'Être et le néant.- Minds on Fire.- Transcending.- Waking up Different.

 

 

Editorial Reviews

Broderick’s assessments are never less than stimulating, combining just enough intellectual and narrative scene-setting to draw focus on each author’s approach to imagining the consciousness of something Other. … Consciousness and Science Fiction is well worth the price of entry.” (Cosmos, cosmosmagazine.com, May 25, 2019)

From the Publisher