Publishers Weekly
06/20/2022
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. (Oct.)
From the Publisher
"Intriguing...impressively rich. This is bursting with insight." —Publishers Weekly
“An exploration of the possibilities of consciousness. . .investigations recall Oliver Sacks. . . Mixing science, metaphors, and philosophy, House provides elegant frameworks for ways to think about thinking.” —Kirkus Reviews
“The compressions and elisions of ‘Nineteen Ways of Looking at Consciousness’ are sometimes exhilarating and at other times exasperating, but this stylish, witty and insightful introduction to a frustrating discipline whets the appetite for more.” —The Wall Street Journal
"Neuroscientist Patrick House. . . sketches an outline for how we might look at who we are from the inside out through wittily rendered observations plucked from neuroscience, quantum mechanics, and beyond. . . As befits a phenomenon that still evades a unifying theory, House's collage forms a picture of our minds that is far more nuanced, and more perplexing, than the sum of its parts." — Scientific American
"House shows great ability as he translates these complex ideas - philosophical, neurophysiological, and evolutionary - into simple language . . . an informative read that makes us look at ourselves and the human mind in a series of fascinating ways." — New Scientist
"House is a pleasure to read. Like Oliver Sacks . . . [he] distills the details of psychiatry and neurology into digestible forms." —Los Angeles Review of Books
"In Nineteen Ways of Looking at Consciousness, Patrick House explores intensely interesting, beautifully provocative ideas about the neurobiology of consciousness. In addition to being an intellectual pleasure, this is an aesthetic one as well – House writes like a dream, with great drollness and elegance of phrase. This book is a gem."
—Robert Sapolsky, New York Times bestselling author of Behave and Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers
"A highly unusual but brilliant book...with a distinct voice that is fiercely unique."
—Christof Koch, president and chief scientist, Allen Institute for Brain Science and author of The Feeling of Life Itself and Consciousness
Kirkus Reviews
2022-06-30
An exploration of the possibilities of consciousness.
House, a neuroscientist whose research focuses on the nature of free will, tackles a knotty subject in a series of essays on the latest science in the field. He also uses extended anecdotes that put complex concepts into accessible terms even while acknowledging that there are no easy answers in the study of consciousness. Consider different translations of a poem: Each has something relevant to say, but none can entirely capture the essence. House repeatedly returns to a case in which a woman was undergoing brain surgery to address epilepsy. At one point, the surgeons touched a part of the brain that made her laugh. Did this indicate that emotional responses are simply an aspect of the physical matter inside our skulls? In another essay, House discusses his interviews with a man who had a substantial part of his brain removed to get to a tumor, yet he seemed unaffected aside from finding it more difficult to play the piano. The author, whose investigations recall Oliver Sacks, also digs into processes of learning: Is the human mind a learning machine, and did the learning process begin when a certain level of environmental awareness was necessary for survival? Did it develop through stages to its current level? Does it simply absorb sensory inputs, editing out useless or redundant material? House makes an interesting detour to wonder if a society of blind people could deduce the existence of the moon, while other essays look at the functioning of memory and prediction, which takes up a remarkable amount of the brain’s capacity. There is also a theory that consciousness links to movement, which is one of the most essential, if often unconscious, aspects of brain function. Though the author occasionally gets lost in his own musings, he offers readers plenty of fascinating questions about the brain, the mind, and the soul.
Mixing science, metaphors, and philosophy, House provides elegant frameworks for ways to think about thinking.
