Your Conscious Mind: Unravelling the greatest mystery of the human brain

by New Scientist

Overview

What is consciousness? Is it real or just an illusion? And how does it work?

What is this strange mental world that seems so essential to being human? The conscious mind brings together sensations, perceptions, thoughts and memories to generate the seamless movie of a person's life. It makes us aware of the world around us and our own self. How all this emerges from a kilogram of brain cells is one of the greatest unanswered questions.

In Your Conscious Mind leading brain scientists and New Scientist take you on a journey through the mind to discover what consciousness really is, and what we can learn when it goes awry. Find out if we will ever build conscious machines, what animal consciousness can tell us about being human and explore the enigma of free will.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781473658615
Publisher:	Quercus
Publication date:	11/07/2017
Series:	Instant Expert
Sold by:	Hachette Digital, Inc.
Format:	eBook
File size:	3 MB

About the Author

Since the first magazine was published in 1956, New Scientist has established a worldbeating reputation for exploring and uncovering the latest developments and discoveries in science and technology, placing them in context and exploring what they mean for the future.

Each week through a variety of different channels, including print, online, social media and more, New Scientist reaches over four million highly engaged readers - over a million readers for the print magazine alone.

Table of Contents

Series introduction vii

Contributors ix

Introduction xiii

1 An introduction to the hard problem of consciousness 1

2 The biological basis of consciousness 9

3 What does it all mean? 37

4 Freewill 53

5 Disorders of consciousness 67

6 Conscious machines 87

7 Altered states 101

8 Losing it 129

9 The unconscious mind 151

10 Animal consciousness 165

11 Messing with consciousness 185

Conclusion 195

Fifty ideas 199

Picture credits 213

Index 217