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Anil Seth

Professor of Cognitive and Computational Neuroscience at the University of Sussex and author of Being You.

12 things

The Ego TunnelBook Thomas Metzinger

loved

Metzinger has also written a trade book called The Ego Tunnel, which is a shorter, more accessible account of the same core ideas. It's from 2009, so it's been around a while, but it's a really wonderful book.

Five Books interview on the neuroscience of consciousness

2021-09-11·fivebooks.com ↗

Klara and the Sun: A NovelBook Kazuo Ishiguro

loved

Klara and the Sun is an absolutely remarkable example of how to develop this understanding.

Five Books interview on the neuroscience of consciousness

2021-09-11·fivebooks.com ↗

Never Let Me GoBook Kazuo Ishiguro

loved

I loved his Never Let Me Go, which I thought was beautifully delicate and raw and powerful.

Five Books interview on the neuroscience of consciousness

2021-09-11·fivebooks.com ↗

Other MindsBook Peter Godfrey-Smith

loved

There's a book, which isn't in the five I've chosen (though it could well have been), Peter Godfrey Smith's Other Minds, which I think is a beautiful exploration of other minds.

Five Books interview on the neuroscience of consciousness

2021-09-11·fivebooks.com ↗

The Feeling of Life ItselfBook Christof Koch

liked

His book, The Feeling of Life Itself, is a very accessible, authoritative and up-to-date manifesto for IIT.

Five Books interview on the neuroscience of consciousness

2021-09-11·fivebooks.com ↗

Consciousness ExplainedBook Daniel Dennett

recommended

This book has been a massive influence on me, as has Dennett himself, throughout my career.

Five Books interview on the neuroscience of consciousness

2021-09-11·fivebooks.com ↗

The Mechanization of the MindBook Jean-Pierre Dupuy

recommended

Dupuy's book relates all this and much more, and it does so in a beautifully written and admirably concise way.

Five Books interview on the neuroscience of consciousness

2021-09-11·fivebooks.com ↗

Consciousness: How Matter Becomes ImaginationBook Gerald Edelman & Giulio Tononi

recommended

This book takes a different route and that's why I found it hugely influential and interesting when I read it back in 2000. It was co- authored by Edelman and Giulio Tononi.

Five Books interview on the neuroscience of consciousness

2021-09-11·fivebooks.com ↗

Descartes' ErrorBook Antonio Damasio

recommended

Another book I wanted to mention in this context is a fairly obvious choice, Antonio Damasio's Descartes' Error, which is a foundational book about the self, in particular because it reconnects emotion with rationality and the body.

Five Books interview on the neuroscience of consciousness

2021-09-11·fivebooks.com ↗

How Emotions are MadeBook Lisa Feldman Barrett

recommended

Then, finally, there is Lisa Feldman Barrett's How Emotions are Made, which is very recent and very up to date.

Five Books interview on the neuroscience of consciousness

2021-09-11·fivebooks.com ↗

The Mechanical Mind in HistoryBook Philip Husbands & Owen Holland

recommended

There are a couple of other books I'd have loved to have included here. My PhD supervisor, Phil Husbands, and Owen Holland, have a recent book called The Mechanical Mind in History

Five Books interview on the neuroscience of consciousness

2021-09-11·fivebooks.com ↗

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