IRB Media

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book. Book Preview: 

#1 We all have an automatic, gut intuition that something has a mind, and we attribute consciousness to objects and people. The ancients believed that trees and rivers were sentient, and children perceive consciousness in their favorite toys.

#2 The brain constructs internal models, which are rich packets of information that represent important items and aspects of the self. The brain’s model-based knowledge is what allows us to understand and monitor our own internal abilities.

#3 The act of being conscious is not the same as the material of which you are conscious. We can store and retrieve memory, make decisions, and even experience color, shape, and size. But these things do not make us conscious.

#4 The rise of computer technology has revealed the distinction between the content of consciousness, which is well understood at an engineering level, and the act of being conscious of it. The fundamental mystery is the bucket itself. What is consciousness made of. How can something enter it, what is gained by entering it, and why do so few items in the brain end up there.

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