Two neuroscientists reveal why consciousness exists and how it works by examining eighteen increasingly intelligent minds, from microbes to humankind--and beyond.
... a jarring accomplishment. It’s a heroic attempt to explicate the essential nature of thinking that overturns assumptions, pricks human pride, and maybe even puts a scare into the reader. It’s also an energetic exposition that begins as a biology lesson and winds up offering an evolutionary argument for kindness. It will almost surely change your mind about the mind. ... The authors are two scientists — Ogi Ogas and Sai Gaddam — who succeed in making complex ideas accessible to the general public ... The book is full of startling, delightful insights.
The narrative is enjoyable and illuminating, but it is flawed by a failure to separate fact from speculation ... The book offers an admirable survey of how minds might comprise modules that control simple operations, which are combined to solve complex problems of survival ... Many assertions go beyond the facts ... Ogas and Gaddam jump the gun, in my view, when they suggest that Grossberg has all the answers ... The authors deploy some unedifying metaphors to tell their tale ... There is plenty to like in Journey of the Mind. It is so often informative and entertaining that it feels mean to cavil. But the book exemplifies a persistent problem in popular science, in which pet theories are presented with too much confidence and too little context. Readers deserve the full picture — less definitive and satisfying, perhaps, but ultimately more honest and illuminating.
... fascinating ... Their descriptive language is sharp and engaging, and the easy-to-understand illustrations demonstrate the concepts underpinning evolving conscious experience ... Though the authors don’t skimp on their analysis, that demystification may leave some readers wanting. Nonetheless, Ogas and Gaddam imbue every detail with awe and enthusiasm, a reminder to readers that the very science underpinning their theories is only possible because of the wondrous machinations of the human mind itself, a mind that likely has not reached its apotheosis ... Packed with insight and astonishing in scope, this book offers an original perspective on thinking and consciousness.
