Journey of the Mind
How Thinking Emerged from Chaos
21 March 2023
Description
Two neuroscientists trace a sweeping new vision of consciousness across eighteen increasingly intelligent minds, from microbes to humankind and beyond
Why do minds exist? How did mud and stone develop into beings that can experience longing, regret, love and compassion—beings that are aware of their own experience? Until recently, science offered few answers to these existential questions. Journey of the Mind is the first book to offer a unified account of the mind that explains how consciousness, language, the Self and civilisation emerged incrementally out of chaos.
The journey begins three billion years ago with the emergence of the simplest possible mind, a nanoscopic archaeon, then ascends through amoebas, worms, frogs, birds, monkeys and AI, examining successively smarter ways of thinking. The authors explain the mathematical principles generating conscious experience and show how these principles led cities and democratic nations to develop new forms of consciousness—the self-aware “superminds”. Journey of the Mind concludes by contemplating a higher stage of consciousness already emerging—and the ultimate fate of all minds in the universe.
Reviews
"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." — William Rice, Washington Independent Review of Books
"Every page of Journey of the Mind is packed with fascinating insight. This is a brilliant book that will change the way you think about thinking." — David Epstein, best-selling author of Range and The Sports Gene
"What Sapiens did for our understanding of the evolution of the human race, Journey of The Mind has done for the evolution of complex thought and consciousness itself." — Annie Duke, winner of the World Series of Poker Tournament of Champions and best-selling author of How to Decide
"This enthralling book charts a quantum leap from the prebiotic universe to sentience and selfhood. This is an accessible, eclectic and enlightening book that—once read—is difficult to stop thinking about." — Karl Friston, University College London, ranked by Semantic Scholar as the most influential neuroscientist in the world
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