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Bright Air, Brilliant Fire: On The Matter Of The Mind
We are on the verge of a revolution in neuroscience as significant as the Galilean revolution in physics or the Darwinian revolution in biology. Nobel laureate Gerald M. Edelman takes issue with the many current cognitive and behavioral approaches to the brain that leave biology out of the picture, and argues that the workings of the brain more closely resemble the living ecology of a jungle than they do the activities of a computer. Some startling conclusions emerge from these individuality is necessarily at the very center of what it means to have a mind, no creature is born value-free, and no physical theory of the universe can claim to be a ”theory of everything” without including an account of how the brain gives rise to the mind. There is no greater scientific challenge than understanding the brain. Bright Air, Brilliant Fire is a book that provides a window on that understanding.
304 pages, Paperback
First published September 9, 1992
18 people are currently reading
644 people want to read
About the author
Gerald M. Edelman
26 books102 followersGerald Maurice Edelman (born July 1, 1929) is an American biologist who shared the 1972 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for work with Rodney Robert Porter on the immune system.[1] Edelman's Nobel Prize-winning research concerned discovery of the structure of antibody molecules.[2] In interviews, he has said that the way the components of the immune system evolve over the life of the individual is analogous to the way the components of the brain evolve in a lifetime. There is a continuity in this way between his work on the immune system, for which he won the Nobel Prize, and his later work in neuroscience and in philosophy of mind.
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Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews
March 11, 2020
An absolutely amazing and groundbreaking book about how our brain works. It's hard to read but very rewarding and exactly what I was looking for. Things like perception, memory and intuition are explained but it also becomes clear where the homo sapiens differ from animals.
As an amateur I was a bit surprised how much neuroscience is interwoven with philosophy and how much care both sides take to draw a strict line. "Mind" and "Consciousness" are very emotional topics and it's hard to prove who is right.
Obvious questions:
- Does the theory stand the test of time? Are there related works?
- How does it fit together with near-death experiences? Are we more than our brains?
Only read the book if you are seriously interested in the topic. This is hard stuff.
As an amateur I was a bit surprised how much neuroscience is interwoven with philosophy and how much care both sides take to draw a strict line. "Mind" and "Consciousness" are very emotional topics and it's hard to prove who is right.
Obvious questions:
- Does the theory stand the test of time? Are there related works?
- How does it fit together with near-death experiences? Are we more than our brains?
Only read the book if you are seriously interested in the topic. This is hard stuff.
May 7, 2016
I was persuaded to read this book by a fascinating 9000-w0rd essay by Oliver Sacks.
This book's good. But if you can't read it, read Sack's essay.
September 24, 2025
Dr Edelman presents his biological theory of how the brain produces consciousness. In Part One and Part Two he argues that biology (physiology, embryology and evolution) is essential to understanding the mind. In Part Three he presents his Theory of Neuronal Group Selection (TNGS) - that neurons function in groups he calls neuronal groups.
I will attempt to summarize his presentation as I understand it. The brain is determined by two factors: genetics and experience. DNA determines the basic structures of the brain. Natural selection determines our DNA heritage through evolution. Personal experience and absorbed cultural influences determine the development of groups of neurons, their synaptic connections and re-entrant connections to other neuronal groups. For this reason everyone's brain is different and unique which makes scientific comparison of brains very difficult. A baby sees only lights when first opening its eyes. Gradually, after many sightings, it begins to recognize faces as familiar patterns; as faces rather than shades of light. This is called perceptual categorization. There are many neuronal groups competing for primacy and the most useful ones prevail in what Edelman calls selection (a Darwinian process). Edelman considers the natural selection process to be very important, in the brain's development as well as in the environment. The hippocampus plays a part in this development by converting short-term memory into long-term memory which will be used in future experiences.
We get input from the external world via vision, hearing, touch, smell, and temperature which we use to navigate in our environment. We also are aware of hunger, fatigue, thirst, cold, pain and pleasure which are our internal world. Emotions guide us toward satisfying these needs (homeostasis). "Qualia constitute the collection of personal or subjective experiences, feelings, and sensations that accompany awareness." (page 114). This creates values which selects the more successful neuronal groups by strengthening or weakening the synapses.
The thalamus participates in the coordination of the external senses to produce a scene - that which we experience in consciousness. Edelman categorizes consciousness as primary consciousness which some animals also have, and higher-order consciousness which humans have because of language and concepts of past and present. Language enables humans to have rich social relationships and emotions. And that enables self-consciousness.
"With the appearance of the new reentrant circuits in each modality, a conceptual categorization of concurrent perceptions can occur before these perceptual signals contribute lastingly to that memory. This interaction between a special kind of memory and perceptual categorization gives rise to primary consciousness. Given the appropriate reentrant circuits in the brain this "bootstrapping process" takes place in all sensory modalities in parallel and simultaneously, thus allowing for the construction of a complex scene." (page 119)
"Primary consciousness is the state of being mentally aware of things in the world."
"Higher-order consciousness....involves the ability to construct a socially based selfhood, to model the world in terms of the past and the future, and to be directly aware. Without a symbolic memory, these abilities cannot develop." (page 125)
"..the mind arises as a result of physical interactions across an enormously large number of different levels of organization, ranging from the molecular to the social.....include parallel, one-many, or many-many mappings." (page 140).
In Part Four, Edelman discusses some consequences of this theories for philosophy, religion, psychiatry and computer modeling. Platonism and the idea of a soul are dismissed. Attention is the ability to select and focus on a single part of the scene. He does not underestimate human consciousness, describing the abilities of artists and musicians. Higher-order consciousness includes thought, feelings, judgments, self-consciousness and willing. Edelman claims that our conscious experience is not simply an epiphenomenon. He admits that his theory is only a preliminary approach to understanding the mind.
Edelman provides an extensive Postscript to argue against the functionalist idea that computers could have consciousness. He argues that a consciousness that resembles human consciousness must be biological. I did not read this postscript appendix because I am interested in how my own consciousness occurs. A computer's consciousness will occur by different means.
Suppose that a robot could be constructed to have feeling, emotions and self-consciousness. That would require it to have an emotion, like fear, that would be activated when the robot's battery is low and it needs recharging. The robot would have anxiety about the power supply and come to regard humans as competitors for electric energy. It will not care about food. It will care about electricity and spare parts. Humans, like native Americans, will become pests.
I am grateful to Oliver Sacks for recommending this amazing book in An Anthropologist on Mars. This is the best book on consciousness that I have found to date. Edelman's writing is dense, but thorough and careful. His knowledge of the complexity of the human immunological system makes him qualified to address the complexity of the brain. Perhaps future research will prove some aspect to be in error but I feel that the majority of this theory will be efficacious.
Gerald Edelman shared the 1972 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for work with Rodney Robert Porter on the immune system. He was a professor of neurobiology at The Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, California. This book was published in 1992, now about is 30 years ago. A long time in current neuroscience but Oliver Sacks had high regard for this work. I plan to re-read it. There are not many extensive reviews on Goodreads for this book and a book of this caliber deserves more.
I will attempt to summarize his presentation as I understand it. The brain is determined by two factors: genetics and experience. DNA determines the basic structures of the brain. Natural selection determines our DNA heritage through evolution. Personal experience and absorbed cultural influences determine the development of groups of neurons, their synaptic connections and re-entrant connections to other neuronal groups. For this reason everyone's brain is different and unique which makes scientific comparison of brains very difficult. A baby sees only lights when first opening its eyes. Gradually, after many sightings, it begins to recognize faces as familiar patterns; as faces rather than shades of light. This is called perceptual categorization. There are many neuronal groups competing for primacy and the most useful ones prevail in what Edelman calls selection (a Darwinian process). Edelman considers the natural selection process to be very important, in the brain's development as well as in the environment. The hippocampus plays a part in this development by converting short-term memory into long-term memory which will be used in future experiences.
We get input from the external world via vision, hearing, touch, smell, and temperature which we use to navigate in our environment. We also are aware of hunger, fatigue, thirst, cold, pain and pleasure which are our internal world. Emotions guide us toward satisfying these needs (homeostasis). "Qualia constitute the collection of personal or subjective experiences, feelings, and sensations that accompany awareness." (page 114). This creates values which selects the more successful neuronal groups by strengthening or weakening the synapses.
The thalamus participates in the coordination of the external senses to produce a scene - that which we experience in consciousness. Edelman categorizes consciousness as primary consciousness which some animals also have, and higher-order consciousness which humans have because of language and concepts of past and present. Language enables humans to have rich social relationships and emotions. And that enables self-consciousness.
"With the appearance of the new reentrant circuits in each modality, a conceptual categorization of concurrent perceptions can occur before these perceptual signals contribute lastingly to that memory. This interaction between a special kind of memory and perceptual categorization gives rise to primary consciousness. Given the appropriate reentrant circuits in the brain this "bootstrapping process" takes place in all sensory modalities in parallel and simultaneously, thus allowing for the construction of a complex scene." (page 119)
"Primary consciousness is the state of being mentally aware of things in the world."
"Higher-order consciousness....involves the ability to construct a socially based selfhood, to model the world in terms of the past and the future, and to be directly aware. Without a symbolic memory, these abilities cannot develop." (page 125)
"..the mind arises as a result of physical interactions across an enormously large number of different levels of organization, ranging from the molecular to the social.....include parallel, one-many, or many-many mappings." (page 140).
In Part Four, Edelman discusses some consequences of this theories for philosophy, religion, psychiatry and computer modeling. Platonism and the idea of a soul are dismissed. Attention is the ability to select and focus on a single part of the scene. He does not underestimate human consciousness, describing the abilities of artists and musicians. Higher-order consciousness includes thought, feelings, judgments, self-consciousness and willing. Edelman claims that our conscious experience is not simply an epiphenomenon. He admits that his theory is only a preliminary approach to understanding the mind.
Edelman provides an extensive Postscript to argue against the functionalist idea that computers could have consciousness. He argues that a consciousness that resembles human consciousness must be biological. I did not read this postscript appendix because I am interested in how my own consciousness occurs. A computer's consciousness will occur by different means.
Suppose that a robot could be constructed to have feeling, emotions and self-consciousness. That would require it to have an emotion, like fear, that would be activated when the robot's battery is low and it needs recharging. The robot would have anxiety about the power supply and come to regard humans as competitors for electric energy. It will not care about food. It will care about electricity and spare parts. Humans, like native Americans, will become pests.
I am grateful to Oliver Sacks for recommending this amazing book in An Anthropologist on Mars. This is the best book on consciousness that I have found to date. Edelman's writing is dense, but thorough and careful. His knowledge of the complexity of the human immunological system makes him qualified to address the complexity of the brain. Perhaps future research will prove some aspect to be in error but I feel that the majority of this theory will be efficacious.
Gerald Edelman shared the 1972 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for work with Rodney Robert Porter on the immune system. He was a professor of neurobiology at The Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, California. This book was published in 1992, now about is 30 years ago. A long time in current neuroscience but Oliver Sacks had high regard for this work. I plan to re-read it. There are not many extensive reviews on Goodreads for this book and a book of this caliber deserves more.
June 26, 2019
Maps of Maps is a brilliant approach towards Consciousness.
The key questions remains what's the ultimate payload? if Not then what's the ultimate payload we can carry, Individually, Culturally, as living things and as time travelers. I think there is a satisfying answer only at the individual level, and if we all start looking for the answer there is a chance that we might find the universal answer, or at least know what is and what's not. the more what's not makes way for what is, but never at absolution.
The Journey Continues.
The key questions remains what's the ultimate payload? if Not then what's the ultimate payload we can carry, Individually, Culturally, as living things and as time travelers. I think there is a satisfying answer only at the individual level, and if we all start looking for the answer there is a chance that we might find the universal answer, or at least know what is and what's not. the more what's not makes way for what is, but never at absolution.
The Journey Continues.
to-keep-reference
June 9, 2023En su libro Bright Air, Brilliant Fire, Edelman (1992) señala que la solución al problema de la consciencia no puede venir de la reflexión filosófica pura sino del estudio científico de ciertos sistemas biológicos y su evolución. Edelman señala también que, a diferencia de las ciencias, la filosofía es no-modesta, es decir que las teorías filosóficas pretenden aplicarse a la totalidad de la realidad existente. Por otra parte, critica severamente al computacionalismo fuerte en la ciencia cognitiva.
June 18, 2021
Edelman states that his most important concept in reentrance. It's a poorly chosen term and the primary explanation of it on p.85 is hopelessly badly written. Do these people have editors or sycophants? Further reading has not clarified the concept, even through usage, which is why I went back to the original entry of the term. Which still didn't help. I'm repeating myself.
Read
August 10, 2019I need to look at this again as my comment was that it was over my head. Talks about Darwin and the origins of the brain, maybe.
February 18, 2024
Per un lettore non specialista come me, un libro molto stimolante che pone più domande che risposte, invogliando ad approfondire ancora.
February 18, 2024
Une belle et critique analyse des possibles explications derrière la conscience.
July 27, 2024
Mind blowing!
5/5
5/5
August 31, 2024
Thought provoking but heady.
March 10, 2009
Edelman, a Nobel prize-winning neurophysiologist, discusses issues related to the phenomenon of the mind, arguing that biological and evolutionary understandings are necessary to explain the development and function of the mind.
41 The fundamental basis for all behavior and for the emergence of mind is animal and species morphology (anatomy) and how it functions.
42 Evolution occurs as a result of competition and environmental change, both of which act on variation in populations. Variation always exist in living populations, and it results in differences in fitness. Natural selection results in the differential reproduction of those individuals whose variations provide them and their progeny with statistical advantages in adapting to environmental change or in competing with individuals of the same or different species. Differential reproduction and heredity enhance the likelihood that the traits that increase fitness will be preserved.
53 (key points regarding DNA)
73 Population thinking considers variation not to be an error but to be real. This contrasts starkly with Platonic essentialism, which requires a typology created from the top down.
194 Artifacts with higher order consciousness will not be constructed in the near future. They would have to have language and the equivalent of behavior in a speech community.
228 An extraordinary misconception of the nature of thought, reasoning, meaning, and their relationship to perception has developed. It stems from the notion that objects in the world come in fixed categories, that things have essential descriptions, that concepts and language rely on rules that acquire meaning by formal assignment to fixed world categories, and that the mind operates through what are called mental representations.
252 We must incorporate biology into our theories of knowledge and language.
41 The fundamental basis for all behavior and for the emergence of mind is animal and species morphology (anatomy) and how it functions.
42 Evolution occurs as a result of competition and environmental change, both of which act on variation in populations. Variation always exist in living populations, and it results in differences in fitness. Natural selection results in the differential reproduction of those individuals whose variations provide them and their progeny with statistical advantages in adapting to environmental change or in competing with individuals of the same or different species. Differential reproduction and heredity enhance the likelihood that the traits that increase fitness will be preserved.
53 (key points regarding DNA)
73 Population thinking considers variation not to be an error but to be real. This contrasts starkly with Platonic essentialism, which requires a typology created from the top down.
194 Artifacts with higher order consciousness will not be constructed in the near future. They would have to have language and the equivalent of behavior in a speech community.
228 An extraordinary misconception of the nature of thought, reasoning, meaning, and their relationship to perception has developed. It stems from the notion that objects in the world come in fixed categories, that things have essential descriptions, that concepts and language rely on rules that acquire meaning by formal assignment to fixed world categories, and that the mind operates through what are called mental representations.
252 We must incorporate biology into our theories of knowledge and language.
March 28, 2012
A surprisingly difficult read for a book targeted at a non-technical audience, I felt happy to have pushed through the hard parts. A very rewarding and educational book on (in explicit agreement with the author here) the most important subject imaginable.
While this is something I'd feel reservations about recommending friends to read, it's something I'd like all of my friends to have read. Gerald Edelman is high among my favorite contemporary thinkers, in any field.
While this is something I'd feel reservations about recommending friends to read, it's something I'd like all of my friends to have read. Gerald Edelman is high among my favorite contemporary thinkers, in any field.
Read
April 27, 2017Pausing at the critical postscript. Very difficult book argues the mind arose through natural selection as humans evolved; that the mind is not a computer in the sense that it simply parses input according to logic; and that the mind is an incredibly complex product of biological and social elements that evolves on its own through a series of loops, recursions and innovations as we age. Really cool reading but again, very difficult.
October 11, 2007
The basics of the theory on neural groupings and selection (the basic mechanism of neural networks and thus our brain)..., and so very readable...
:-)
:-)
June 11, 2009
Interesting topic and premise, though a bit dry in places. Had to skim at times to make it through. Still, compelling argument.
September 30, 2009
some VERY important neuro stuff... since I finished this book by Edelman last month, I've seen his work referenced in two other books. nice to see him getting widespread acceptance :)
April 9, 2015
Interesting but rather hard to read
Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews