The Ravenous Brain: How the New Science of Consciousness Explains Our Insatiable Search for Meaning

by Daniel Bor

Consciousness is our gateway to it enables us to recognize Van Gogh's starry skies, be enraptured by Beethoven's Fifth, and stand in awe of a snowcapped mountain. Yet consciousness is subjective, personal, and famously difficult to philosophers have for centuries declared this mental entity so mysterious as to be impenetrable to science.In The Ravenous Brain , neuroscientist Daniel Bor departs sharply from this historical view, and builds on the latest research to propose a new model for how consciousness works. Bor argues that this brain-based faculty evolved as an accelerated knowledge gathering tool. Consciousness is effectively an idea factory -- that choice mental space dedicated to innovation, a key component of which is the discovery of deep structures within the contents of our awareness.This model explains our brains"; ravenous appetite for information -- and in particular, its constant search for patterns. Why, for instance, after all our physical needs have been met, do we recreationally solve crossword or Sudoku puzzles? Such behavior may appear biologically wasteful, but, according to Bor, this search for structure can yield immense evolutionary benefits -- it led our ancestors to discover fire and farming, pushed modern society to forge ahead in science and technology, and guides each one of us to understand and control the world around us. But the sheer innovative power of human consciousness carries with it the heavy cost of mental fragility.Bor discusses the medical implications of his theory of consciousness, and what it means for the origins and treatment of psychiatric ailments, including attention-deficit disorder, schizophrenia, manic depression, and autism. All mental illnesses, he argues, can be reformulated as disorders of consciousness -- a perspective that opens up new avenues of treatment for alleviating mental suffering.A controversial view of consciousness, The Ravenous Brain links cognition to creativity in an ingenious solution to one of science's biggest mysteries.

Genres: Science, Psychology, Nonfiction, Neuroscience, Philosophy, Brain, Audiobook

352 pages, Hardcover

First published August 28, 2012

Reviews

[David Rubenstein · Rating 5 out of 5]

The title "The Ravenous Brain" refers to the human's insatiable appetite for finding structure in information. Daniel Bor is a neuroscientist, and his contention is that

the main purpose of consciousness is to search for and discover those structured chunks of information within working memory, so that they can then be used efficiently and automatically, with minimal further input from concsciousness.

In other words, the purpose of consciousness is to find structures, so that in the future the information can be used unconsciously.

Daniel Bor has written a book that is very approachable by the layman. The book is almost devoid of all the jargon that tends to complicate other books about science. Bor has some rather extended analogies that might simplify some of the ideas--but some of these analogies just go too far, and tend to obfuscate these ideas. For example, Bor writes about scientists who balance conservatism against creativity. He discusses this for quite a while, before making the analogy with organisms who reproduce offspring with slight modifications, some of which are useful innovations, while others are likely to be harmful.

Bor sneaks some mild humor into the book, which is very much appreciated, and is never too much to become distracting from the main thrust of the book. He inserts some of his personal experiences in an fMRI machine, which give the book a nice touch. He also includes some anecdotes that are quite humorous, or even incredible. For instance, the story about the mathematician Norbert Wiener, who was completely scatter-brained. He lost the slip of paper on which his new home address was written. He went to his old home, and asked a little girl if she knew where he had moved. The girl answered, "That's okay, Daddy. Mummy sent me to fetch you."

One of the most interesting portions of the book is the description of how memories in the brain are not localized, but are distributed in the strengths of connections between neurons. Bor describes why this distribution of memories is actually required by evolution--there is no other way for the retention of memories to have evolved.

Bor relates a number of psychology studies. Most of them are very interesting, and I've previously encountered very few of them in my reading. I consider that to be a good thing, as many of the recent set of "pop psychology" books tend to repeat the same old set of studies.

Bor mentions how some people have have asserted that quantum mechanics is somehow responsible for consciousness. The argument is something like "consciousness is mysterious and quantum mechanics is mysterious, so quantum mechanics must explain consciousness." This type of argument is not very convincing, and Bor suggests that the mechanism for consciousness is to be found in some of the more recent theories. These theories all have to do with the exchange of information across a dense network.

There are some fascinating anecdotes about scientific studies of animals. One of Aesop's fables involves a crow that finds a pitcher full of water. It can't fit its beak into the pitcher's opening. Then it decides to drop lots of pebbles into the pitcher, raising the water level to where it can drink. Some experimenters tried a very similar setup for some rooks, and it turned out that the rooks actually performed a similar feat! And chimps were able to do something very similar, in order to raise the water level in a container, to get some food.

Another fascinating section of the book deals with mental syndromes and illnesses. Bor contends that some of these illnesses are related to a reduced state of consciousness. Victims have a reduced working memory. Some drugs may help with this, but recent research finds that certain types of memory exercises may help even more.

I recommend this book for those who are interested in neuroscience, but do not have the desire to learn a new language filled with jargon. This book is well written, has a nice personal touch, and is chock full of fascinating ideas.

[Arminius · Rating 5 out of 5]

Our conscious is such an interesting topic. There are a lot of books that tell us to use our subconscious to better ourselves. I am always grateful for “The Power of the Subconscious Mind” by Dr. Joseph Murphy for helping me see life for the better. This book gives scientific proof that that Dr. Murphy’s techniques work, even though that is not its point.

The brain has four lobes which provide different services for us.

1. The Frontal lobe is obviously at the front of the head. It is the area responsible for abstract thoughts. It is also associated with IQ and virtually every task we engage.

2. The Parietal lobe is behind the frontal lobe; it starts in the middle of our head and extends to the end of the head. It is responsible for processing nerve impulses related to the senses, such as touch, pain, taste, pressure, and temperature. It also handles language functions.

3. The Temporal lobe lies beneath the Frontal lobe and takes up 2/3 of that region. The Temporal lobe is responsible for our vision and some of our language.

4. Occipital lobe is directly behind the Temporal lobe occupying 1/3 of the space of that region. The Occipital lobe is responsible for our vision.

The brain also contains the Cerebellum. The Cerebellum is at the rear of the head at the bottom. It is responsible for sensory perception, coordination and motor control.

The Thalamus connects these parts together. It is like a switchboard which activates almost all areas of the brain. It is responsible for wake and sleep as well. It is the most important part of the brain.

The Cortex forms an outer shell around the brain lobes. It allows for the free flowing of mental activity.


The author states that stress is the single largest trigger for almost all mental diseases.
When humans experience stress the amygdala ( a set of neurons which control emotions and stress) increase in production. However, in most people, the frontal parietal cortex suppresses the amygdala. This is possible because the frontal parietal cortex can make a conscious assessment of the possibility of danger. In mental illness the amygdala floods the frontal parietal causing unrealistic expectations in the person.

He also emphasizes the importance of sleep. It is obvious that a tired person may be irritable however there is evidence that lack of sleep can cause substantial memory loss and concentration.

Coffee is, once again, applauded because studies show that it prevents depression.

The author is also an ardent supporter of meditation and a lesser supporter of medication. Meditation can reverse stress and many mental illnesses. Over years of practice, regular meditation seems to permanently change the prefrontal parietal network while reducing the activity of the amygdala.

Short term uses seems beneficial as well. A study found that just four sessions reduced tiredness and increased working memory performance.

The book does something I like when reading a science book. It describes the problems, explains why they happen and then offers cheap easy solutions.

[Tom Quinn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Evidently any neuroscience, cognitive science, or brain anatomy book is required by law to talk about Phineas Gage.

5 stars - a really good, condensed summary of key theories of consciousness from then to now and a very well-documented argument in favor of materialism, using contemporary findings to argue that consciousness is an emergent property of the brain's physical structure.

[bup · Rating 4 out of 5]

One thing I spend many, many hours pondering is the wonder of consciousness. There's matter, and there's energy, and somehow it becomes aware of itself. Not only that, but up there in the goo there's no one giant cell - there's only a confederation of neurons that communicate a lot. So consciousness, if we accept it exists, must constantly dance among neurons. So is our persistent consciousness an energy?

Bor makes a compelling case that whatever consciousness is, it is limited to the grey matter and energy up there. There is no mind separate from the matter and energy in our universe, according to him. OK, I can live with that. Tell me more.

He does explain a lot - he talks about what areas of brains light up when we think about different things. He talks about how different experiments can show how few things we can really think about in a moment. He talks about how awareness of intention comes up to a third of a second after brain activity shows one is gearing up for movement (specifically, before people whose brain waves were being monitored "decided" to move a finger, their brain had started the process).

So all kinds of cool stuff.

What's the problem? He seems to feel that by explaining all the physical things going on, he has explained consciousness. Daniel C. Dennett claims we're all basically zombies running quick computer programs who don't participate in experience as much as we think we do. OK, I disagree, but I can live with the claim - he gets the question. Steven Pinker claims straight off he can tell us how a mind works, but not really what consciousness is. I can live with that too. Bor seems to think that by telling us about where brain activity is firing when we do different things he has explained consciousness. He doesn't even acknowledge the 'gap' - that spark that somehow moves from matter and energy working together to somehow being aware of itself - really experiencing being in the universe. As Dennett says, people like me protest that when I look at something blue, I don't just have data that something is blue, I experience blue.

That's not quite fair - Bor did give a little lip service to a thought experiment where a baby was put in a black-and-white tower and only ever shown things that were black and white (including somehow changing her skin, etc. to black and white), but was taught everything about the universe, where people like me would say she doesn't really know what red is because she's never seen it, even though she's learned about it and knows what wavelengths are perceived as red and so forth. But he says she does know what red really is, so let's drop the subject.

I don't want to drop the subject. We don't have to do a thought experiment. Many birds can see ultraviolet light, so they experience something we don't. You can read all about it, look up the wavelengths, use equipment to tell when that color is around, but you have no idea what color that bird is really seeing. You can't experience that bird's perception of seeing ultraviolet light nor do you know what ultraviolet light looks like. Pretending it's like 'super-violet and kind of glowy,' isn't right. As Ed Yong has asked us to think about it in An Immense World, bees can't perceive wavelengths high enough to see red. A bee scientist telling other bees that's it's ultra-yellow, and probably this weird yellowness our infrayellow cameras detect, entirely gets wrong what the experience of seeing the color red is. Pretending that knowing all the metadata about something is equivalent to experiencing it is demonstrably wrong. Not hypothetically wrong. Demonstrably wrong.

Apart from that, I caught a few things that Bor accepts things that I think have been debunked - Daniel Tammet- a supposed savant with Asperger's who wrote Born on a Blue Day: Inside the Extraordinary Mind of an Autistic Savant- ain't all he claims to be. Bor dismisses the theory of humans having a true language instinct while giving short shrift to the arguments for it, when people like Chomsky and Pinker have built careers on humans actually having that instinct. There was one dumb math error (80% of 80 is 64, not 62. I know, I'm a dweeb and deserve to be shoved into my locker. Still.).

But there's lots here to like, too, and while it seemed a strange add-on, I really liked the last part of the book that talked about how maybe some mental illnesses might be cases of consciousness gone awry. Schizophrenia may be a sort of slightly diminished consciousness. Various autism diagnoses might be helpfully thought of as being overly conscious - being too aware of everything going on around and inside one's head and not being able to squelch enough of it to get anything done. Provocative stuff.

[Jon · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book came highly recommended by a Goodreads friend, and the first 50 pages or so are right on point with the kinds of questions that I have about consciousness, what it is, and whether the brain is a sufficient or only a necessary cause of it. Bor is a very clear writer and is quite frank about his own view that the brain can completely account for all aspects of consciousness. He tries to dismiss the philosophers with whom I tend to agree (Thomas Nagel in "What is it like to be a Bat?" and John Searle with his famous Chinese language thought experiment). But his arguments don't convince me and are, he admits, based to some extent on his own intuition. He also ignores the whole problem of the circularity inherent in using consciousness to understand itself. He seems to think that information exists objectively (like data), whereas most people would agree that consciousness is needed to turn data into information: it is smuggled into the very idea of information. Still, I'm happy to agree with his fairly spirited defense of trying to investigate and learn about anything you can, going ahead with experiments even if you only have hunches and intuitions to inspire them. I just don't share his optimism that science can completely explain consciousness. As I remember reading somewhere, "not next week, not next year, not ever."

[Jana Light · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book about the brain and how we can think about consciousness as capacity for creative, innovative thought. Rich content, engaging stories, and a very practical thesis. I was struck by his endorsement of meditation in the last 10 pages -- the more I learn about meditation, the more I realize how beneficial a practice is it for our brains and well-being. I was a little underwhelmed by Bor's attempt to explain mental health issues and autism in terms of healthy/unhealthy attention or awareness, but some underwhelm is to be expected in books about consciousness. It is such a difficult concept and we have so far to go before we understand it well. Bor's book is the best one I have read yet on this topic and I highly recommend to anyone interested in the brain, ethics, and what makes humans human.

[Eva · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bor's theory of consciousness says that consciousness emerged to guide our mind's attention and working memory, to help with storing, recalling and processing the patterns we perceive in the world around us. Chunking - the grouping of information into more memorable segments - is at the heart of man's advantage over animals. It allows us to increase the limits of our working memory and therefore process and analyse more complex patterns.

Bor explains his theory by starting from zero, starting all the way down with genetic evolution. Even though there is content you've likely heard before, he does find interesting ways of telling the story. I especially remember finding his description of the Chinese Room thought experiment to be very insightful.

"Perhaps what most distinguishes us humans from the rest of the animal kingdom is our ravenous desire to find structure in the information we pick up in the world."

When we are children every sensory stimuli excites us, as it represents new and undiscovered territory. Over our lifespan we lose that childlike excitability as we store more and more patterns into memory. Bor suggests the power of meditation to try to retrieve some of that fresh insatiable state of mind that children have.

[Lake Lady · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have to say I was quite disappointed in this book. The first half read as if the editor said, "your book isn't long enough I need more". So while there's some interesting brain science and biology in there it really didn't add much at all to the discussion of consciousness. In fact one of my major complaints with this book is that it's not until somewhere in the middle that the author even tackles the sticky question of how to define consciousness at all. I had hoped to learn much more from this book and sadly most of the information I'd already come across in other articles that were more interesting and better written.

[Sabin · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is an interesting argument made by Mr. Bor on the side of the mechanistic view of conciousness and of the brain as a computational machine.
The lasting information I got out of this book, however, was not of the theoretical models of conciousness but of the applications of technology to determine a person's state of conciousness and awareness.
I found it a well structured book with many examples which explained well the concepts underlying his argument.

[Akhil Munjal · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book truly represents the leading theories of consciousness and is full of ideas that are based on the the state of the art research. I had been reading quite a few books on the topic of consciousness but all I used to understand from them was that this topic is mysterious in some mystical way. For example in a book by Deepak Chopra, he alludes to the fact that consciousness uses quantum phenomenon and hence it will only be understood when we understand dark energy and dark matter. However Daniel in the Ravenous Brain clearly proves how this is not the case and human consciousness is in fact not as hard to understand as is the common conception. Consciousness is in fact a composite of many specialty algorithms running in parallel and the actual composite is developed by a linkage which is describes beautifully with two phenomenon - Chunking and Attention. This really resonates with the conscious mind of my own and I think this is a great book for truth seekers and researchers in this area.

[Teo · Rating 5 out of 5]

2017.09.23–2017.09.27

Contents

Bor D (2012) (11:14) Ravenous Brain, The - How the New Science of Consciousness Explains Our Insatiable Search for Meaning

Introduction

01. Conceptual Conundrums of Consciousness – Philosophy
• technological telepathy
• philosophy versus science
• Descartes and the mind-body duality
• modernity arrives and ghosts leave
• the impenetrability of “what it is like”
• can a program have feelings?
• can a laptop really understand chinese?
• the most complex object in the known universe
• the case for artificial consciousness
• eroding the walls of subjectivity
• our indomitable spirit

02. A Brief History of the Brain – Evolution and the Science of Thought
• the first lesson in nature is failure
• the essence of evolution
• breeding chemical complexity and rebellious offspring
• living on the edge of chaos
• wetware
• a universal recipe and a universal language
• extra innovation in desperate times
• mutants, sex, and death
• every creative trick in the biological book
• cooperation and different levels of information processing
• genius cells
• internal evolution
• the computational landscape of a brain
• vast internal worlds

03. The Tip of the Iceberg – Unconscious Limits
• a holiday from awareness
• unpeeling evolutionary history in the brain
• unconscious neurons marching in step
• learning on the operating table
• unconscious better than conscious?
• feeling your way to knowledge
• eat popcorn: the unconscious takes control
• unconscious decisions and the freedom to choose
• aspiring toward free will

04. Pay Attention to That Pattern! – Conscious Contents
• dangerous daydreams
• attention funneling raw data to build experiences
• not spotting the wood, the trees, the birds, the soil, the flowers, the . . .
• a brighter, more vibrant world
• the atoms of thought
• attention as a brutal neuronal war
• attentional victories emerging into consciousness
• overestimating the value of emotions
• layers of awareness
• four compartments to awareness and no more . . .
• . . . but each conscious compartment can hold objects of great complexity
• belittling the richness of experiences?
• chunking and consciousness
• language—just one kind of conscious chunking?
• the fruits of chunking and awkward self-consciousness

05. The Brain’s Experience of a Rose – Neuroscience of Awareness
• quit while you’re ahead?
• my conscious mind is my conscious brain
• opening the floodgates
• blindsight patients leading you up a blind alley
• visual highways toward consciousness
• scanning consciousness as candles become faces
• patients and the prefrontal parietal network’s official job
• still conscious, but only of things on the right
• consciousness shrinking to a small point
• brain-scanning the prefrontal parietal network
• the prefrontal parietal network, consciousness, and chunking
• harmonious experiences
• consciousness, in theory
• explaining experiences

06. Being Bird-Brained Is Not an Insult – Uncovering Alien Consciousness
• tender chimps, capricious bonobos
• crafty crows
• can a bird admire itself in a mirror?
• gambling on consciousness
• animal chunking
• infant awareness
• measuring consciousness in animal brains
• chauvinistic anatomical bootstrapping
• quantifying consciousness
• ethical implications
• differing qualities and quantities of experience

07. Living on the Fragile Edge of Awareness – Profound Brain Damage and Disorders of Consciousness
• just too complex?
• a tortuous battle of uncertainty
• a thin veil between life and death
• viewing consciousness from within
• communication by brain activity
• checking the integrity of conscious neural highways
• the difficulty of repairing humpty dumpty

08. Consciousness Squeezed, Stretched, and Shrunk – Mental Illness as Abnormal Awareness
• sharp fractures in awareness
• autism and over-consciousness
• unhealthy sleep, unhealthy consciousness
• working memory not working
• chemical cascades unbalancing awareness
• building the consciousness muscle
• a seesaw of stress versus consciousness
• a wider, purer ocean of awareness
• healing consciousness from many angles

Epilogue: A Delicious Life
Acknowledgments
Notes and References
Illustration Credits
Index

[Kelsey Breseman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pragmatic and to-the-point. A bit more direct metaphor to the brain as an information processor than I was comfortable with (having just read https://aeon.co/essays/your-brain-doe...) but otherwise a consistently interesting and thoughtful read

[Beauregard Bottomley · Rating 4 out of 5]

The meaning of consciousness is no longer completely inaccessible to me after reading this book. It's starting to make sense to me. The author does an excellent job of reviewing what is only recently becoming known about the field. He explains difficult concepts wonderfully and uses some of the best analogies I've heard.

The author looks at the relevant philosophy, evolution psychology and the recent neuroscience understandings to go a long way with explaining what is consciousness. He indirectly answers two question, 1) what is it about humans that make us different and 2) will computers ever think.

I've listened to about five or so books and even watched a Great Course lecture on this topic and this book is the first one that went beyond just claiming that the meaning of consciousness is unknowable, and after having read this book, I feel that I'm getting closer to its understanding. I enjoyed the other books, but this one makes me believe that people way smarter than me are getting close to answering those two questions and discovering the real nature of consciousness. .

You know you have a good narrator when you recognize his voice from another book you've read and loved. Mr. Dixon also read "The Beginning of Infinity" and my mind would go back to some passages in that book which were covering similar material. Nicely narrated.

[Ronan O'Driscoll · Rating 5 out of 5]

Prefrontal Parietal Cortex. That's where consciousness is. Or at least the core part of awareness. Bor grounds his discussion of consciousness in the science of awareness and evolutionary science. He also offers some fascinating explanations for a host of brain disorders: ADHD (often due to a lack of sleep - which explains why it is eased by a stimulant like Ritulan), depression and schizophrenia. He also describes Autism as an *excess* of awareness which is one of the better definitions I have encountered. He also makes a good argument for the benefits of meditation. Good book if you want to get an overview of the state of the art of the science of awareness.

[Ester · Rating 3 out of 5]

I especially find the first and the last two chapters interesting. The last two chapters are relevant regarding the treatment of mental conditions like autism, schizophrenia, ADHD and mood disorders (depression and bipolar disorder). Bor reports on new approaches to treatment, including fresh views of underlying chemical causes of schizophrenia and on why meditation practices improve the level of consciousness in brain parts that in turn lessen amygdala activity, which is associated with (irrational) fear responses in people with anxiety disorders. Worth a read.

[Arash Farzaneh · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent, informative and interesting read! Although I generally avoid scientific books on the brain (I find them rather intimidating to downright confusing), this one is worth your time as it explains complex processes in imaginative ways. I learned quite a lot in the whole process and was quite impressed and pleased with the style and subject matter.

[Nick · Rating 4 out of 5]

At times dense and unforgiving, but a valiant effort to haul the study of consciousness out of the realm of myth and conjecture. The book stands as a celebration of frontal lobe prowess and the beauty of our powerful pattern finding minds. You will definitely find something in this book that will spark a conversation that goes well into the night with friends.

[Ninakix · Rating 5 out of 5]

loved it. Great discussion of consciousness, a little mind bending, and fun to read an actual researcher's thoughts on it (as opposed to a science journalist) (but still accessible, readable)

[YHC · Rating 3 out of 5]

意识科学的时代到来了。意识科学解释了意识的起源、作用、心理特征、神经机制以及意识的脆弱性。从地球上生命体发展的历史中，可以找到意识的起源。古代生物为了存活下来，努力获取关于周围环境的有用“想法”。但是，在生命体一代代的传承过程中，通过改变DNA进行学习的方式很不灵活，效果有限，而且只是偶尔发生。
意识产生的基础是神经系统，这是进化过程中产生的专门处理信息的器官系统。与之前其他信息处理形式相比，神经系统能够快速灵活地获取准确的“概念”和策略。进化的某些分支产生了复杂的大脑。复杂的大脑能够以最佳的方式，将简单的想法联结起来，从而建构各种知识。意识的本质和主要作用就是将各种对象组合起来，产生有意义的结构。
人类在地球上的地位很独特。我们的大脑无比复杂，前额叶-顶叶网络是大脑最重要的区域。人类的前额叶-顶叶网络的体积要远远大于与人类血缘最近的其他灵长类动物。我们处理与组合信息的能力是其他物种无法企及的。因此，我们的体验也更为丰富多样。
丰富的意识使我们能够探索自然的奥妙。从最小的原子结构到银河系恒星，我们探索的范围十分广泛。通过医学技术，我们可以活得更长久；我们可以在几天内登上月球；我们发明了很多无比复杂的小玩意来满足强烈的好奇心，所有这些都要归功于意识的作用。我们应该感到幸运，进化赋予我们每个人一个复杂的生物计算机——大脑，使我们广泛、深入地体验世界，并能掌控世界。
但是，我们丰富的精神世界以及非凡的才智并不能抵消一种令人不安的感觉：人类大脑似乎进化得过了头。意识深入探寻模式的能力有助于我们理解并征服周围环境，但这只是满足了最原始的进化需求——生存与繁衍。有一种现象很明显：一个受过教育的成年人具有丰富的理解能力，但他们往往会做出缺乏理性的决定，这说明我们的能力与行为之间存在鸿沟。我们有些人努力想过一种脱离了本能冲动的理性生活，但是潜在的冲动仍然支配、约束着我们。只有在人类身上，进化的基本动力与高级的意识目标才会产生如此强烈的冲突。
我们发现各种模式以满足原始需求，但是我们过于聪明了，以至于我们的生活很容易失控。我们可以运用创新能力，发现世界的真相。但是创新能力同样可以使我们想出各种策略去偷情、暴食、偷窃，或是实施一些结果往往与初衷相背离的短期计划。
我们不经意中揭示了人类精神世界的脆弱性，发现我们很容易产生非理性的想法，或做出非理性的行为，有些时候甚至会产生幻觉。有些人的意识出现异常，患上精神疾病，其中一些患者饱受折磨，以致希望结束生命，逃离痛苦。我们所有人在不同程度上都是意识的受益者和受害者。
我非常热爱科学，不仅仅因为科学揭示了宇宙奇妙的、令人着迷的奥秘以及我们人类在宇宙中的位置，更因为科学始终致力于探寻真理。作为一个追求浪漫的人，我乐意这样想：没有什么比怀着一丝不苟、绝对诚实、谦虚好学的精神去探寻现实的复杂性更高尚的了。我热衷于通过实验的方法研究人类大脑：科学发现带来大量有用的技术，为研究工作提供了有效工具。在进化过程中，无数的经验教训都说明：关于周围环境的理性的、准确的“想法”不管存贮于DNA、蛋白质或是大脑中，都一样具有支配力，即使在恶劣的环境中，都能成功地发挥作用。但是人类很特殊，我们的注意系统将所有重要的信息纳入意识范围，进行深入分析。科学研究满足了人类强烈的好奇心，科学技术成果在我们的生活中随处可见。
科学有很多分支，快速发展的意识科学带来新的观念和技术，提高了我们的生活质量。我们能够与大脑损伤患者进行交流（通过仪器观察他们的想法），还可以通过药物改善大脑内化学传递物质的作用，从而使某些患者的意识恢复到正常水平。我们希望，意识科学领域的成果能让每个人都受益。
意识领域的科学发现使我们在一定程度上免于成为意识的受害者，同时领略意识带给我们的令人激动的技巧与体验。首先，从次要方面来说，意识研究让我们明白，要警惕压力带来的负面影响。认识到睡眠的重要性——睡眠不仅有助于抵抗精神疾病，而且使我们的意识清醒、丰富。
其次，某些更为抽象的、不是靠直觉得出的科学研究结果，有助于我们改变对自己的偏激看法，使我们更好地与他人相处。意识是原始的、愚钝的无意识的得力助手，而很多情况下我们都受无意识的操纵。意识的力量与其有限的支配力之间的失衡状况，是进化自私特性的产物。从最初的生命形式开始，自私是每一个生命体的驱动力，只有这样才存活下来。这并不是说我们可以对自己的行为不负责任，但认识到这一点，能使我们宽容地对待自己的缺点和错误。如果我们能够认识到自己受无意识冲动的支配，我们就会有更多机会去改变这种状况。
意识到这一点，我们就能够理解那些控制能力较差的人的行为。考虑到精神疾病的种类繁多，很多人可能患有抑郁症或其他疾病，他们做出伤害别人的行为仅仅是因为他们的意识萎缩，缺乏控制力。科学领域内的这种“疑点利益归被告”的做法使我们对他人的行为不是感到气愤，而是采取宽容、接受的态度。
从深层意义上说，意识科学可以改变我们的生活方式。近来，我经常观察女儿学走路。对成人来说，走路是很简单的技能。但是，对还处于婴儿期的孩子来说，生活中任何事情都是那么神奇，走路自然也不例外。她学会了走路后，醒着的每一个时刻几乎都在屋子里走着，摇摇晃晃，步履蹒跚，充分体验不受拘束的乐趣。有时候沿着屋子边缘走，有时候绕着圈走，偶尔甚至会跺着脚走路。她最得意、最兴奋是能倒退着走路。光脚走路，穿着袜子走路，偶尔穿着鞋子走——每种走路方式都让她欣喜无比。当我躺着时，她甚至发现踩着我的肚子和胸口走路特别好玩。蹒跚行走给她带来无穷的乐趣。对我女儿来说，任何事物都让人兴奋，她每天都在观察、理解周围世界，丰富自己的意识。她的大脑随时都在积极地形成新的组块。我发现这种方式很有趣，很有感染力，忍不住将其与自己相对封闭的生活方式做比较。
当我们进入成年期，慢慢变老，很自然不会以一种玩乐的方式建构精神组块。我们逐渐变得审慎，甚至有些乏味，因为我们已经背负着很多组块。从某种角度看，我们拥有很多习惯是件好事，这说明我们已经掌握了很多重要的信息组块，能很好地与外界沟通。在稳定环境中存活的细菌，基因突变率很低，生活得很安全，缺乏革新精神。人类的情况也一样：当我们渐渐成熟，已经掌握的知识会保护我们，那么何必再去摆弄各种计划，给自己找麻烦呢？
问题在于，当我们急切地寻找模式时，我们在婴儿期体验到的学习热情会减弱，因为经过多年的积累，我们拥有了很多知识。我们不再那么热烈地渴求新的智慧，生活变得乏味，我们已经掌握了无数的组块。
我们需要一种提高意识水平的方法。毕竟，我们的意识水平越高，看到的世界会更明亮、更有生气，我们也会拥有更多机会。实验结果也证明了这一点：如果将注意集中在电脑屏幕上的某个地方，那么在这个地方出现的圆点看上去就特别明亮。现实生活中尤其如此：当我全神贯注看女儿脸上的笑容，会发现她的笑容是如此灿烂。
意识科学是如何改变我们的生活的呢？如果意识的主要任务是革新，而习惯属于无意识范围，那么我们可以较少依赖习惯的力量，而向革新的方向发展，通过这种方式提高意识水平。
随着年纪增大，意识水平会下降。防止意识水平下降的一个有效方法是培养怀疑精神。意识的主要目标是革新，通过革新改善我们的生活，而养成一种习惯，怀疑进入意识范围的每一个精神组块的方法可以建立超级组块（superchunk）。这是一种更高级的习惯，使我们不停地探寻任何具有创造性的东西。
发现并质疑那些支配我们的思想和行为的基本动力并不难，麻烦的是那些已经存在的精神组块。这些组块很普遍，具有很强的支配能力，一旦形成，就会自动发挥作用，我们很难注意到它们。大部分精神组块对我们的生活起重要作用。例如，我几乎注意不到自己是如何在电脑键盘上盲打的，只有这样，我的大脑才会有更多的意识空间以产生各种想法。但是有少数组块长期潜伏在我的意识深处，这些组块包括我处理感情的方式，我与其他人的关系，影响我的健康的不同因素。其中某些组块可能经常会让我感到恐惧，伤害我的自尊，让我不快乐，疏远我与家人朋友的关系。
意识科学可以帮助我们驱逐这些有害的行为模式，让我们马上意识到我们拥有不少精神组块，所有的精神组块都可以被修改、重写甚至删除，由其他组块取代。
更为重要的是：我们能够发现哪些旧组块干扰了我们的情感、决定和行为，尤其是让我们感到不安。我们可以将这些精神组块返回到意识，分析它们的结构和起源，判断它们对我们是否有利，是否需要修改。
事实上，我们能够迅速发现模式，甚至很快发现似是而非的模式，这说明我们有些过于急切地追求知识，以至于被一些不正确的观念误导。因此，对任何思想，我们都要谨慎小心，必须以科学的怀疑精神对待这些思想。
同时，我们总是不断寻找有用的、令人兴奋的新组块。
质疑已经存在的组块，以新组块补充或取代旧组块，这种方式似乎让人不安，而且没有必要。但是，怀疑自己的想法和信念是件愉快的事情，能够让人精神焕发。原因之一是这种怀疑行为表明，我们一直在寻找新的生存方式，这会让我们感到自己有活力，愿意接受新的经验，而不是感到自己落后陈腐。
冥想的方法是对怀疑精神的一种重要补充。
越来越多的证据表明，冥想能够让精神病患者平静下来，并能提高他们的意识水平。对正常人来说，冥想可以让我们以一种新的眼光看世界。冥想的时候，我们的注意集中在感觉上，暂时不想任何事情，在这段时间内可以彻底忘记之前掌握的各种方法，不去理会以前形成的各种习惯。我们的精神很放松，乐于接受任何事情，接收到的每个信息在我们看来都很重要，都有让人意想不到的内容。
冥想的状态与我们在童年时感受世界的方式很相似。我们还是孩子的时候，总是乐于接受新的知识，渴望得到新的见解，同时又满足于当下的状态。冥想的时候，我们又恢复了丰富、直观的视觉、听觉、嗅觉。没有精神组块的干扰，我们会重新认识到，世界是多么美丽，找到生活的乐趣是何其容易！
之前，吃饭时我们可能出于习惯，会边吃边看最新的电视剧，不能真正品味到食物的味道。现在，安安静静地吃一顿饭让人如此愉悦：细细品尝，就会发现食物是如此美味。

[Riccardo · Rating 3 out of 5]

It is a strange voyage which one embark reading this book. It is a travel over the deep black sea of cosciousness, with your captain, Daniel Bor, trying to find the Big Conscious Whale using as harpoon the instruments of science. But this courageous captain is not a science of formation, he comes from the island of philosophers and so sometimes you think that he is not able to find the Big Whale because he does not really know how to use science. Especially if one compares this book to "are we smart enough to know how smart animals are?" by de Waals, some questions arises. de Waals criticize all the scientists and philosophers who try to define some mental caracheristics that distinguish humans from all other animals. He does not deny that it could maybe exist but he just show that it is the wrong approach, too antropocentric and biased. Expecially when we want to study coscience. Bor is not a scientist and this is crucial when it comes to give a definition of cosciousness: he does not. he presents various model that tries to explain cosciousness of the human brain but he does not give any definition. but how can you write a book a bout cosciousness and actually work on it whitouht giving a definition of it? Stanislaus Deahene for example wrote a book about cosciousness and he gives a definition within the first few pages. maybe the definition is arbitrary but you need a definition from which to start or you cannot do scientific experiments about it. but, as I said, Bor is not a scientist but a philosopher and as such he does not need definitions because his thoughts are not confined by the rules and principles of science. and this is a really good thing because he can explore lands and seas never explored, he could argue and create models of cosciousness never tried. but we should remember that this is not science.

[Aleš Bednařík · Rating 4 out of 5]

Konečne kniha, ktorá o vedomí hovorí ako o prejave a synchronizácii viacerých funkcií mozgu/mysle. Pozornosť a jej zameranie nám umožňuje vyberať si, čo do vedomia pustíme. Operačná pamäť a jej kapacita nám umožňuje vytvoriť priestor pre viacero objektov, s ktorými vieme narábať. Triedenie a hierarchizácia objektov nám umožňuje vytvárať schémy, plány, vidieť a priraďovať významy. Tak si viac pamätáme, rýchlejšie sa učíme a viac sa oslobodzujeme od reaktívneho a inštinktívneho správania.
Možno som to moc zjednodušil, ale asi tak.

[Neil · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not sure I bought into all of his theories, but any examination of the nature of consciousness is interesting. I should return to this work now, after years have past, to see what developments have come of it. I'm less convinced of his "psychosis is aberation of the consciousness" idea, as I believe it to be more sensorial and based in the "meat" of our brain/body nature, but it has some interesting ideas.

[R Hewitt · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really slow starting first 100 pages, but became more focused moving forward. Near the end you began to make sense, comparing your daughter's wide-eyed innocence to the crusty world view of jaded adults. I have to point out that your take on how children see the world in all its fresh, bright, impactful way reminds me of the comments attributed to Jesus about the children and how seeing things as a child brings us close to the real world.

[Qwetro · Rating 3 out of 5]

这本书读一半之后，虽然对后面的内容还是很好奇，有期待，但是觉得挺枯燥的，于是我去看了另一本书《哲学家们都干了些什么》，然后我对西方哲学史有了个大概的概念。再回来读这本，对整本书都充满了怀疑，后半部分随手翻过，一直想找到作者标题上提的问题的答案：为何人类会无止境的寻求意义。这个问题逻辑上甚至在“人生的意义是什么？”之前。但是我并没有看到直接的解答。很失望。看了一些评论，大概意思就是说，因为人类进化到现在，人脑就是一个信息处理的机器，意识只是进化的副产物，然后这个寻求意义，就是机器的主要行为，就像洗衣机主要就是用来洗衣服的一样。
这大概就是更具体版本的虚无主义吧，甚是无聊，不过也可能事实就是这么无聊，无聊的内容，看在科学态度份上，给个3星。

[Lee Dale · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really enjoyed reading this. Gives an in depth scientific overview of the nature of consciousness, how its relates to people with damaged brains and mental illness. Definitely worth a read.

[Alice Abernathy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Slow reading because full of scientific analysis, but worth the effort. The scientific reasoning is sometimes interrupted by the author's analysis of his baby daughter's behavior--charming.

[Will Cullen · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was one of the best investigations into consciousness that I've read.

[Peter · Rating 4 out of 5]

Overall, quite an interesting and useful book for those interested in a popular presentation of modern brain research. I found it a bit thinner than a number of similar books. First, it is rather heavy on discussion and argumentation (of what consciousness is) and light on presenting real studies that provide motivation for the discussion. Second, it tends to repeat the same thing several times - but I guess, this has to be done for a mass-market book.

[Elizabeth Viox · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting ideas and perspective on consciousness. I wish his research could have continued through to today with AI

[Michowel · Rating 3 out of 5]

I definitely gained a clearer concept of consciousness grounded in neuroscience and Bor's supporting data is pretty exhaustive. That being said, the sentences were often long winded.