Science and Inquiry discussion

For January 2024, we will be reading Sentience: The Invention of Consciousness by Nicholas Humphrey.

Please use this thread to post questions, comments, and reviews, at any time.

can anyone recommend good comic or graphic books about science and maths??

Pramod wrote: "can anyone recommend good comic or graphic books about science and maths??"

Pramod, this thread is for discussing the book we'll be reading for January 2024. There is a different thread for alternative media. Check out https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

thank you sir

Well, I started reading this book. But I just could not get through it.

Is anybody else reading the book? What are your initial reactions?

I also just started reading the book. I felt the first chapter was a very dense one but really liked the explanations of sentience and consciousness the author gave. I've known for a while that the definition of consciousness is our capability to look back on ourselves, but I feel like I never understood the full implications of that. I really liked the picture the author painted on how it feels like we can peer through a window into our states of mind (feelings, memories, emotions, perceptions, etc.).

I'm starting chapter 7 now and I can say the following chapters are much more digestible and there are a lot of interesting experiments being discussed. I also enjoy how the book is detailing the process that led the author to what I believe will be their theory on sentience and consciousness.

One more small detail I found interesting is that in my book edition there is a picture at the beginning of the author with some colleagues and I was just surprised to see Stephen J. Gould, another researcher and author of one of my favorite science books, The Mismeasure of Man.

From Wikipedia: Gould's most significant contribution to evolutionary biology was the theory of punctuated equilibrium developed with Niles Eldredge in 1972. The theory proposes that most evolution is characterized by long periods of evolutionary stability, infrequently punctuated by swift periods of branching speciation. The theory was contrasted against the popular idea that evolutionary change is marked by a pattern of smooth and continuous change in the fossil record.

His books influenced many people, including myself.

Just finished the book and LOVED IT. I've read several books on consciousness (I have a bookshelf called Consciousness - some books hit on it more directly than others) and this has gotten me further up the mountaintop to grokking what's maybe really going on up there in my brain than any other. I think his theory is correct. Mother Nature is parsimonious, and his reasoning for why and when what he calls 'phenomenal consciousness' evolved, is beautiful. You can't get anything expensive in nature unless it pays off real big.

I had to read some of the middle section of the book out loud, not because his writing is needlessly erudite, but just because each sentence carried so much meaning.

I do think he got a little loose toward the end - it seemed like he thinks 'whatever his dog does' passes scientific muster. But I love the hypothesis.

And thank you for making this the January book! I had never heard of this book before!

For those of you interested in the issue of consciousness, Nature has a recent article about a collaboration of scientist trying to devise tests that can evaluate the myriad of theories about consciousness. It's interesting. Not only can they not come to consensus about what consciousness is, they can't even decide how to test for it.

I don't know whether Nature has a paywall. I was able to get through and I don't yet have a subscription, so I assume you'll be able to get through, too.

https://www.nature.com/articles/d4158...