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New Scientist recommends Being You and The Man Without Qualities

The books, TV, games and more that New Scientist staff have enjoyed this week

By Gerardo Bandera

8 November 2023

Mandatory Credit: Photo by Alberto Valdes/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock (10056574a) British neuroscientist Anil Seth (C) gives a master class during the opening of the 8th Future Congress, in Santiago, Chile, 14 January 2019. Seth opened the congress with a conference on human consciousness. Future Congress in Chile, Santiago De Chile - 14 Jan 2019

Alberto Valdes/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock

I have been listening to the audiobook of Being You: A new science of consciousness by Anil Seth (pictured above). This is a fascinating exploration of his idea that consciousness is the result of the biological processes of our bodies and that the sensation of selfhood – of being “you” – and our sense of reality itself emerge from what he calls “the brain’s controlled hallucination”, based on predictions of the body’s internal state.

Seth draws on research from his own lab and discusses competing ideas about neuroscience and philosophical debates that have grappled with the enigma of consciousness over hundreds…

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