Putting Ourselves Back in the Equation
Why Physicists Are Studying Human Consciousness and AI to Unravel the Mysteries of the Universe
by George Musser
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Pub Date Nov 07 2023 | Archive Date Nov 30 2023
Description
“This is a delightful account of one of the deepest and most fascinating explorations going on today at the frontier of our knowledge.” —Carlo Rovelli, bestselling author of The Order of Time and Seven Brief Lessons on Physics
“Musser knows that the point of popular science is [. . .] to get a sense of what’s at stake, what kinds of answers are being offered to difficult questions, and why it all matters. One could not ask more of Putting Ourselves Back in the Equation—on all three counts it delivers.” —Julian Baggini, The Wall Street Journal
A revelatory exploration of how a “theory of everything” depends upon our understanding of the human mind.
The whole goal of physics is to explain what we observe. For centuries, physicists believed that observations yielded faithful representations of what is out there. But when they began to study the subatomic realm, they found that observation often interferes with what is being observed—that the act of seeing changes what we see. The same is true of cosmology: our view of the universe is inevitably distorted by observation bias. And so whether they’re studying subatomic particles or galaxies, physicists must first explain consciousness—and for that they must turn to neuroscientists and philosophers of mind.
Neuroscientists have painstakingly built up an understanding of the structure of the brain. Could this help physicists understand the levels of self-organization they observe in other systems? These same physicists, meanwhile, are trying to explain how particles organize themselves into the objects around us. Could their discoveries help explain how neurons produce our conscious experience?
Exploring these questions and more, George Musser tackles the extraordinary interconnections between quantum mechanics, cosmology, human consciousness, and artificial intelligence. Combining vivid descriptive writing with portraits of scientists working on the cutting edge, Putting Ourselves Back in the Equation shows how theories of everything depend on theories of mind—and how they might be one and the same.
A Note From the Publisher
Advance Praise
"This is a delightful account of one of the deepest and most fascinating explorations going on today at the frontier of our knowledge." —Carlo Rovelli, bestselling author of The Order of Time and Seven Brief Lessons on Physics
"The renowned science writer George Musser has taken on one of our time’s greatest issues: AI, how it works, and what makes it so powerful. This masterfully written book shows a surprising connection with theoretical physics.” —Max Tegmark, professor at MIT and bestselling author of Life 3.0 and Our Mathematical Universe
★ “Electrifying . . . Musser explores the fascinating ways in which scientists are studying the physics of the mind . . . Musser has a talent for distilling complex science into accessible language . . . Lucid and endlessly intriguing, [Putting Ourselves Back in the Equation] will expand readers’ minds.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"George Musser is one of my favorite science writers of all time. Putting Ourselves Back in the Equation is an important book that will inform both the future of physics and the philosophy of mind.” —Annaka Harris, bestselling author of Conscious: A Brief Guide to the Fundamental Mystery of the Mind
"The philosopher Immanuel Kant wrote once, 'The starry heavens begin at the place I occupy in the external world of sense, and they broaden the connection in which I stand into an unbounded magnitude of worlds beyond worlds.' In this captivating book, George Musser takes us on a fascinating tour of the modern, surprising connections, scientists discover between the cosmos and our inner world of consciousness." —Mario Livio, astrophysicist and author of The Golden Ratio and Galileo and the Science Deniers
“George Musser delivers stunning clarity on mother nature’s toughest puzzles. The reader will discover some things they thought they understood they don't. And mercifully, some things they thought they would never understand they now do. Putting Ourselves Back in the Equation is a great book." —Michael S. Gazzaniga, author of The Consciousness Instinct
"In Putting Ourselves Back in the Equation, George Musser takes us on a fascinating journey that links the deepest mechanisms of human consciousness to the most advanced developments in AI." —Guido Tonelli, scientist at CERN and author of Genesis
"I couldn't put this book down. The science of what makes reality tick, and what makes us conscious, all explored with lively, inviting prose that draws the reader in, from cover to cover." —Susan Schneider, Director of the Center for the Future Mind at Florida Atlantic University and author of Artificial You: AI and the Future of the Mind
"Putting Ourselves Back in the Equation is a remarkable book. It offers a wonderful treatment of bleeding edge issues in the physics of consciousness, asking whether we are sentient observers of the universe or whether the universe emerges from our sentient observations. George Musser leaves the reader with burning questions about our place in the universe (or vice versa)—questions whose answers seem tantalizingly within reach." —Karl J. Friston FRS, professor of neuroscience at University College London
"Fifty years ago, the great theoretical physicist P. W. Anderson wrote an essay titled 'More is different.' He tried to explain how when 'more' is large enough, it begets 'new phenomena' entirely unlike the entities of which there are 'more.' In this book, George Musser entices the reader to ask whether in the gap between consciousness, qualia, and free will, on the one hand, and neurons, networks, electrophysiology, quantum mechanics, and neuroanatomy on the other, there might now be a new scientific synthesis necessary. Putting Ourselves Back in the Equation is sprightly, a good read, and beguiled this reader into thinking once again about 'More is different.'" —John Hopfield, professor emeritus at Princeton University and former president of the American Physical Society
Available Editions
| EDITION | Other Format |
| ISBN | 9780374238766 |
| PRICE | $30.00 (USD) |
| PAGES | 320 |
