We see that javascript is disabled or not supported by your browser - javascript is needed for important actions on the site. Read more

What's New - Home - Login

Member $avings: $81,771,313.58 | Books Available: 721,848 | Members Online: 197

Swap Used Books - Buy New Books at Great Prices!

How To Swap Books Sign Up Search submenu

PBS Market (New Books)

Gift Buying Guide

Book Browser Advanced Search Books Posted Today Member Book Reviews Award Winning Books NYT Best Sellers Amazon Best Sellers Most Traveled Copies Club Wish List

Discussion Forums Book Lists

Club Lists My Book Lists My Watched Lists Create a List

Blog Donations

School Donation Program In Memory of... Military Donation Program Friends of PBS

Box-O-Books Maps The Eclectic Pen Fun Stuff

20 Questions Sudoku Bookmark Creator

Top 100

Requests Posts Swappers Referrers Reviewers

Pulse of PBS Spread The Word

Invite Friends Bookmarks Facebook Page Facebook App More Ways...

Photo Gallery Recipes Club Tag Cloud Member Testimonials

Help Center submenu

How To Swap Books Browse Help Docs Ask the Librarian PBS Member Icons Live Help

Kiosk

PBS Market (New Books) Go Shopping Buy Credits Buy PBS Money Upgrade Membership Gift Certificates Transfer Credits

Need Help?

Search - Shadows of the Mind: A Search for the Missing Science of Consciousness

Shadows of the Mind A Search for the Missing Science of Consciousness
Author: Roger Penrose

A New York Times bestseller when it appeared in 1989, Roger Penrose's The Emperor's New Mind was universally hailed as a marvelous survey of modern physics as well as a brilliant reflection on the human mind, offering a new perspective on the scientific landscape and a visionary glimpse of the possible future of science. Now, in Shadows of the M... more »ind, Penrose offers another exhilarating look at modern science as he mounts an even more powerful attack on artificial intelligence. But perhaps more important, in this volume he points the way to a new science, one that may eventually explain the physical basis of the human mind. Penrose contends that some aspects of the human mind lie beyond computation. This is not a religious argument (that the mind is something other than physical) nor is it based on the brain's vast complexity (the weather is immensely complex, says Penrose, but it is still a computable thing, at least in theory). Instead, he provides powerful arguments to support his conclusion that there is something in the conscious activity of the brain that transcends computation--and will find no explanation in terms of present-day science. To illuminate what he believes this "something" might be, and to suggest where a new physics must proceed so that we may understand it, Penrose cuts a wide swathe through modern science, providing penetrating looks at everything from Turing computability and Godel's incompleteness, via Schrodinger's Cat and the Elitzur-Vaidman bomb-testing problem, to detailed microbiology. Of particular interest is Penrose's extensive examination of quantum mechanics, which introduces some new ideas that differ markedly from those advanced in The Emperor's New Mind, especially concerning the mysterious interface where classical and quantum physics meet. But perhaps the most interesting wrinkle in Shadows of the Mind is Penrose's excursion into microbiology, where he examines cytoskeletons and microtubules, minute substructures lying deep within the brain's neurons. (He argues that microtubules--not neurons--may indeed be the basic units of the brain, which, if nothing else, would dramatically increase the brain's computational power.) Furthermore, he contends that in consciousness some kind of global quantum state must take place across large areas of the brain, and that it within microtubules that these collective quantum effects are most likely to reside. For physics to accommodate something that is as foreign to our current physical picture as is the phenomenon of consciousness, we must expect a profound change--one that alters the very underpinnings of our philosophical viewpoint as to the nature of reality. Shadows of the Mind provides an illuminating look at where these profound changes may take place and what our future understanding of the world may be.

ISBN-13: 9780195106466
ISBN-10: 0195106466
Publication Date: 6/27/1996
Pages: 480
Rating:

Currently 3.8/5 Stars.

3.8 stars, based on 2 ratings

Publisher: Oxford University Press
Book Type: Paperback
Other Versions: Hardcover
Members Wishing: 2
Reviews: Member | Amazon | Write a Review

Read All 1 Book Reviews of "Shadows of the Mind A Search for the Missing Science of Consciousness"

Please Log in to Rate these Book Reviews

Chad M. reviewed Shadows of the Mind: A Search for the Missing Science of Consciousness on 8/23/2009

This is a very eye opening book, looking at how the mind works form the perspective of a scientist and mathematician.

Share/Like this Review?

Read All Book Reviews of "Shadows of the Mind A Search for the Missing Science of Consciousness"

Genres:

Computers & Technology >> Computer Science >> AI & Machine Learning >> General
Computers & Technology >> Computer Science >> AI & Machine Learning >> Computer Mathematics
Health, Fitness & Dieting >> Psychology & Counseling >> General
Nonfiction >> Philosophy >> Consciousness & Thought
Science & Math >> Physics >> Molecular Physics
Engineering & Transportation >> Professional Science >> Physics >> Molecular Physics

Back to the Top ↑

Search - Shadows of the Mind: A Search for the Missing Science of Consciousness

Please Log in to Rate these Book Reviews

Loading...