Conscious

Consciousness is the starting point: the fact that there is any felt experience of being in the world at all. Annaka Harris asks why a collection of matter in the universe would be conscious, how it comes about, and why it exists in the first place.

This is a work of popular non-fiction on science and philosophy. Harris leads the reader through the changing definitions of consciousness, the philosophical positions held about it, and the scientific findings that test how little is currently understood. Along the way she asks where consciousness resides and what produces it.

Two possibilities run through the questions. Consciousness might be an illusion, or it might be a property of all matter. Harris also takes up the problem of definition, and the question of who or what might be conscious now that artificial intelligence exists.

The book is written for general readers rather than specialists, in an accessible and lively style. Its arguments are meant to challenge and shift existing ideas, leaving readers room to work out their own view, if that proves possible.