false http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1172537219m/187100.jpg 187100 6 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 Mind, 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 machines (computers programmed from artificial intelligence) to the implications of Godel's theorem maintaining that conscious thinking must indeed involve ingredients that cannot adequately be stimulated by mere computation. 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. 180868 1994 Shadows of the Mind: A Search for the Missing Science of Consciousness total:70|5:15|4:26|3:23|2:4|1:2| 70 258 154 9 2 0 false false Sun May 24 17:01:32 -0700 2009 Sun May 24 17:44:15 -0700 2009 more...]]> 5 0 false false Sat Jun 02 10:40:16 -0700 2007 Sat Jun 02 11:09:54 -0700 2007
...more...]]> 5 0 false false Mon Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2001 Sun May 24 14:22:27 -0700 2009 Sun May 24 14:23:57 -0700 2009 3 0 false false Wed Dec 17 04:13:32 -0800 2008 Wed Dec 17 04:19:42 -0800 2008 3 0 false false Sat Sep 05 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Mon Jun 15 17:19:36 -0700 2009 Sat Sep 05 00:16:12 -0700 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Fri Nov 07 16:10:44 -0800 2008 Fri Nov 07 16:14:48 -0800 2008 more...]]> 4 0 false false Sun Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2006 Fri Dec 07 18:59:06 -0800 2007 Fri Dec 07 18:59:56 -0800 2007 5 0 true false Wed Oct 03 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Sun Mar 02 23:56:19 -0800 2008 Sun Mar 02 23:57:31 -0800 2008 0 0 false false Sat Dec 22 16:16:25 -0800 2007 Sat Dec 22 16:16:25 -0800 2007 4 0 false false Thu Nov 19 22:17:05 -0800 2009 Thu Nov 19 22:17:05 -0800 2009 0 0 false false Mon Nov 16 04:54:43 -0800 2009 Mon Nov 16 04:54:43 -0800 2009 0 0 false false Sat Nov 07 07:23:17 -0800 2009 Sat Nov 07 07:23:17 -0800 2009 0 0 false false Sun Nov 01 08:26:49 -0800 2009 Sun Nov 01 08:26:49 -0800 2009 0 0 false false Fri Oct 16 09:32:23 -0700 2009 Fri Oct 16 09:32:23 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Thu Oct 08 14:25:33 -0700 2009 Thu Oct 08 14:25:33 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Tue Sep 29 21:19:52 -0700 2009 Tue Sep 29 21:19:52 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Fri Sep 25 01:57:18 -0700 2009 Fri Sep 25 01:57:18 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Thu Sep 24 17:12:28 -0700 2009 Thu Sep 24 17:12:28 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Wed Sep 16 00:43:25 -0700 2009 Wed Sep 16 00:43:26 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Tue Sep 01 05:33:11 -0700 2009 Tue Sep 01 05:33:11 -0700 2009 http://www.goodreads.com/book_link/follow/8?book_id=187100