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Putting Ourselves Back in the Equation: Why Physicists Are Studying Human Consciousness and AI to Unravel the Mysteries of the Universe
A revelatory exploration of why a "theory of everything" is likely to depend on a theory of 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 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.
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, and human consciousness. 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.
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 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.
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, and human consciousness. 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.
336 pages, Hardcover
Published November 7, 2023
103 people are currently reading
715 people want to read
About the author
George Musser
11 books66 followersGeorge Musser is a contributing editor for Scientific American and Nautilus magazines, where he focuses on space science and fundamental physics. He is the recipient of the 2011 Science Writing Award from the American Institute of Physics and the 2010 Jonathan Eberhart Planetary Sciences Journalism Award from the American Astronomical Society. Musser was one of the lead editors for the magazine's single-topic issue “A Matter of Time” (Sept. 2002), which won a National Magazine Award for editorial excellence, and he coordinated the single-topic issue “Crossroads for Planet Earth” (Sept. 2005), which was a NMA finalist and won the 2005 Global Media Award from the Population Institute. He is a member of the Foundational Questions Institute and was a Knight Science Journalism Fellow at MIT from 2014 to 2015. Follow him on Mastodon at @gmusser@mastodon.social.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 51 reviews
November 30, 2023
This is my 800th book review on GR.
Whenever I hit one of these milestones, like the FIRST book of the year. Or the LAST book of the year. Or whatever. I sort of try to pick a good one. Something kind of special. I stoped and started a few before landing on this one. And it’s good.
But (sort of) IMPOSSIBLE to review.
So I’m going to tap out 😐
On a good day.
My normal way of reviewing books is to try to identify some of the BIG ideas and break them down in a way that makes sense to me. So that later on. I can (a) go black and remember what the fuck that book was about, (b) recall how it affected (affected) me, and (c) share that with people on GR in a way that is (hopefully) useful and (at least a little) entertaining.
This is (apparently) not one of those days.
And.
This is one of those WAY TOO BIG TO REVIEW books.
There are SO many REALLY BIG ideas in here.
That I can’t.
I could…
But I can’t.
I can (and do) recommend it.
But y’all are going to have to read it.
Or (hopefully) someone else will review it better.
4/5 stars.
Why the reduction in points?
The first three quarters of the book is SPECTACULAR.
The last quarter is somewhat less coherent.
Granted.
The book tackles some of the biggest unsolved issues in science: consciousness, quantum phenomena, time, space.
Artificial intelligence.
All that.
Plus how ALL THAT is somehow related to the so-called hard problem of consciousness.
But towards the end of the book, we get so close to the boundary of the known (or knowable), that the initial excitement about the prospect of gaining purchase on the issue of consciousness seems to slip into the void of infinity.
It’s still COOL AF
Still worth reading.
But be ready for a bit of a Game Of Thrones ending.
4/5 ⭐️
Whenever I hit one of these milestones, like the FIRST book of the year. Or the LAST book of the year. Or whatever. I sort of try to pick a good one. Something kind of special. I stoped and started a few before landing on this one. And it’s good.
But (sort of) IMPOSSIBLE to review.
So I’m going to tap out 😐
On a good day.
My normal way of reviewing books is to try to identify some of the BIG ideas and break them down in a way that makes sense to me. So that later on. I can (a) go black and remember what the fuck that book was about, (b) recall how it affected (affected) me, and (c) share that with people on GR in a way that is (hopefully) useful and (at least a little) entertaining.
This is (apparently) not one of those days.
And.
This is one of those WAY TOO BIG TO REVIEW books.
There are SO many REALLY BIG ideas in here.
That I can’t.
I could…
But I can’t.
I can (and do) recommend it.
But y’all are going to have to read it.
Or (hopefully) someone else will review it better.
4/5 stars.
Why the reduction in points?
The first three quarters of the book is SPECTACULAR.
The last quarter is somewhat less coherent.
Granted.
The book tackles some of the biggest unsolved issues in science: consciousness, quantum phenomena, time, space.
Artificial intelligence.
All that.
Plus how ALL THAT is somehow related to the so-called hard problem of consciousness.
But towards the end of the book, we get so close to the boundary of the known (or knowable), that the initial excitement about the prospect of gaining purchase on the issue of consciousness seems to slip into the void of infinity.
It’s still COOL AF
Still worth reading.
But be ready for a bit of a Game Of Thrones ending.
4/5 ⭐️
January 2, 2024
The inside outside problem is real. Descartes makes thinking equal to being by assuming the world away. Kant brings the world back by taking away the truth as out there and starting a Copernican revolution of the mind with giving us intuition, time, and space within our faculty of understanding.
Musser connects fundamentals together that shouldn’t always be connected. It’s so easy to take ontological foundations of the ontic and connect neural networks, consciousness, quantum peculiarities and give word salads as Deepak Chopra would do, but Musser never goes into woo-woo land while always staying tethered to reality. He understands what Kant was getting at and the problems with making being equal to thinking when a world is assumed away.
Musser gives credibility to Penrose, David Boehm, Max Tegmark and Lee Smolin throughout the text. At one time I would have too. Today all of their weirdness grates on me and I think they belong more with Deepak and Oprah, than as serious thinkers. I don’t trust the woo-woo inherent within biocentrism (i.e.,the world needs observers and we are the world) or pantheism (i. e., the world is alive) or any of its watered-down versions as Musser attempts to present at times in this book.
I don’t think autism is explained by neural networks not seeing the whole pattern as Musser essentially states twice in this book. That’s okay. I do like the fact that Musser gets at the heart of AI better than the popular but what I call an awful book: The Coming Wave.
Cause is a label we put on events outside of us to help us understand the world. David Hume is right; Musser is right when he quotes Betrand Russel and David Hume to that effect. Musser gets at some amazing truths, connects them, and explains them, but at times he gives too much credence to the incredible. That’s okay, it’s for the reader to embrace their own reality. We are within the world and part of the world and we need to separate it such that the ‘inside outside problem’ makes sense to us and the exciting science that is happening right now can help us deconvolve that confounding.
Musser connects fundamentals together that shouldn’t always be connected. It’s so easy to take ontological foundations of the ontic and connect neural networks, consciousness, quantum peculiarities and give word salads as Deepak Chopra would do, but Musser never goes into woo-woo land while always staying tethered to reality. He understands what Kant was getting at and the problems with making being equal to thinking when a world is assumed away.
Musser gives credibility to Penrose, David Boehm, Max Tegmark and Lee Smolin throughout the text. At one time I would have too. Today all of their weirdness grates on me and I think they belong more with Deepak and Oprah, than as serious thinkers. I don’t trust the woo-woo inherent within biocentrism (i.e.,the world needs observers and we are the world) or pantheism (i. e., the world is alive) or any of its watered-down versions as Musser attempts to present at times in this book.
I don’t think autism is explained by neural networks not seeing the whole pattern as Musser essentially states twice in this book. That’s okay. I do like the fact that Musser gets at the heart of AI better than the popular but what I call an awful book: The Coming Wave.
Cause is a label we put on events outside of us to help us understand the world. David Hume is right; Musser is right when he quotes Betrand Russel and David Hume to that effect. Musser gets at some amazing truths, connects them, and explains them, but at times he gives too much credence to the incredible. That’s okay, it’s for the reader to embrace their own reality. We are within the world and part of the world and we need to separate it such that the ‘inside outside problem’ makes sense to us and the exciting science that is happening right now can help us deconvolve that confounding.
October 30, 2023
2023 has born witness to an explosion of book publications on cognitive neuroscience topics, especially consciousness and free will. George Musser's Putting Ourselves Back in the Equation is yet another entry, following on books from Kevin Mitchell, Max Bennett, Robert Sapolsky, Erik Hoel (featured prominently in Musser's book), and others. Musser's angle is a closer look at what physicists can contribute to question. With reciprocal symmetry, Musser contends that revealing the nature of consciousness may be fundamental to solving other conundrums in physics, such as reconciling quantum mechanic and general relativity (the so-called "theory of everything").
Although attempts to bridge knowledge from physics with knowledge from neuroscience and psychology - or, in other words, to solve the "hard problem of consciousness" - have clearly been generative, it is hard to say there has been meaningful progression or insights. We appear to be in a place where of questions, paradoxes, and theoretical models are proliferating, while empirical and experimental work languishes or proceeds discursively. In fact, I think one of the most interesting things to come out of books like these is that the most useful insights about how our higher-order processes in the brain work appear to come from the tinkering of those trying to apply neural networks to achieve different types of artificial intelligence. Musser explores this idea early in the book, but it would have been great to have more of it.
Alternatively, Musser plows forward through the varied conception of consciousness, fleshing out the differences between the various theories (predictive processing, integrated information theory (IIT), panpsychism, and quantum theories) and what physics suggests about the validity or fruitfulness of each one. Overall, this was a reasonably good introduction to these ideas especially contextualized against the insights of cosmology and quantum physics. The challenge is that the accessibility of the content varies substantially. Musser, where he able to convey some very complex subjects like Hoel's work on causal emergence quite clearly while sort of bumbling through different theories of wave function collapse and observer theories.
Despite the blooming in cognitive neuroscience publications, Musser's work does enough to be distinct and fresh. It also have useful curious and open tone that allows for a fairly balanced exploration of the models in this space. Unfortunately, the pre-paradigmatic state of the science of consciousness and the indeterminacy and paradoxical quality of quantum physics, it is hard to derive great takeaways from the book. It is a journey. So I recommend to those who are very curious and patient.
Although attempts to bridge knowledge from physics with knowledge from neuroscience and psychology - or, in other words, to solve the "hard problem of consciousness" - have clearly been generative, it is hard to say there has been meaningful progression or insights. We appear to be in a place where of questions, paradoxes, and theoretical models are proliferating, while empirical and experimental work languishes or proceeds discursively. In fact, I think one of the most interesting things to come out of books like these is that the most useful insights about how our higher-order processes in the brain work appear to come from the tinkering of those trying to apply neural networks to achieve different types of artificial intelligence. Musser explores this idea early in the book, but it would have been great to have more of it.
Alternatively, Musser plows forward through the varied conception of consciousness, fleshing out the differences between the various theories (predictive processing, integrated information theory (IIT), panpsychism, and quantum theories) and what physics suggests about the validity or fruitfulness of each one. Overall, this was a reasonably good introduction to these ideas especially contextualized against the insights of cosmology and quantum physics. The challenge is that the accessibility of the content varies substantially. Musser, where he able to convey some very complex subjects like Hoel's work on causal emergence quite clearly while sort of bumbling through different theories of wave function collapse and observer theories.
Despite the blooming in cognitive neuroscience publications, Musser's work does enough to be distinct and fresh. It also have useful curious and open tone that allows for a fairly balanced exploration of the models in this space. Unfortunately, the pre-paradigmatic state of the science of consciousness and the indeterminacy and paradoxical quality of quantum physics, it is hard to derive great takeaways from the book. It is a journey. So I recommend to those who are very curious and patient.
December 15, 2023
For me, this has been an uncomfortable read. I haven’t been fully trusting of the synthesis the author is offering. The book is “about” several things at once — neural networks, consciousness, AI, quantum entanglement, wave function collapse — but IMO the book does not pull these topics together into a digestible whole. Instead, there’s a smorgasbord of ideas, each thought-provoking but without leading to a satisfying conclusion. I sense, as well, an unmeasured reliance on the concepts of panpsychism and Integrated Information Theory. I don’t know enough about IIT to judge whether it is a fringe theory, but I believe panpsychism is. The author is a journalist, not a practicing scientist. I can’t say I understand anything better from reading this book, although there are some things I want to explore further. For example, the Wigner’s friend thought experiment.
August 30, 2023
Musser does a great job explaining complicated concepts in a way that makes them understandable but doesn't oversimplify. The mix of explaining, quotes, examples, and diagrams was helpful in getting a grasp of the arguments. It's an interesting topic and Musser's writing flows well, making it easy to read. I learned a lot from this book and enjoyed the reading experience.
April 20, 2025
I read the ‘Rigor of Angels’ in 2023 which covers similar ground even if in this book reality is framed as consciousness. That book was more inventive and discursive with a deep reading of Heisenberg, Kant and Borges.
Here George Musser focuses on physicists and neurobiologists discussing consciousness as the hard question of physics. He travels the world to talk with scientists about AI, neural networks, predictive coding and integrated information theory.
He does a good job pointing out the difficulty of quantum physics because of its dependence on an observer that takes the science out of the impersonal, objective clockmaker of Newton and into the subjectivity so rampant in the 20th century.
But then he lost me because he kept promoting more speculative notions which undermined, causality, time and even space without fully defining consciousness. It just becomes a stand in for our perceived reality when it is more and less than that but definitely needs defining as he kept coming back to it as sciences’ holy grail.
In the end he becomes a cockeyed optimist blithely asserting that he think comprehending where consciousness come from and how it works is something humans will eventually figure out. If we only know that dark matter makes up a huge portion of the universe and we don’t know what dark matter is, I am dubious we are anywhere close to understanding consciousness.
Here George Musser focuses on physicists and neurobiologists discussing consciousness as the hard question of physics. He travels the world to talk with scientists about AI, neural networks, predictive coding and integrated information theory.
He does a good job pointing out the difficulty of quantum physics because of its dependence on an observer that takes the science out of the impersonal, objective clockmaker of Newton and into the subjectivity so rampant in the 20th century.
But then he lost me because he kept promoting more speculative notions which undermined, causality, time and even space without fully defining consciousness. It just becomes a stand in for our perceived reality when it is more and less than that but definitely needs defining as he kept coming back to it as sciences’ holy grail.
In the end he becomes a cockeyed optimist blithely asserting that he think comprehending where consciousness come from and how it works is something humans will eventually figure out. If we only know that dark matter makes up a huge portion of the universe and we don’t know what dark matter is, I am dubious we are anywhere close to understanding consciousness.
October 23, 2023
Extremely engaging and thought-provoking, I'm tempted to read everything by this author (The Complete Idiot's Guide to String Theory? lol) but also my brain needs a little break. I am definitely not a scientist, but I love the genre. My complaints are usually that the writing isn't engaging or that the books are too surface-level and just spend 300 pages reinforcing the same basic comments, but neither apply in this case.
The tiny little topics covered here are space, time, matter, and the mind. The influence of neuroscience on physics is discussed, and what can be gained from the pairing is contemplated. I definitely did not understand everything here, but appreciated the depth with which George Musser explained the concepts presented and tried to get me to learn them. Lots of analogies here to help a non-scientist understand, but the author definitely doesn't stray from difficult topics.
The book is also extremely relevant and mentions the pandemic, political drama, etc., recent to the time of publication. I thought so much about so many interesting things, and I learned quite a bit. Would highly recommend.
Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.
The tiny little topics covered here are space, time, matter, and the mind. The influence of neuroscience on physics is discussed, and what can be gained from the pairing is contemplated. I definitely did not understand everything here, but appreciated the depth with which George Musser explained the concepts presented and tried to get me to learn them. Lots of analogies here to help a non-scientist understand, but the author definitely doesn't stray from difficult topics.
The book is also extremely relevant and mentions the pandemic, political drama, etc., recent to the time of publication. I thought so much about so many interesting things, and I learned quite a bit. Would highly recommend.
Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.
December 4, 2025
Musser recounts modern physicists and cosmologists who left their lab benches to study the brain and the mind through Integrated Information Theory (IIT) or predictive processing. Many of these theoretical physicists became neuroscientists, others are building neural networks at various AI startups. Other theories, especially those by Carlos Rovelli, are explored in depth. But this is not a book on solutions to the measurement problem. For that, I will refer you to Through Two Doors At Once by Anil Ananthaswamy. This is a book primarily on consciousness through the lens of cognitive neuroscience.
Emergence is discussed: emergent complexity; emergent causation; emergent space and spatial experience. If you are interested in the intersection of fundamental physics, cognitive neuroscience, and artificial intelligence, this may be the book you're looking for.
I'm giving the book three stars, and not four, because although it is an amusing account of one journalist's trodding from convention to convention, and a running-into with Karl Friston, I came away learning nothing new. Almost the entire book is focused on two topics that I am already intimately familiar with: Rovelli's Relational Quantum Mechanics (RQM), and Tonini et. al's Integrated Information Theory (IIT). Musser's work is no more than a love letter to the former theories. Easy to read, but a doting love letter nonetheless.
Emergence is discussed: emergent complexity; emergent causation; emergent space and spatial experience. If you are interested in the intersection of fundamental physics, cognitive neuroscience, and artificial intelligence, this may be the book you're looking for.
I'm giving the book three stars, and not four, because although it is an amusing account of one journalist's trodding from convention to convention, and a running-into with Karl Friston, I came away learning nothing new. Almost the entire book is focused on two topics that I am already intimately familiar with: Rovelli's Relational Quantum Mechanics (RQM), and Tonini et. al's Integrated Information Theory (IIT). Musser's work is no more than a love letter to the former theories. Easy to read, but a doting love letter nonetheless.
Read
February 26, 2024Had to stop reading it because I just didn’t have time. Too many books on my shelf. Probably very interesting and may go back to it sometime.
March 31, 2024
ok, ok, this is what I do (my own research), so maybe my opinion is not so helpful. I mean, of COURSE I find this stuff interesting, sort of by definition. I think George does a very good job explaining the science - he doesn't talk down to people (i.e., dumb it down so that it's actually wrong.) And an even better job explaining why it is important and interesting to us all.
July 20, 2025
Interesting topics but poor errand very poor audio narration
Read
May 3, 2024I just realized I can't stand pop science that's even adjacent to my field. with any generalization or omission of subtlety, the illusion of academic authority shatters and i no longer trust the author. a consequence of being an annoying person with a phd i fear
May 12, 2024
Putting Ourselves Back Into The Equation~~~~
Where did our consciousness come from? What are our minds? The 2023 book Putting Ourselves Back Into The Equation: Why Physicists Are Studying Human Consciousness and AI To Unravel the Mysteries of the Universe doesn't give any absolute answers to these questions, but science is predicated on offering many probabilities to every scientifically-formed question. Science journalist George Musser has been writing in lots of scientific and psychological magazines and blogs for decades and for his new book includes seventy-six interviews or personal communications with physicists, quantum physicists, roboticists, biologists, philosophers, and psychologists.
Towards the end Musser notes that eminent scientists Noam Chomsky and Steven Pinker claim that human consciousness will never be explained because it's part of nature and yet do not explain their beliefs, if I understand correctly. I wonder if those scientists just don't want to get involved in the debate or assume there's a spiritual or soul basis for consciousness.
I'm unfortunately not the best person to review this book. Science has never been my strong suit and yet it does fascinate me. This will be a layperson's commentary of the book.
Physicists typically avoid the hard problem of consciousness and mind, leaving it to neuroscientists to deal with, but many have realized that to solve the problem of matter they need to first understand consciousness. They cannot separate the two because our minds share many structural similarities to the universe, like personal universes.
I'm probably already blowing your mind. My mind was blown away from the beginning to the end of the book! I learned about so many scientific concepts and theories to try to understand the origins of consciousness that I'm not sure where to begin, but let's mention entropy. ..
Entropy, a measure of uncertainty and randomness, is full of complexity and becomes more complex, but cannot naturally return to a simple state. It looks to me like there's a lot of that happening as dark matter in much of the universe. This seems to mean there are no simple answers. Scientists have never found space to be curved or replicating itself, but find it stretches out forty-six billion light years!
I'm intrigued by the idea that reality is about relations between us and what we perceive. It's relational physics that gets rid of the inside/outside problem.
Musser teases us with the achievement AI has already won in a few years that took humans many decades to understand, but scientists aren't designing robots to be conscious so much as to think over the hard questions from a different, less rigid perspective. AI could come up with new laws of physics and change our understanding of reality.
Very interesting read. I had to take time with it and you will probably have to as well.
Where did our consciousness come from? What are our minds? The 2023 book Putting Ourselves Back Into The Equation: Why Physicists Are Studying Human Consciousness and AI To Unravel the Mysteries of the Universe doesn't give any absolute answers to these questions, but science is predicated on offering many probabilities to every scientifically-formed question. Science journalist George Musser has been writing in lots of scientific and psychological magazines and blogs for decades and for his new book includes seventy-six interviews or personal communications with physicists, quantum physicists, roboticists, biologists, philosophers, and psychologists.
Towards the end Musser notes that eminent scientists Noam Chomsky and Steven Pinker claim that human consciousness will never be explained because it's part of nature and yet do not explain their beliefs, if I understand correctly. I wonder if those scientists just don't want to get involved in the debate or assume there's a spiritual or soul basis for consciousness.
I'm unfortunately not the best person to review this book. Science has never been my strong suit and yet it does fascinate me. This will be a layperson's commentary of the book.
Physicists typically avoid the hard problem of consciousness and mind, leaving it to neuroscientists to deal with, but many have realized that to solve the problem of matter they need to first understand consciousness. They cannot separate the two because our minds share many structural similarities to the universe, like personal universes.
I'm probably already blowing your mind. My mind was blown away from the beginning to the end of the book! I learned about so many scientific concepts and theories to try to understand the origins of consciousness that I'm not sure where to begin, but let's mention entropy. ..
Entropy, a measure of uncertainty and randomness, is full of complexity and becomes more complex, but cannot naturally return to a simple state. It looks to me like there's a lot of that happening as dark matter in much of the universe. This seems to mean there are no simple answers. Scientists have never found space to be curved or replicating itself, but find it stretches out forty-six billion light years!
I'm intrigued by the idea that reality is about relations between us and what we perceive. It's relational physics that gets rid of the inside/outside problem.
Musser teases us with the achievement AI has already won in a few years that took humans many decades to understand, but scientists aren't designing robots to be conscious so much as to think over the hard questions from a different, less rigid perspective. AI could come up with new laws of physics and change our understanding of reality.
Very interesting read. I had to take time with it and you will probably have to as well.
March 23, 2024
2024 reading challenge- read a nonfiction book
March 11, 2024
Consciousness is a fundamental nonlocal reality.
Recent progress in physics, philosophy, neurobiology, and artificial intelligence (AI) research suggests that consciousness is a fundamental nonlocal field that gives rise to information, matter/energy, emerging spacetime, and of course the laws of physics under which the emergence of life/conscious entities are possible. Consciousness is a creative force that shapes the universe and human beings in a unified field. It is an intelligent information system driving the universe.
The crux of the consciousness research is how do we explain the eighty-six billion neurons of the human brain produce conscious experience. In addition, the nervous system is influenced by or influence cardiovascular, endocrine, gastrointestinal, and immune systems. The human gut bacteria produce many neurotransmitters such as dopamine, norepinephrine, acetylcholine, and GABA, which are critical for mood, anxiety, concentration, reward, and motivation. Thus, gut microbiome changes how our brains react or produces a conscious experience. There is also the “hard problem” of consciousness that needs to explain as how humans and other organisms have qualia or subjective experiences which encapsulate our personal perception and internal understanding of the world around us. It gets even more complicated as we are learning from AI research that some form of inner conscious experience also emerges from artificial intelligence or the silicon transistors. Indeed, Google recently published an AI-powered robot that can sense and engage with its environment, when a PaLM-E delivered a packet of potato chips to its owner, despite the packet having been hidden in a drawer midway through the experiment. PaLM-E (Pathways Language Model-E) is a groundbreaking 562-billion parameter embodied multimodal language model that seamlessly connects textual data to real-world visual and physical sensor modalities, enhancing problem-solving in computer vision and robotics. Google reports that it has common sense reasoning that compares with average human being. Common sense is one of the products of conscious experience.
There is also the hard problem of matter, which is similar to the hard problem of mind. Physics becomes a purely relational description of matter which at the most fundamental level originates out of quantum vacuum, i.e., quantum particles emerge and disappear (annihilates) out of nothing. All this is explained by quantum physics and physics formulas (information). Likewise, a purely relational description of the mind omits the experiential quality of our experience, and conscious experience is reduced to information. These two hard problems are linked, and that the nature of matter is related to the nature of mind and consciousness. The details are hazy at the moment, but the takeaway message is that physics needs to reach outside itself to answer its most fundamental questions, namely conscious observers in the quantum realm. Physicist Carlo Rovelli proposes that reality consists not of things, but of relations; theories, quantum physics, and scientific reasoning indicate that there are no observer-independent absolute entities. Theories of consciousness such as integrated information theory (IIT) and predictive coding supports Rovelli’s assertions which the author discusses in Chapter 3.
Additional considerations help readers where the author is going with all this. For example, most physical systems are reactive, meaning that they respond only to their immediate circumstances and affect only their immediate surroundings. Causation in these systems is straightforward; effects are proximate and proportional to causes. But intelligent beings and artificial neural networks create twisty paths between cause and effect. We're not dominos falling dumbly. The universe is not just a landscape in which one thing happens and then another; there are special little causal hubs built to collect influence from across landscape and filter it through a decision process that guides our actions. These little hubs are called human minds.
The book reads flawlessly, and the author makes a good effort to describe the challenges of all the scientific disciplines involved in consciousness research, but I have read better reviews on this subject in professional journals.
Recent progress in physics, philosophy, neurobiology, and artificial intelligence (AI) research suggests that consciousness is a fundamental nonlocal field that gives rise to information, matter/energy, emerging spacetime, and of course the laws of physics under which the emergence of life/conscious entities are possible. Consciousness is a creative force that shapes the universe and human beings in a unified field. It is an intelligent information system driving the universe.
The crux of the consciousness research is how do we explain the eighty-six billion neurons of the human brain produce conscious experience. In addition, the nervous system is influenced by or influence cardiovascular, endocrine, gastrointestinal, and immune systems. The human gut bacteria produce many neurotransmitters such as dopamine, norepinephrine, acetylcholine, and GABA, which are critical for mood, anxiety, concentration, reward, and motivation. Thus, gut microbiome changes how our brains react or produces a conscious experience. There is also the “hard problem” of consciousness that needs to explain as how humans and other organisms have qualia or subjective experiences which encapsulate our personal perception and internal understanding of the world around us. It gets even more complicated as we are learning from AI research that some form of inner conscious experience also emerges from artificial intelligence or the silicon transistors. Indeed, Google recently published an AI-powered robot that can sense and engage with its environment, when a PaLM-E delivered a packet of potato chips to its owner, despite the packet having been hidden in a drawer midway through the experiment. PaLM-E (Pathways Language Model-E) is a groundbreaking 562-billion parameter embodied multimodal language model that seamlessly connects textual data to real-world visual and physical sensor modalities, enhancing problem-solving in computer vision and robotics. Google reports that it has common sense reasoning that compares with average human being. Common sense is one of the products of conscious experience.
There is also the hard problem of matter, which is similar to the hard problem of mind. Physics becomes a purely relational description of matter which at the most fundamental level originates out of quantum vacuum, i.e., quantum particles emerge and disappear (annihilates) out of nothing. All this is explained by quantum physics and physics formulas (information). Likewise, a purely relational description of the mind omits the experiential quality of our experience, and conscious experience is reduced to information. These two hard problems are linked, and that the nature of matter is related to the nature of mind and consciousness. The details are hazy at the moment, but the takeaway message is that physics needs to reach outside itself to answer its most fundamental questions, namely conscious observers in the quantum realm. Physicist Carlo Rovelli proposes that reality consists not of things, but of relations; theories, quantum physics, and scientific reasoning indicate that there are no observer-independent absolute entities. Theories of consciousness such as integrated information theory (IIT) and predictive coding supports Rovelli’s assertions which the author discusses in Chapter 3.
Additional considerations help readers where the author is going with all this. For example, most physical systems are reactive, meaning that they respond only to their immediate circumstances and affect only their immediate surroundings. Causation in these systems is straightforward; effects are proximate and proportional to causes. But intelligent beings and artificial neural networks create twisty paths between cause and effect. We're not dominos falling dumbly. The universe is not just a landscape in which one thing happens and then another; there are special little causal hubs built to collect influence from across landscape and filter it through a decision process that guides our actions. These little hubs are called human minds.
The book reads flawlessly, and the author makes a good effort to describe the challenges of all the scientific disciplines involved in consciousness research, but I have read better reviews on this subject in professional journals.
February 26, 2024
"Putting Ourselves Back in the Equation" is a fascinating audiobook written by George Musser and narrated by Alan Peterson. The book explores the mystery of consciousness and our place in the universe, raising thought-provoking questions about the nature of reality and our role in it.
Musser's writing is engaging and accessible, making complex concepts easy to understand. He takes the listener on a journey through the history of science, exploring how our understanding of the universe has evolved over time. The author weaves together ideas from physics, neuroscience, and philosophy to create a compelling narrative that challenges our assumptions about consciousness and the nature of reality.
The narration by Alan Peterson is clear and engaging, bringing the material to life in an engaging way. His delivery is well-paced and easy to follow, making the complex ideas accessible to a wide audience.
One of the strengths of the book is its ability to bridge the gap between science and spirituality. Musser argues that consciousness is not just a byproduct of brain activity but a fundamental aspect of the universe. He suggests that our experiences and observations play a crucial role in shaping reality, challenging the traditional scientific view that consciousness is merely an epiphenomenon.
The book also raises interesting questions about the nature of time and the role of the observer in shaping reality. Musser argues that time is not a fundamental aspect of the universe but an emergent property that arises from our observations. He suggests that our perception of time is a result of our consciousness, challenging the traditional view that time is an objective, external reality.
Overall, "Putting Ourselves Back in the Equation" is a thought-provoking and engaging audiobook that challenges our assumptions about consciousness, time, and reality. It offers a fresh perspective on the nature of the universe and our place in it, making it a must-listen for anyone interested in science, philosophy, or spirituality.
Pros:
* Engaging and accessible writing style
* Challenges traditional scientific views of consciousness and reality
* Bridges the gap between science and spirituality
Cons:
* Some concepts may be challenging for those without a background in science or philosophy
* May not appeal to those looking for a traditional scientific or spiritual text
Overall rating: 4.5/5 stars
Musser's writing is engaging and accessible, making complex concepts easy to understand. He takes the listener on a journey through the history of science, exploring how our understanding of the universe has evolved over time. The author weaves together ideas from physics, neuroscience, and philosophy to create a compelling narrative that challenges our assumptions about consciousness and the nature of reality.
The narration by Alan Peterson is clear and engaging, bringing the material to life in an engaging way. His delivery is well-paced and easy to follow, making the complex ideas accessible to a wide audience.
One of the strengths of the book is its ability to bridge the gap between science and spirituality. Musser argues that consciousness is not just a byproduct of brain activity but a fundamental aspect of the universe. He suggests that our experiences and observations play a crucial role in shaping reality, challenging the traditional scientific view that consciousness is merely an epiphenomenon.
The book also raises interesting questions about the nature of time and the role of the observer in shaping reality. Musser argues that time is not a fundamental aspect of the universe but an emergent property that arises from our observations. He suggests that our perception of time is a result of our consciousness, challenging the traditional view that time is an objective, external reality.
Overall, "Putting Ourselves Back in the Equation" is a thought-provoking and engaging audiobook that challenges our assumptions about consciousness, time, and reality. It offers a fresh perspective on the nature of the universe and our place in it, making it a must-listen for anyone interested in science, philosophy, or spirituality.
Pros:
* Engaging and accessible writing style
* Challenges traditional scientific views of consciousness and reality
* Bridges the gap between science and spirituality
Cons:
* Some concepts may be challenging for those without a background in science or philosophy
* May not appeal to those looking for a traditional scientific or spiritual text
Overall rating: 4.5/5 stars
September 22, 2023
This book takes the “if a tree falls in the forest but there’s nobody there to hear it” scenario to galactic levels and actually gives answers that are fascinating, scary and unexpected. The author explores many really complicated concepts in ways that are easier to grasp. There is still a lot of quantum physics, which I have really, really tried and failed to understand. I’m afraid that I still can’t get it, but at least the examples provided made it a little easier to follow (this is no fault of the author, I just can’t get it). Other subjects unrelated to quantum physics were illuminating (and those I understood). Part of the content is psychological, philosophical and it really makes you wonder. Just one example, have you ever considered how we’d see the world if we didn’t perceive time lineally? Not everything has an answer, but just asking the questions made me think. I enjoyed Alan Peterson’s narration for the audiobook, he sounds like a cool professor that brings up interesting facts. This is not an easy book to follow, you really need to take your time to digest the information (I paused the audiobook more than once, and thank goodness for the rewind button), but it is not long and, like I mentioned, it’s easy to follow if you’re paying attention.
I chose to listen to this audiobook and all opinions in this review are my own and completely unbiased. Thank you, #NetGalley/#Macmillan Audio!
I chose to listen to this audiobook and all opinions in this review are my own and completely unbiased. Thank you, #NetGalley/#Macmillan Audio!
November 4, 2023
I am not a physicist, but I do have a psychology degree. I am fascinated when people can apply new ideas to a subject I know in a completely different way. That is why I was so excited that NetGalley allowed me to read this in exchange for an honest review.
I listened to the audio, and the narrator was very clear and easy to understand. The topics themselves were broken down in unusual but practical ways, and it was amazing how the book covered everything from time to perception. If I had my own copy, I would listen to this several times so that I could develop a better overall understanding of physics, because there were several topics I would like to understand better.
There need to be more great science communicators.
I listened to the audio, and the narrator was very clear and easy to understand. The topics themselves were broken down in unusual but practical ways, and it was amazing how the book covered everything from time to perception. If I had my own copy, I would listen to this several times so that I could develop a better overall understanding of physics, because there were several topics I would like to understand better.
There need to be more great science communicators.
October 1, 2023
This fascinating book explores the potential link between the "theory of everything" in physics and the "theory of mind" in neuroscience. In the quantum realm, the act of observation affects results. Is is possible for science to faithfully represent reality at that scale? Physicists, neuroscientists, and philosophers now collaborate to explore how the brain creates consciousness.
This entertaining book raises interesting questions and suggests new ways of looking at the universe. The style is engaging and readable. The audiobook narration was well done.
Thanks, NetGalley, for the ARC I received. This is my honest and voluntary review.
This entertaining book raises interesting questions and suggests new ways of looking at the universe. The style is engaging and readable. The audiobook narration was well done.
Thanks, NetGalley, for the ARC I received. This is my honest and voluntary review.
June 6, 2024
More like three stars for me, but not through any fault of the author, whose writing and research were both quite commendable. I just misjudged how much the topic would interest me personally, especially the lengthy examinations of challenging theoretical physics like the Wigner's Friend thought experiment. I find those kinds of thought experiments fascinating for 5 minutes and then they just sort of break my brain, so lingering in that space for entire chapters was a tad discomfitting for me. A very solidly-written pop science book highly recommended to those better equipped to handle some of the weirder hypotheses within.
October 13, 2023
This book is really interesting, exploring the link between the theory of everything and the theory of mind. If you're interested in this, this book is great. Here's the thing - it's written by a physicist, and it's just a topic that can get a little boring. The author did a fantastic job of writing this as interestingly as possible, but I just got bored by the topic at hand. The narrator also did a great job, it's just hard to make such an academic topic interesting for 9+ hours.
Thank you to Macmillan Audio and NetGalley for this audio ARC in exchange for an honest review.
Thank you to Macmillan Audio and NetGalley for this audio ARC in exchange for an honest review.
January 31, 2024
The subtitle is quite accurate. This book describes the "hard problems" of both physics and of consciousness and attempts to show links among those problems. Musser traces the history of how philosophers have described these issues and posited solutions over several millennia; and further, how modern philosophers (scientists) have treated these same problems. I find the questions about reality, about whether spacetime and the mind are things, about the nature of consciousness and AI to be deeply puzzling, throwing me into a solipsistic nightmare. A fascinating book...
May 17, 2025
I barely grasped many of the concepts in this book and yet the writing style was so accessible that it gave me the sense that I almost did and for that, I'm grateful. It explores some of the wildest, most far-out concepts in science today and I'm glad I gave this one a try, even though I'd probably need to read it a million more times (multiple versions of myself in the multiverse) to fully comprehend what the hell is going on here. Still, I loved the chance to try and grateful for folks like Musser who take on the task with aplomb & a bit of humor.
December 2, 2025
I should perhaps not have rated this book, then, however, I would not have been able to write a review. The again, perhaps I should not have written a review either, since I am clearly not among the target reader group for this book. So to make it brief, while I read very broad and much enjoy subjects such as psychology, AI and science, I could not follow this book. Too detailed, too tedious, too monotonous, at least for a non-scientist like myself. Despite several re-tries, I gave up at a little over half of the book.
November 13, 2023
a series of interviews and collection of various topics from physics to philosophy, AI, and consciousness neurobiology, of how interconnected physics could seem to be with consciousness.
However, everything needs a heavy does of "interpretation" to fit the narrative, since there is still only conjecture for all of these theories.
It's a fair review of physics, the study of consciousness, and AI, with some conjectures thrown in there, and lots of "what if...".
However, everything needs a heavy does of "interpretation" to fit the narrative, since there is still only conjecture for all of these theories.
It's a fair review of physics, the study of consciousness, and AI, with some conjectures thrown in there, and lots of "what if...".
November 15, 2024
Over 40 years ago, after reading Godel, Escher, Bach in college, I came to believe that the human mind will never fully comprehend the human mind. The hard problem of consciousness is likely to remain unsolved. I learned from reading this book that holding that opinion makes me a Mysterianist. New word for me but I like it. After 40 years and the advent of functional MRI, advanced in neuroscience and neurochemistry, and the advent of rapidly progressing AI systems, my opinion remains unchanged.
December 27, 2023
tldr imo
penrose/hameroff quantum processing in microtubules is true
carlo rovelli facts are contextual, everything is a web of relations, and measurement (problem) are relations that we establish something with — so translation
space and time are emergent from consciousness
we are part of the world so we should be able to figure out consciousness
penrose/hameroff quantum processing in microtubules is true
carlo rovelli facts are contextual, everything is a web of relations, and measurement (problem) are relations that we establish something with — so translation
space and time are emergent from consciousness
we are part of the world so we should be able to figure out consciousness
January 4, 2024
Excellent level of detail and complexity, with rich descriptions of the current research. Although there are no definitive answers on the link between consciousness and the material world, the author does a fantastic job of the current state of knowledge, comprehensively describing research, findings and open questions in the fields of physics, neuroscience and psychology. Strongly recommend.
April 3, 2024
This was really good, and surprisingly engaging. What I mean by that is the following. I spent way too long in school and almost entirely read nonfiction popular science and consider myself a skeptic, so I'm aware of both the paradoxes of quantum mechanics and the charlatans who abuse them for fun and profit. So, this book would start discussing something like the Bell experiments or the equivalent in straightforward terms, but then start pointing out discrepancies and dilemmas. My hackles would rise and rise as I worried the book would lapse into woo-woo nonsense, but eventually I'd realize "oh sh*t, this all makes sense ... or, that is, doesn't make sense." It was very impressive how the author walked this delicate balance again and again across many topics. Really interesting and provocative, and I'd highly recommend it. This is a book I think I'll be thinking about for a long time.
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September 17, 2024well-written! he breaks down the concepts very well, but I still had a hard time wrapping my head around them. I do not have a STEM-mind, but I found it very interesting. super cool that AI is helping advance our understanding of both physics and the mind. helped me understand AI better so I’m less terrified, and made me think a lot more critically about what it is to be conscious.
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