Preface
How does the brain work ? How does it sustain a thinking , feeling ,
dreaming self? How does it sustain a self-conscious person? New
results from neuroscience and recent work with artificial neural
networks together suggest a unified set of answers to these questions
. If even roughly correct , those answers will have far-reaching
consequences beyond the realm of pure theory . The aim of this
book is therefore twofold . First , to make those scientific developments
available , in a lucid and pictorial fashion , to the general
reading public . And second, to begin to explore the philosophical ,
social , and personal consequences they are likely to have for all
of us.
The book is motivated first of all by sheer excitement over the
new picture that is now emerging, and over the new explanations
now available for what has so long seemed mysterious . The excitement
is not just mine ; it is the shared mood of a half -dozen intersecting
disciplines . I hope I can succeed in conveying its substance
to the general reader.
The book is motivated also by the idea that this is information
that the public needs to know . It is a theoretical perspective that the
public needs to command . And it will fund a range of technologies
whose impact the public is sure to feel. The quicker the better then ,
that we should make it the common property of everyone.
My philosophical research over thirty years has had many
sources of inspiration , and all of them will be somehow visible
here, as in my earlier writings . Concerning this book, however , four
people stand out from everyone else. I wish to acknowledge their
inspiration and express my affection and love for each of them .
First , Francis Crick has set me- and my wife and colleague, Patricia
- a marvellous intellectual and personal example of how to be a
" natural philosopher ." I have not entirely followed his sterling
example , but my thoughts would have been poorer and my path
would have been darker without it . Second, the neuroscientists
Antonio and Hanna Damasio have been o~ neurological tutors , our
philosophical students, our collaborators , and above all our friends
during the writing of several books from within our regular coffeehouse
foursome. Their contributions have been priceless . Finally ,
there is the continuing inspiration of my wife and intellectual colleague
, Pabicia Church land . After twenty -five years of affection
and collaboration , I often feel we have become the left and right
hemispheres of a single brain . Her happy influence pervades
everything that follows .
La Jolla, California, April 1994
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