Goodreads Librarians Group discussion

From the dust jacket of this edition:

Consciousness separates us from the other animals and machines--or does it? Can consciousness be scientifically reduced to chemical and mechanical processes? If so, where do love and pain, dreams and joy fit in? Human consciousness is one of the last great mysteries. And some would argue that consciousness can never--or should never--be explained.

In this important and controversial book, Daniel Dennett takes on one of science's Big Questions and revises our traditional view of consciousness, replacing it with a radically new model. He claims we must abandon not just the dualism of mind and body that is our legacy from Descartes, but also what he dubs the Cartesian Theatre, the mythical place in the brain "where it all comes together" for "presentation" in consciousness. The most recent champion of this ubiquitous mistake was Roger Penrose in his bestselling The Emperor's New Mind. Dennett's own model of consciousness is based on new facts and theories from the realms of neuroscience, psychology and Artificial Intelligence. What we think of as the stream of consciousness is not a single, unified sequence, he argues, but "multiple drafts" of reality composed by a computerlike "virtual machine," hard-wired in some areas, programmable in others.

Dennett weaves a richly detailed narrative enlivened by a series of brilliant thought experiments and analogies as entertaining as they are challenging. By considering in fascinating detail how consciousness could have evolved in human beings, Dennett provides insights into otherwise baffling features of our minds. In the course of his exploration of the mind, he confronts the classic mysteries of consciousness: the nature of introspection, the qualities (or qualia) of experiential states, the nature of the self or ego and its relation to thoughts and sensations, and the level of consciousness of nonhuman creatures. Dennett insists that when we finally understand consciousness--when there is no more mystery--our view of consciousness will be different, but there will still be more room than ever for awe.

Done.