Listen free for 30 days

Listen with offer

Preview
  • The Feeling of Life Itself

  • Why Consciousness Is Widespread but Can't Be Computed
  • By: Christof Koch
  • Narrated by: Patrick Lawlor
  • Length: 7 hrs and 34 mins
  • 4.2 out of 5 stars (22 ratings)

£0.00 for first 30 days

Thousands of incredible audiobooks and podcasts to take wherever you go.
Immerse yourself in a world of storytelling with the Plus Catalogue - unlimited listening to thousands of select audiobooks, podcasts and Audible Originals.
£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

The Feeling of Life Itself

By: Christof Koch
Narrated by: Patrick Lawlor
Try for £0.00

£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically.

Buy Now for £12.99

Buy Now for £12.99

Pay using card ending in
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.

Summary

Psychologists study which cognitive operations underpin a given conscious perception. Neuroscientists track the neural correlates of consciousness in the brain, the organ of the mind. But why the brain and not, say, the liver? How can the brain, three pounds of highly excitable matter, a piece of furniture in the universe, subject to the same laws of physics as any other piece, give rise to subjective experience? Koch argues that what is needed to answer these questions is a quantitative theory that starts with experience and proceeds to the brain. In The Feeling of Life Itself, Koch outlines such a theory, based on integrated information.

Koch describes how the theory explains many facts about the neurology of consciousness and how it has been used to build a clinically useful consciousness meter. The theory predicts that many, and perhaps all, animals experience the sights and sounds of life; consciousness is much more widespread than conventionally assumed. Contrary to received wisdom, however, Koch argues that programmable computers will not have consciousness. Even a perfect software model of the brain is not conscious. Its simulation is fake consciousness. Consciousness is not a special type of computation - it is not a clever hack. Consciousness is about being.

©2019 Massachusetts Institute of Technology (P)2020 Tantor
activate_Holiday_promo_in_buybox_DT_T2

Listeners also enjoyed...

Consciousness: Confessions of a Romantic Reductionist (MIT Press) cover art
The Conscious Mind cover art
The Alignment Problem cover art
The Big Picture cover art
Flights of Fancy cover art
Science Ideated cover art
NeuroScience Fiction cover art
The Conscious Mind cover art
When Animals Dream cover art
Who You Are cover art
The Mind cover art
Quantum Psychology cover art
The Human Instinct cover art
Spiritual Science cover art
Consciousness and the Social Brain cover art
Neuroscience, Psychology, and Religion cover art

What listeners say about The Feeling of Life Itself

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    10
  • 4 Stars
    9
  • 3 Stars
    2
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    1
Performance
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    10
  • 4 Stars
    7
  • 3 Stars
    1
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    0
Story
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    9
  • 4 Stars
    8
  • 3 Stars
    1
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    0

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Decently detailed account, but why no PDF?

Overall, this book is a decent account of IIT (Integrated information theory), and makes the theory somewhat clear, and the author clearly has great enthusiasm for the theory.

The only criticism i have is specifically for the audible version.... there are at least a couple of quite math/circuit heavy chapters where the book really gets into the weed of the theory, and these chapters repeatedly refer to diagrams, circuits and figures and the chapters are heavily based off analysis of these figures... so why on earth is there no PDF provided like other audible books with the figures? When this was being read, it must have occurred to someone they are heavily referencing diagrams. This is a major flaw unfortunately as it renders a couple of chapters impossible to make sense of (since it refers to figures which it never explains). This unfortunately rendered what might have been a great book just decent.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful