Mind, Matter and the Universe: An Exploration of Consciousness and Science

Our brains appear to be physical mechanisms, and yet we have feelings. Unlike desktop computers or cars, we have an inner subjective experience that we call "consciousness". Why is that? Can science explain it? Is it fundamentally and eternally inexplicable, or might explaining it involve fundamentally revising our ideas about time and space?

What, if anything, does the science of quantum mechanics tell us about consciousness? Are people who draw a link between the quantum realm and the mind simply misguided, believing that a link exists only because the two both seem mysterious? And what about artificial intelligence? Could a computer be conscious?

This book explores consciousness from a scientific perspective, arguing that ultimately an understanding of consciousness may well require us to change some of our basic ideas about the universe and how it works.

We’ll examine some of the ways in which scientists and philosophers attempt to explain consciousness today. We’ll look at the way science has developed historically, pushing us towards modern scientific materialism. And we’ll ask whether it might be possible to develop a theory of physics that is fundamentally based on the idea that consciousness has to be taken seriously as a phenomenon worthy of investigation in its own right.