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Being You

A New Science of Consciousness

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Being You

By: Anil Seth
Narrated by: Anil Seth
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About this listen

A GUARDIAN, ECONOMIST, NEW STATESMAN, FINANCIAL TIMES AND BLOOMBERG BOOK OF THE YEAR

'I loved it.' MICHAEL POLLAN
'Fascinating.' FINANCIAL TIMES
'Awe-inspring.' NEW STATESMAN
'Brilliant.' CLAIRE TOMALIN, NEW YORK TIMES
'A brilliant beast of a book.' DAVID BYRNE
'Hugely important.' JIM AL-KHALILI
'Gripping.' ALEX GARLAND
'Masterly . . . Vast-ranging, phenomenal.' GAIA VINCE, GUARDIAN

Anil Seth's radical new theory of consciousness challenges our understanding of perception and reality, doing for brain science what Dawkins did for evolutionary biology.


Being You is not as simple as it sounds. Somehow, within each of our brains, billions of neurons work to create our conscious experience. How does this happen? Why do we experience life in the first person? After over twenty years researching the brain, world-renowned neuroscientist Anil Seth puts forward a radical new theory of consciousness and self. His unique theory of what it means to 'be you' challenges our understanding of perception and reality and it turns what you thought you knew about yourself on its head.

'Seth thinks clearly and sharply on one of the hardest problems of science and philosophy, cutting through weeds with a scientist's mind and a storyteller's skill.'
ADAM RUTHERFORD

'A page-turner and a mind-blower . . . Beautifully written, crystal clear, deeply insightful.'
DAVID EAGLEMAN

'If you read one book about conciousness, it must be Seth's.
JULIAN BAGGINI, WALL STREET JOURNAL

©2021 Anil Seth (P)2021 Faber & Faber
Biological Sciences Neuroscience & Neuropsychology Psychology Psychology & Mental Health Science Human Brain Consciousness Physiology Computer Science

Critic Reviews

"Anil Seth thinks clearly and sharply on one of the hardest problems of science and philosophy, cutting through weeds with a scientist's mind and a storyteller's skill." (Adam Rutherford)

"Seth provokes us to think about thinking...readable, relatable and gripping." (Alex Garland, director of Ex Machina)

"Offers a new cause for astonishment and wonder...a must-read for anyone seeking a better understanding of the brain and how nature sculpts the human experience." (Annaka Harris, author of Conscious)

All stars
Most relevant
Amazing how a scientific focus on our experience as humans has such deep spiritual implications.

Will blow your mind

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The most illuminating book on consciousness in our modern age, this combines information from multiple different disciplines in an ever engaging and thrilling way. Highly recommend if you’re interested at all in how our brain works, physics, biology, psychology, philosophy, AI or even just what being you is like.

Deeply thought provoking

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interesting and very well structured, explanation are clear and interesting , relevant to every day life and with great examples.

interesting and very well structured

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Scope of the book was fantastic. I wish personally it had lingered more on certain chapters like Octopuses or Kierkegaard, but there are always more books.

Touches on a number of related topics

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It’s so interesting, and not too hard to understand for regular people. It changed my way of thinking about many things.
Love it!
Recommend it to everyone.

Amazing book!

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This is an amazing book. The depth and width of the material is beautifully presented with that extra personal touch provisioned by narration from the author. At times it was to much to comprehend, but then could be repeated. This may become a primary text for the next generation of medial, neural, psychological and philosophical students, I hope so….

Clarity in the mist

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Aside from the excessive use of big words where simple words would have worked better, the over telling of the detail in the most hypnotic lecture room voice possible, took a fascinating premise and reduced it to the perfect antidote for insomnia. Don’t listen while driving.

Fascinating subject made boring

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It’s clearly too soon to write a book on this topic as all it really achieves is to prove how little is known.
As it stands, it looks as though consciousness may even ultimately show us the limits of the scientific method itself.
No wonder agreement can’t be reached on how to test for AI consciousness, given no one can define what it actually is, in humans.

Spoiler: they don’t know yet

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