The ego tunnel - BoundCovers

English language

Published 2009 by Basic Books.

ISBN:: 978-0-465-04567-9

(1 review)

We’re used to thinking about the self as an independent entity, something that we either have or are. In The Ego Tunnel, philosopher Thomas Metzinger claims otherwise: No such thing as a self exists. The conscious self is the content of a model created by our brain — an internal image, but one we cannot experience as an image. Everything we experience is “a virtual self in a virtual reality.” But if the self is not “real,” why and how did it evolve? How does the brain construct it? Do we still have souls, free will, personal autonomy, or moral accountability? In a time when the science of cognition is becoming as controversial as evolution, The Ego Tunnel is a radical rethinking of the nature of consciousness and the myster of the mind.

Perseus Academic www.perseusacademic.com/book.php?isbn=9780465045679

We’re used to thinking about the self as an independent entity, something that we either have or are. In The Ego Tunnel, philosopher Thomas Metzinger claims otherwise: No such thing as a self exists. The conscious self is the content of a model created by our brain — an internal image, but one we cannot experience as an image. Everything we experience is “a virtual self in a virtual reality.” But if the self is not “real,” why and how did it evolve? How does the brain construct it? Do we still have souls, free will, personal autonomy, or moral accountability? In a time when the science of cognition is becoming as controversial as evolution, The Ego Tunnel is a radical rethinking of the nature of consciousness and the myster of the mind.

Perseus Academic www.perseusacademic.com/book.php?isbn=9780465045679

1 edition

Will Sargent reviewed The ego tunnel by Thomas Metzinger

Review of 'The ego tunnel' on 'Storygraph'

3 stars

Honestly, I don't know whether it's from reading way too many neuroscience books or just reading too many philosophy books, but there was nothing I felt was added to my experience from reading this book. It's a discussion of consciousness from a philosophical perspective that takes the neuroscience into account -- but having taken the neuroscience into account, there's little left to do besides document it and equate it to the "internal" experience. This is unproductive in itself, because the nature of the illusion is that it feels real, even when it is provably a neural correlate to the outside reality.

Where the book did become unexpectedly fascinating was in its discussion of the validity of consciousness to an Artifical Intelligence -- silicon based consciousness is as "valid" as carbon based consciousness, there are any number of ethical questions involved in what can "legally" be done to them.

That being …

Honestly, I don't know whether it's from reading way too many neuroscience books or just reading too many philosophy books, but there was nothing I felt was added to my experience from reading this book. It's a discussion of consciousness from a philosophical perspective that takes the neuroscience into account -- but having taken the neuroscience into account, there's little left to do besides document it and equate it to the "internal" experience. This is unproductive in itself, because the nature of the illusion is that it feels real, even when it is provably a neural correlate to the outside reality.

Where the book did become unexpectedly fascinating was in its discussion of the validity of consciousness to an Artifical Intelligence -- silicon based consciousness is as "valid" as carbon based consciousness, there are any number of ethical questions involved in what can "legally" be done to them.

That being said, this is a solid book that is arguably much broader than "The User Illusion" or "The New Executive Brain", and is done from a philosophical perspective that may be much easier to digest.

Subjects

Consciousness