Publisher's Synopsis
'Most of what we do and think and feel is not under conscious control.' During the Copernican Revolution we fell from the centre of the Universe. With Darwin's theory of evolution, we lost our supremacy over the animals. The birth of quantum mechanics and the discovery of DNA represent other episodes in a series of 'dethronements' - each of which have dented our convictions about mankind's importance and moved us further from the centre. This book argues that with growing knowledge of neuroscience, we are facing the ultimate dethronement - the fall of the self. Why is your foot halfway to the brake before you realize that a car is swerving in front of you? Why are you attracted to some people more than others? David Eagleman gathers together the evidence from a variety of experiments and observations about the brain that shed light on the very limited nature of consciousness, and shows how much of what we do and think is driven by deeper, hard-wired tendencies, under auto-pilot. In comparison with the other activities of the brain, consciousness is sugar dusting, the 'smallest room in the house'. Recognizing this is no small shock to our self-esteem. It also has a number of ethical and legal implications. But ultimately, Eagleman argues that this, like all knowledge, can be liberating. We are, after all, able to reach out and learn about ourselves and the world, and improve our quality of life, even as we begin to appreciate how far we are from 'ourselves'.
