{"product_id":"rethinking-consciousness-by-michael-s-a-graziano-9780393652611","title":"Rethinking Consciousness","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFocusing attention can help an animal find food or flee a predator. It also may have led to consciousness. Tracing evolution over millions of years, Michael S. A. Graziano shows how neurons first allowed animals to develop simple forms of attention: taking in messages from the environment, prioritising them, and responding as necessary.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThen covert attention evolved—a roving, mental focus separate from where the senses are pointed. To monitor and control covert attention, Graziano posits in his attention schema theory, the brain evolved a simplified model of it—a cartoonish self-description depicting an internal essence with a capacity for knowledge and experience. In other words, consciousness. That self-model not only gives us our intuitions about consciousness, but makes us empathetic social beings as we attribute it to others.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThe theory also implies that uploading the data structure of consciousness into machines will someday be possible, and he discusses what artificial consciousness will mean for our evolutionary future.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eRethinking Consciousness\u003c\/em\u003e delves into these concepts, exploring the profound implications for both natural evolution and technological advancement.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Unknown","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47536926359788,"sku":"9780393652611","price":54.99,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/90d104485ef184de6ba0e5d3b34ee35c.jpg?v=1776903445","url":"https:\/\/bookhero.co.nz\/products\/rethinking-consciousness-by-michael-s-a-graziano-9780393652611","provider":"Book Hero","version":"1.0","type":"link"}