The Man in My Head Has Lost His Mind: What Makes Us Conscious? PART 1

Introduction and Chapter One: "A Poodle Ate My Homework"

In his book, Carter Blakelaw presents a viable, scientifically and philosophically respectable answer to the question: "What makes us conscious?"

The question has more importance now than ever before as we face the ever-encroaching issue of: How close is AI to achieving sentience? How close to feelings and awareness, moods and emotions, and to have attitude? To answer these questions we must know what consciousness is - or at least what it is not - and how machine learning, or deep learning, or neural networks are in some ways the same, but remain essentially and crucially different from the neurons of the brain and what those neurons do.

The Introduction to the book outlines some initial difficulties in finding a full explanation of anything.

Chapter One presents the difficulty of knowing the content of minds other than our own.

This is Part 1 of a series of 9 parts. The audio for the whole book is being published serially in slideshow video format, excluding the footnotes which are not easily incorporated into the audio without spoiling the flow.

The book in paperback, hardback, eBook, and cloth-bound with dustcover can be purchased e.g.

Amazon (eBook, paperback, hardback): https://www.amazon.co.uk/Head-Lost-Mind-What-Consciousness/dp/B0BR9JCBXH/

Lulu (cloth-bound with dust jacket): https://www.lulu.com/shop/carter-blakelaw-and-jack-calverley/the-man-in-my-head-has-lost-his-mind-what-is-consciousness/hardcover/product-wmjznr.html

Credits:
Text: Carter Blakelaw (with permission) on www.carterblakelaw.com
Artwork: Antipolygon on www.unsplash.com and Jack Calverley on www.jackcalverley.com
Audio: Jack Calverley on www.jackcalverley.com