Infinite Brain is an esoteric text which challenges you to answer the questions of what is beyond your physical realm - specifically, the mystery of your own existence.The experiences of the author tell the story of how a human-being can reunite with his home universe and feel the joy and ecstasy of unity consciousness. The experience is called the nirvana transcendence implosion and has happened, accidentally, to seekers for thousands of years.The good news is out of the s...

Phenomenological approaches to sounds, noises, voices, and music traditionally privilege methods that center visual perception. This book aims not only to phenomenologically describe sonic environments, but also to develop an audition-centered phenomenological methodology to enable this task. "Sonic environment" is this book's term for the acoustic shape of human life-environment, which is multisensory and does not exclude visual, tactile, olfactory, and gustatory sensations connected with...

An exploration of the science behind being alive and aware, from the author of Brainstorms and Darwin's Dangerous Idea."Brilliant . . . as audacious as its title. . . . Mr. Dennett's exposition is nothing short of brilliant, the best example I've seen of a science book aimed at both professionals and general readers." —George Johnson, New York Times Book ReviewConsciousness Explained is a full-scale explora...

In the years since Daniel Dennett's influential Consciousness Explained was published in 1991, scientific research on consciousness has been a hotly contested battleground of rival theories—"so rambunctious," Dennett observes, "that several people are writing books just about the tumult." With Sweet Dreams, Dennett returns to the subject for "revision and renewal" of his theory of consciousness, taking into account major empirical advances in the field since 1991 as well ...

How generative AI systems capture a core function of languageLooking at the emergence of generative AI, Language Machines presents a new theory of meaning in language and computation, arguing that humanistic scholarship misconstrues how large language models (LLMs) function. Seeing LLMs as a convergence of computation and language, Leif Weatherby contends that AI does not simulate cognition, as widely believed, but rather creates culture. This evolution in...

A User's Guide to Thought and Meaning presents a profound and arresting integration of the faculties of the mind - of how we think, speak, and see the world.Ray Jackendoff starts out by looking at languages and what the meanings of words and sentences actually do. He shows that meanings are more adaptive and complicated than they're commonly given credit for, and he is led to some basic questions: How do we perceive and act in the world? How do we talk about it? And how can the collection ...

The first full-scale history of cognitive science, this work addresses a central issue: What is the nature of knowledge?

What is more important in architectural works—their form, shape, and color, or the meanings and symbolism that can be associated with them? Can aesthetic judgments of architecture be independent of the stories one can tell about buildings? Do non-architects perceive buildings in the same way as do architects?For the greater part of the twentieth century it was common to respond to these and similar questions by relying on psychological theories asserting there is no innocent eye, t...

How all philosophical explanations of human consciousness and the fundamental structure of the cosmos are bizarre—and why that’s a good thingDo we live inside a simulated reality or a pocket universe embedded in a larger structure about which we know virtually nothing? Is consciousness a purely physical matter, or might it require something extra, something nonphysical? According to the philosopher Eric Schwitzgebel, it’s hard to say. In The Weirdness of the Wo...

What is consciousness? What is it like to feel pain, or to see the color red? Do robots and computers really think? For that matter, do plants and amoebas think? If we ever meet intelligent aliens, will we be able to understand what they say to us? Philosophers and scientists are still unable to answer questions like these. Perhaps science fiction can help. In Discognition, Steven Shaviro looks at science fiction novels and stories that explore the extreme possibilities of human and alien ...

Narrative comprehension, memory, motion, depth perception, synesthesia, hallucination, and dreaming have long been objects of fascination for cognitive psychologists. They have also been among the most potent sources of creative inspiration for experimental filmmakers. Lessons in Perception melds film theory and cognitive science in a stimulating investigation of the work of iconic experimental artists such as Stan Brakhage, Robert Breer, Maya Deren, and Jordan Belson. In illustra...

In this age of DNA computers and artificial intelligence, information is becoming disembodied even as the "bodies" that once carried it vanish into virtuality. While some marvel at these changes, envisioning consciousness downloaded into a computer or humans "beamed" Star Trek-style, others view them with horror, seeing monsters brooding in the machines. In How We Became Posthuman, N. Katherine Hayles separates hype from fact, investigating the fate of embodiment in an in...