Being You: A New Science of Consciousness

Anil Seth, 2021

Neuroscientist Anil Seth argues that consciousness is a controlled hallucination, the brain's best guess about the causes of its sensory signals, built on the body's drive to stay alive.

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14 parts, about 23 minutes to read.

Why read it

See why perception is called a controlled hallucination, from the dress that looked blue and black to some and white and gold to others
See how a magnetic pulse and its EEG echo score consciousness, and what it showed in a young man thought vegetative
Weigh the case that consciousness is tied to being alive rather than intelligent, and what it implies for octopuses, nematode worms and future AI

Who it is for

Readers curious how brain science might dissolve the hard problem
Anyone wondering whether animals, patients or machines can be conscious
Listeners wanting a scientist's first person view of self and free will

What the summary covers

Switched off by anaesthesia1 min
Hard problem, real problem2 min
Measuring how conscious someone is3 min
Gelato and integrated information1 min
Perception as controlled hallucination2 min
The brain's best guesses2 min
Hallucination, controlled and uncontrolled2 min
My mother's delirium1 min
The self is a perception too2 min
Beast machines3 min
Free will as perception1 min
Minds beyond the human1 min
Why smarter machines need not feel1 min
Looking into a living brain1 min

Recommended by

David EaglemanNeuroscientist at Stanford University and author of Livewired
Beautifully written, crystal clear, deeply insightful.
David ByrneFounding member of Talking Heads
Hugely inspirational—I filled up 10 pages with exuberant notes. Keep a pencil handy.
Sean CarrollAuthor of Something Deeply Hidden
Anil Seth’s Being You is a wonderfully accessible and comprehensive account of how our minds capture the world, and how that makes us who we are.
Alex GarlandDirector of Ex Machina
Seth provokes us to think about thinking.
Nicholas HumphreyNeuropsychologist and author of A History of the Mind
There could hardly be a better guide to the theories—good and bad—currently swirling around the science of consciousness.
Jim Al KhaliliAuthor of The World According to Physics
The nature of consciousness is still one of the hardest problems in science, but Anil Seth brings us closer than ever before to the answer.
Andy ClarkAuthor of Surfing Uncertainty
Compulsory reading for anyone who wants to better understand their inner ‘beast machine.’
Nigel WarburtonPhilosopher and writer
A fascinating book. A joy to read.
Annaka HarrisAuthor of Conscious
Being You is a must read for anyone seeking a better understanding of the brain and how nature sculpts the human experience.
Julian BagginiPhilosopher and writer
If you only read one book about consciousness, it must be his

About the author

Anil SethProfessor of cognitive and computational neuroscience at the University of Sussex
- Anil Kumar Seth was born on 11 June 1972 in Oxford, England.
- He grew up in Letcombe Regis, a village in rural South Oxfordshire.
- His father, Bhola Seth, migrated from India to the United Kingdom to study engineering at Cardiff.
- He went to school at King Alfred's Academy in Wantage.
- He earned degrees in natural sciences at King's College, Cambridge in 1994, in knowledge based systems at Sussex in 1996, and a doctorate in computer science and artificial intelligence at Sussex in 2001.
- He was a postdoctoral and associate fellow at The Neurosciences Institute in San Diego from 2001 to 2006.
- He is Professor of Cognitive and Computational Neuroscience at the University of Sussex and Director of the Sussex Centre for Consciousness Science.
- He was founding Editor in Chief of the journal Neuroscience of Consciousness from 2014 to 2024.