The below is a blurb about a book by Tor Norretranders, The User Illusion: Cutting Consciousness Down to Size, on the Flipkart book mart website. I don't know the outfit but I love the description of the book and I will be reading the book next week. I had already ordered my copy from Amazon before I found this wonderful description.
As John Casti wrote, "Finally, a book that really does explain consciousness." This groundbreaking work by Denmark's leading science writer [Tor Norretranders] draws on psychology, evolutionary biology, information theory, and other disciplines to argue its revolutionary point: that consciousness represents only an infinitesimal fraction of our ability to process information. Although we are unaware of it, our brains sift through and discard billions of pieces of data in order to allow us to understand the world around us. In fact, most of what we call thought is actually the unconscious discarding of information. What our consciousness rejects constitutes the most valuable part of ourselves, the "Me" that the "I" draws on for most of our actions -- fluent speech, riding a bicycle, anything involving expertise. No wonder that, in this age of information, so many of us feel empty and dissatisfied. As engaging as it is insightful, this important book encourages us to rely more on what our instincts and our senses tell us so that we can better appreciate the richness of human life.
The part I like most is: "In fact, most of what we call thought is actually the unconscious discarding of information."
Think about that: the thoughts and stories that swirl in our heads---and that so often bedevil us---is what the unconscious is rejecting.
And, "[T]his important book encourages us to rely more on what our instincts and our senses tell us so that we can better appreciate the richness of human life."
If you substitute "life itself" for "human life" you come closer to what I have been trying to express in my entries on "life itself." If I find these words faithful to Norretranders's book, these are pretty cool ideas.
In fact, the ideas reminded me of something that happened to me, years ago, in high school, when I relied on instinct and my senses when my thoughts wanted me to disappear on the spot, a story I told in "If you meet the Buddha on the road, give her a kiss." I have written about the scope of the unconscious in our lives before, here and here.
More to follow when I read the book. And I to think the book will arrive on the day I am finishing Spanish Intensive.
Gracias a la vida misma.
Comments