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9780307907219

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This wonderful book reads like a popcorn novel but informs like a primer on consciousness and where it comes from. In turn exciting, challenging, and thought-provoking, Tononi's marvelous imagination explores the origin of thought, sensation, and feeling. Learning about the difference between the cerebrum and cerebellum doesn't sound like fun, but here you encounter them amidst fat friars shouting in vulgar Latin, nymphs of radiant beauty, and a mysterious juggler on a unicycle. I've always taken pride in being a conscious, sentient being; after reading Phi, I'm beginning to understand what it means when I say that! -Leonard Mlodinow <br><br> You may or may not endorse Giulio Tononi's views on how the brain generates consciousness, but you can certainly agree that his book is a garden of intellectual delights. -Antonio Damasio, author of Self Comes to Mind and Descartes' Error

Both playful and philosophical, this extravagant book addresses questions about the root of consciousness in a unique way...The book is a visual delight as well as an impressive read, its lavish artwork and literary references demonstrating just how fully complementary art and science can be. <br>-- Publishers Weekly, starred review <br> Giulio Tononi is a man of bold and original mind who has developed a fundamental new theory of consciousness. In Phi, he calls on all the resources of drama, metaphor, and the visual arts to present his scientific insights, in the form of imaginary dialogues in which Galileo meets Francis Crick, Alan Turing, and other major thinkers of the twentieth century. This is an astonishing (and risky) literary device, but Tononi pulls it off triumphantly. He makes the deepest neuroscientific insights come alive. <br>--Oliver Sacks, author of Musicophilia <br> You may or may not endorse Giulio Tononi's views on how the brain generates consciousness, but you can certainly agree that his book is a garden of intellectual delights. <br>--Antonio Damasio, author of Self Comes to Mind and Descartes' Error <br> This wonderful book reads like a popcorn novel but informs like a primer on consciousness and where it comes from. By turns exciting, challenging, and thought provoking, Giulio Tononi's marvelous imagination explores the origin of thought, sensation, and feeling. Learning about the difference between the cerebrum and the cerebellum doesn't sound like fun, but here you encounter them amidst fat friars shouting in vulgar Latin, nymphs of radiant beauty, and a mysterious juggler on a unicycle. I've always taken pride in being a conscious, sentient being; after reading Phi, I'm beginning to understand what it means when I say that! <br>--Leonard Mlodinow, author of Subliminal<br> <br> An original, provocative tale of a scientist's quest to understand how the brain generates consciousness...A challenging, rewarding read

Author Information

Giulio Tononi is a professor of psychiatry, the David P. White Professor of Sleep Medicine, and the Distinguished Chair in Consciousness Science at the University of Wisconsin. In addition to the major scientific journals, his work has appeared in New Scientist, Science Daily, and Scientific American. His research has been the subject of articles in The New York Times and The Economist. He is the coauthor, with Nobel laureate Gerald Edelman, of A Universe of Consciousness.

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