Going Inside: A Tour Round a Single Moment of Consciousness (Hardcover)

I particularly enjoyed the chapter on how complexity theory is being applied to brain research where McCrone makes the observation (p. 60) that "The idea of a bounded object [say, us] is really just a convenient fiction." McCrone recognizes that our brains and our minds are part and parcel of the world and cannot be understood alone. The brain is a dynamic entity, not only constantly changing, but constantly interacting with both the environment within and the environment without. Thus McCrone observes that "Given the real world is a continuous place, and so exact starting points can never be measured, this means that it is impossible--as a matter of principle--to predict the behavior of a feedback-dependent system [like the brain]" (pp. 64-65). Ergo, the fall of a strict reductionism in the study of the brain, and the realization that the brain must be understood in light of not only its composition, its components, and its developmental history, but its dynamic nature.

I got less out of the chapters that reported on the current research, partially because of the fragmentary nature of the research, and partly because I am uncomfortable reading about experiments on the brains of monkeys, etc. McCrone recognizes how "animal experimentation" has "tainted the field," and he addresses these concerns to some extent. (See particularly page 112.) Fortunately the development of new high tech scanning devices is allowing researchers to study the brain without cutting it open or by relying on (in human subjects) neurological injuries to give them a glimpse of what is going on inside. I was fascinated with McCrone's report that the way tennis players are able to react to a 140 mph serve is that they anticipate where the serve is going in part by reading the body language of the server before the ball is actually hit (and they don't even know they're doing it)! In fact it is part of the brain's talent to predict. As it readies itself for the next moment, the brain makes a prediction of what that moment will be like. McCrone calls it "riding a wave of predictions" (p. 147).

McCrone makes it clear that it is as much in the process of development that we become who we are as it is in the genetic code. He writes, "there is just not enough room on a DNA molecule" for all the information that the brain needs. The brain, in a very real sense organizes itself as it grows in concert with the world. If you watch a baby, you can see that the baby is working very, very hard to make sense of its world.

In the penultimate chapter, "The Ape that Spoke," McCrone argues that the acquisition of language was critical to the development of consciousness. He states that "Animals are locked into the present tense," living "entirely in the here and now," and that "there is no reason to think that a monkey ever sits around mulling over the story of its life." For those of us who have had close intimate relationships with animals, this is not so clear. Personally, I think animals such as cats and dogs do have some sense of self, and that they do have some experience of the past, and can anticipate the future to some degree. We really don't know about their level of self-awareness. We can be reasonably sure it is less than ours of course, but I think there is a tendency in some quarters to underestimate what animals know. I also don't agree with McCrone's notion that "The invention of articulate, grammar-driven speech was also the invention of articulate, logic-driven thought" (p. 288). There was plenty of "logic-driven thought" before there was grammar; indeed animals often think logically, if their behavior is any indication. (And there is no reason to think it isn't, to echo McCrone's words above.) I think that because some of us are such highly verbal people, we tend not to notice that we think and figure out things logically at a level deeper than that of language. Human language is often a translation of a more basic language. Additionally, I think it is important to make a distinction between "consciousness" meaning "awareness" and "consciousness" meaning "self-identity." Whenever the word "consciousness" is used, I cringe a little because I know it will mean different things to different people and there is the very real danger of talking past one another. Although McCrone does attempt to define consciousness as he goes along, he is to my mind not entirely successful. For example, on page 265 he writes, "So, again, what is consciousness? In some sense, it must be the outcome a moment's processing." Perhaps--but what does THAT mean?

We could argue other points; however, the main thing is this is a good book that gives the reader a vivid sense of what is going on in mind science these days, a field of knowledge that is growing very rapidly, and may some time soon experience a breakthrough of stunning proportions; or we may be entering a transition phase, near "the edge of chaos" from which may come some startling new conception of how the mind works and who we are.