It's a fascinating study, but a strange title. The substantive point is that the brain manifests decisions long before consciousness detects them. Not only does the title miss this, it replaces it with something less interesting (and a non sequitur to boot)!
By now there is a whole body of research demonstrating that consciousness doesn't work the way we experience it, and that the identity we believe in and call ourselves is largely illusory. Does anyone know of a book that provides a good survey of these findings? The ones I've run across so far have been disappointing, and the material is so compelling it seems like there ought to be an amazing book on it.
Heh, that's amusing given that I just commented on how unsatisfying Gladwell's meta-narratives are in the end (http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=230782). I have the impression that he could just as easily have written an equally seemingly brilliant book about how people who make spot decisions usually get it wrong.
So no, what I'm looking for is more of a survey of the experimental research on consciousness and identity, the kind of thing that this latest study would fit into. There are a host of such findings and the area seems ripe for an overview. The closest thing I know is "The User Illusion" by Tor Nørretranders. It's a good source on some of this material (e.g. fascinating results on priming which demonstrate that our thinking is conditioned by subliminal perceptions). But it's out of date and also rather shallow (the inevitable tying in of Gödel and all that).
Comments
It's a fascinating study, but a strange title. The substantive point is that the brain manifests decisions long before consciousness detects them. Not only does the title miss this, it replaces it with something less interesting (and a non sequitur to boot)!
By now there is a whole body of research demonstrating that consciousness doesn't work the way we experience it, and that the identity we believe in and call ourselves is largely illusory. Does anyone know of a book that provides a good survey of these findings? The ones I've run across so far have been disappointing, and the material is so compelling it seems like there ought to be an amazing book on it.
The better known book is of course, Blink http://www.amazon.com/Blink-Power-Thinking-Without/dp/031601... . It is very well written, but (IMHO) not as heavy as it should be on references.
Heh, that's amusing given that I just commented on how unsatisfying Gladwell's meta-narratives are in the end (http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=230782). I have the impression that he could just as easily have written an equally seemingly brilliant book about how people who make spot decisions usually get it wrong.
So no, what I'm looking for is more of a survey of the experimental research on consciousness and identity, the kind of thing that this latest study would fit into. There are a host of such findings and the area seems ripe for an overview. The closest thing I know is "The User Illusion" by Tor Nørretranders. It's a good source on some of this material (e.g. fascinating results on priming which demonstrate that our thinking is conditioned by subliminal perceptions). But it's out of date and also rather shallow (the inevitable tying in of Gödel and all that).
Write one.
No thank you. Writing such a book would be 1000 if not 10000 times harder than reading it. I'm interested enough to do the latter, but not the former.