From one of the most original and influential neuroscientists at work today, an exploration of consciousness unlike any other: the latest science framed in a dazzlingly imaginative, lavishly illustrated narrative.We would have to go back to Gödel, Escher, Bach to find even the hint of a precedent for this innovative, genre-bending book in which we accompany an elderly scientist, Galileo, on a journey in search of consciousness. His journey has three parts, each with a different guide. In the first part, accompanied by a scientist who resembles Francis Crick, he learns why certain parts of the brain are important and not others, and why consciousness fades with sleep. In the second part, when his companion seems to be named Alturi (Galileo is hard of hearing; his companion's name is actually Alan Turing), he sees how what we know about consciousness might coalesce into a theory of consciousness. In the third part, accompanied by an bearded man who can…
