Mind Engineering

A philosopher dons a wet suit and journeys into the depths of consciousness. Peter Godfrey-Smith is a leading philosopher of science. He is also a scuba diver whose underwater videos of warring octopuses have attracted wide notice. In this audiobook he brings his parallel careers together to tell a bold new story of how nature became aware of itself.

¿Qué es la física cuántica? ¿Conoces los misterios más grandes del Universo? La física cuántica es, de todas las teorías científicas, la que quizás más verificaciones y contrastaciones ha recibido al mismo tiempo, y a la vez la más determinante para la vida que llevamos en el siglo XXI. El término “cuántica” proviene de “quantum”, que es la unidad más pequeña que conforma la luz. La física cuántica nos enseña que más allá de todo lo que es material y palpable hay energía.

In this eye-opening work, Graziano accessibly explores how this sense of an inner being led to empathy and formed us into social beings. The theory may point the way to engineers for building consciousness artificially. Graziano discusses what a future with artificial consciousness might be like, including both advantages and risks, and what AI might mean for our evolutionary future.

The Abyss Inside: Mind-Blowing Facts and Discoveries About Your Extraordinary Human Body brings together the latest scientific breakthroughs, intriguing facts, and compelling narratives to illuminate the wonders of human biology. From the intricacies of the brain to the capabilities of the heart, each chapter will deepen your appreciation for the marvel that is the human body.

The idea that plants have a mind of their own has been a prominent feature of some Indigenous narratives, literary works, and philosophical discourses. Recent scientific research in the field of plant cognition similarly highlights the capacity of botanical life to discern between options and learn from prior experiences or, in other words, to think. The Mind of Plants offers an accessible account of the idea of “the plant mind” by bringing together short essays and poems on plants and their interactions with humans.

The first audiobook of its kind, Mind Wars covers the ethical dilemmas and bizarre history of cutting-edge technology and neuroscience developed for military applications. As the author discusses the innovative Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and the role of the intelligence community and countless university science departments in preparing the military and intelligence services for the 21st century, he also charts the future of national security.

Time and time again, great thinkers like Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger have credited their success to mental models: simple representations of how the world works that can be applied in a wide array of contexts. Mastering a small number of these concepts enables you to rapidly grasp new information, identify patterns others don’t, and better anticipate outcomes.

Travel the Universe as you explore the wonders of outer space like never before! I combined all three exciting volumes into one incredible fact book for space lovers, students, and the curious.

In a thrilling, science fiction adventure novel, Mind Masters takes you to a world where no one can lie, not even to themselves. Your thoughts are no longer yours; your mind, no longer your private refuge. A world where viral nanotechnology causes global telepathy. Magan, jobless and aimless, is suddenly forced into the middle of global mayhem as she struggles to remain alive. Terrified, she watches humanity tear each other apart and empires fall as truth is revealed… and it’s all her fault. Hiding in a forest cabin with a group of survivors, Magan learns to master her thoughts to ...

We live in an age of medical miracles. Never in the history of humankind has so much talent and energy been harnessed to cure disease. So why does it feel like it’s getting harder to live our healthiest lives? Why does it seem like “experts” can’t agree on anything, and why do our interactions with medical professionals feel less personal, less honest, and less impactful than ever?

In 1994, The Bell Curve and its controversial thesis catapulted the topic of genetic racial differences in IQ to the forefront of a renewed and heated debate. Now, in A Terrible Thing to Waste, award-winning science writer Harriet A. Washington adds her incisive analysis to the fray, arguing that IQ is a biased and flawed metric, but that it is useful for tracking cognitive damage. Featuring extensive scientific research and Washington's sharp, lively reporting, A Terrible Thing to Waste is sure to outrage, transform the conversation, and inspire debate.

Are you fascinated by the cosmos and eager to explore the quantum realm without complex equations? Curious about wave-particle duality or how quantum theories impact everyday life, from computing to futuristic tech? Quantum Physics Simplified breaks down mind-bending concepts into engaging, easy-to-follow explanations, making the quantum world accessible to anyone with a curious mind.

Mind Openers 2.0 is the second installment in a two-part set. It takes a fresh look at relativity, cosmology, and quantum theory by imagining a “sandbox universe”, in which space and time are treated as tangible and visualizable phenomena. In addition to providing an intuitive feel for the physics, the model makes a number of acutely unexpected predictions. The author is a geophysicist (MSc, fellow of geoscientists, Canada) and educator, who specializes in translating scientific material for the non-expert.

A vast yet compact view of cognitive neuroscience, a groundbreaking, personal and comprehensive guide into understanding our thoughts. In the last 20 years, Mariano Sigman has journeyed to the core of the brain, an organ formed by nearly an infinity of neurons that manufacture how we perceive, reason, feel, dream and communicate. After more than two decades of research, he has zoomed out from a thorough excursion to the neurons to seeing the brain from afar, where thoughts begin to take shape.

We live in a gendered world, where we are ceaselessly bombarded by messages about sex and gender. On a daily basis, we face deeply ingrained beliefs that sex determines our skills and preferences, from toys and colors to career choice and salaries. But what does this constant gendering mean for our thoughts, decisions, and behavior? And what does it mean for our brains? Drawing on her work as a professor of cognitive neuroimaging, Gina Rippon unpacks the stereotypes that surround us from our earliest moments and shows how these messages mold our ideas of ourselves.

Elegantly written and deeply grounded in personal experience - works by Oliver Sacks come to mind - Physical Intelligence gives us a clear, illuminating examination of the intricate, mutually responsive relationship between the mind and the body as they engage (or don’t engage) in all manner of physical action. Ever wonder why you don’t walk into walls or off cliffs? How you decide if you can drive through a snowstorm? How high you are willing to climb up a ladder to change a lightbulb?

The Age of Genius explores the eventful intertwining of outward event and inner intellectual life to tell, in all its richness and depth, the story of the 17th century in Europe. It was a time of creativity unparalleled in history before or since, from science to the arts, from philosophy to politics. Acclaimed philosopher and historian A. C. Grayling points to three primary factors that led to the rise of vernacular (popular) languages in philosophy, theology, science, and literature.

In this extraordinary follow-up to the critically acclaimed The Lucifer Principle, Howard Bloom - one of today's preeminent thinkers - offers us a bold rewrite of the evolutionary saga. Global Brain is more than just a brilliantly original contribution to the ongoing debate on the inner workings of evolution; it is a "grand vision," says the eminent evolutionary biologist David Sloan Wilson, a work that transforms our very view of who we are and why.

As Charles Darwin suggested more than a century ago, the differences between animals and humans are of degree and not of kind. Not long ago, ethologists denied that animals had emotions or true intelligence. Now, we know that rats laugh when tickled, magpies mourn as they cover the departed with greenery, female whales travel thousands of miles for annual reunions with their gal pals, seals navigate by the stars, bears hum when happy, and crows slide down snowy rooftops for fun.

Brilliantly exploring today's cutting edge brain research, Mind Wide Open allows readers to understand themselves and the people in their lives as never before. Using a mix of experiential reportage, personal storytelling, and fresh scientific discovery, Steven Johnson describes how the brain works and how its systems connect to the day-to-day realities of individual lives.