The Consciousness Revolutions

This book is about all things consciousness, great and small. It starts by pointing to the key characteristic of consciousness, without realizing which it cannot be understood: like everything else about the mind, it is fundamentally a kind of computation. Among many other matters, this explains: how it is that we share some aspects of consciousness with bacteria; how it can arise in artificial machines and not just living ones; how the empty cocoon of the self that it spins ends up pretending to be the butterfly; and how consciousness dooms this virtual butterfly to the splendor and the suffering of being awake and aware. Unlike most other books on consciousness, this one includes a discussion of some possible ways whereby we, pinned like butterflies by our species’ history and socioeconomic circumstances, can awake to our collective predicament and join forces to do something about it. It should be of interest to all readers who care about the nature of our lived experience — andabout our survival, which depends on developing critical consciousness of our dire situation and the social dynamics that shape it.

“This is an unconventional book. It is a fusion of scientific review, psychological analysis, personal memoir, and political manifesto. It works. … The erudition of the author is amazing. … There are plenty of endnotes that can be read almost as a parallel chapter to the main text. Each chapter has an extensive bibliography as well. This book is a job well done.” (Anthony J. Duben, Computing Reviews, October 9, 2023)

“Interested in the origins of consciousness? The self? Language? Happiness and alienation? Interested in how they are all cut from the same computational cloth? Then get yourself a copy of Shimon Edelman’s The Consciousness Revolutions. This thought-provoking book of rare scope and depth will give you much to chew on.” (Tom Gilovich, Professor of Psychology, Cornell University, Author of The Wisest One in the Room)

“This is a deeply engaging book. It is a tale of two disciplines. Part one is a scholarly, stand-alone, study of consciousness—gracefully elaborating selfhood from the physics of sentience. This part is a masterclass in Philosophy of Mind. Part two takes us — via language and the social self—into the encultured world of politics. It is a brutally dispassionate treatment of consciousness in capitalism and conscience. This part is disturbing but offers a beautiful dénouement that rests upon Part one: the “computational magic”—that underwrites our sentience—can do nothing but “turn hope into action and aspiration into achievements”. This is a rollercoaster of a read for philosophers, physicists and politicians alike.” (Karl Friston FRS, Professor of Neuroscience, University College London)

“This is a marvelous book.  It is charming, erudite, bold, wise, and appropriately personal.  The book is, of course, about consciousness and as Edelman tells us, consciousness is complicated.  This much alone is refreshing; consciousness is often grossly simplified, ignored, explained away, or even banished.  Edelman does none of this. He provides us with a full and exciting theory of consciousness, bottom to top.  His theory is also computational and physical. Finally, Edelman’s theory of consciousness spans living things from the first cells to amoebas to socially interacting humans.  This book is probably the best case that can be made for explaining consciousness as part of the natural world.” (Eric Dietrich, Professor ofPhilosophy, Binghamton University, author of "Excellent Beauty: The Naturalness of Religion and the Unnaturalness of the World")

“The Consciousness Revolutions belongs on the shelf next to "The History of Everything" and "Guns, Germs, and Steel":  a big, ambitious book pulling from many disciplines to illuminate an enduring mystery.  Like life itself, Shimon Edelman’s book begins at the cellular level, and leaps several orders of magnitude to the level of human society, concluding with a critique of capitalism and its alternatives.  The through-line is consciousness.  The seven revolutions rise from the simple responsiveness of an amoeba, through the emergence of a rudimentary self, then a more self-aware self, followed by consciousness boosted with language to form societies, and finally consciousness as an internalized social order.  Edelman explains how evolution drives revolution, an odyssey informed by cognitive science, neuroscience, psychology, philosophy, sociology, political science – and a sojourn in Death Valley.” (Dan Lloyd, Professor Emeritus, Philosophy and Neuroscience, Trinity College, author of "Radiant Cool: a novel theory of consciousness")

“From minimal sentience to critical consciousness, the history of the mind is a history of revolutions. Based on years of research on the nature of consciousness and cognition, Shimon Edelman displays his provocative and erudite thinking on a wide canvas spanning biology, neuroscience, psychology, linguistics, social and political science. A journey through revolutionary changes in selfhood, participation, and community that gives us better tools for understanding our present moment. Already at its minimal, consciousness includes an inescapable element of caring. Caring is ever-present through the revolutions in consciousness. Today’s crises are, in part, crises of caring, of giving a damn. This is why listening to the messages in this book is so important.” (Ezequiel A.Di Paolo, Research Professor, Ikerbasque - Basque Science Foundation, Spain and University of Sussex, UK)

“This thought-provoking book offers a fascinating examination of consciousness, shedding new light on its underlying computational principles by analyzing the succession of consciousness revolutions, from selfless to social consciousness. Moreover, it delves into the intricate relationship between self-modeling and suffering. The author presents scientifically sound approaches to enhancing the human condition while advocating for cultivating sociopolitical consciousness to promote the common good. The book's distinctive viewpoint on consciousness will leave a lasting impression on readers, offering a fresh perspective on this complex and essential topic.” (Antonio Chella, Director of RoboticsLab, University of Palermo, Italy)

Shimon Edelman holds degrees in electrical engineering and in computer science and is presently Professor in the Department of Psychology at Cornell University. Having worked and published in computer and human vision and motor control, language acquisition and evolution, computational linguistics and psycholinguistics, brain imaging, theoretical and computational neuroscience, and computational social science, he is now primarily interested in consciousness in all its manifestations: from the basic sentience of an amoeba to critical and class consciousness of human selves in their natural social settings. His most recent book is Life, Death, and Other Inconvenient Truths: A Realist's View of the Human Condition.