Anil Seth Profile picture
Dec 26, 2022 27 tweets 19 min read Read on X
1/25 Since it’s that time of the year, here’s some (maybe all) of the books I’ve read or listened to in 2022, roughly in chronological order 📚👇🏽
2/ Exact thinking in demented times, by Karl Sigmund. A fascinating, lyrical, vivid, and deeply researched history of the Vienna Circle. Takes a while, but repays handsomely. uk.bookshop.org/books/exact-th…
3/ Piranesi, by Susanna Clarke. How she conjures such a vivid and magical world with just words I have no idea. It is a world I did not want to leave. Read it, and then listen to Chiwetel Ejiofor read it to you. Wonderful. uk.bookshop.org/books/piranesi…
4/ When we cease to understand the world, by Benjamín Labatut. A unique mix of fiction and nonfiction, of big ideas, and of madness and creativity. A mind-expanding read. uk.bookshop.org/books/when-we-…
5/ Children of time, by Adrian Tchaikovsky. An acclaimed sci-fi novel involving terraformed planets, intelligent spiders, and an ambitious portrayal of the vastness of time and space. I found it hard to get into, but it stayed with me uk.bookshop.org/books/children…
6/ East west street, by Philippe Sands @philippesands. A prize-winning detective story, family history, and legal thriller, set in the Ukrainian city of Lviv. I recommend listening to @philippesands’ narration (with David Rintoul). Then try The Ratline. uk.bookshop.org/books/east-wes…
7/ In consciousness we trust, by Hakwan Lau @hakwanlau. Lau – a leading neuroscientist, colleague, and friend – explains his take on the neural basis of consciousness, & on consciousness science in general. Highly recommended (see also #Bewilderment, 22) uk.bookshop.org/books/in-consc…
8/ Bittersweet, by Susan Cain @susancain. The follow-up to her all-conquering #Quiet, Bittersweet is a beautiful exploration of this most mysterious and contradictory of emotions – and there’s even a soundtrack (Albionini’s Adagio in G minor💓) uk.bookshop.org/books/bittersw…
9/ Lincoln in the bardo, by George Saunders. One of the most creative novels I’ve ever read. Magical realism? Surrealism? Who knows – but it is moving, transporting, hilariously polyphonic, and deeply meaningful. The audiobook is a joy. uk.bookshop.org/books/lincoln-…
10/ The man from the future, by Ananyo Bhattacharya @ananyo. An insightful, informative portrait of the genius John Von Neumann – one of the greatest intellects of the 20th Century. It’s a riveting story too. Great stuff. uk.bookshop.org/books/the-man-…
11/ This is your mind on plants, by Michael Pollan @michaelpollan. The follow-up to #HowToChangeYourMind – with essays on opium, caffeine, & mescaline. I gave up coffee for much of 2022, so there was much to resonate with in this brilliant book uk.bookshop.org/books/this-is-…
12/ The ministry for the future, by Kim Stanley Robinson @ksrinfo. Transcends the genre of disaster fiction to deliver a clear-eyed view of the catastrophe of climate breakdown, and what we need to do to avert its worst consequences. Sobering. uk.bookshop.org/books/the-mini…
13/ The chapel of extreme experience, by John Geiger. Hard to find, but an enchanting read. A bit niche – I read it for its historical background on the #Dreamachine, which we re-invented in 2022 on a massive scale (dreamachine.world) @drea_m_achine amazon.co.uk/Chapel-Extreme…
14/ Exponential, by Azeem Azhar @azeem. Things are changing increasingly rapidly, including the rate of change of things. @azeem – a leading technologist (and friend) – delivers a clear-eyed, compelling, and highly readable tour of where all this is headed uk.bookshop.org/books/exponent…
15/ The overstory, by Richard Powers. Hugely acclaimed and multi-prize-winning, Powers’ novel weaves together individual narratives into a portrait of nature, its precarity, and its importance. A book that invigorates, warns, and enriches. uk.bookshop.org/books/the-over…
16/ The ratline, by Philippe Sands @philippesands. Follow-up to East West Street (see 6) is equally brilliant, and again weaves together intimate family history with a rompingly good narrative, while exploring profound questions of morality and history. uk.bookshop.org/books/the-ratl…
17/ Entangled life, by Merlin Sheldrake. A runaway success, and I can see why. It’s a mesmerising journey through the world of fungi and their profound importance for all of life. And it really is beautifully written – a joy to read. uk.bookshop.org/books/entangle…
18/ Sentience, by Nicholas Humphrey @Humphren. Humphrey – a leading philosopher and psychologist – integrates personal history and science to present a distinctive view of consciousness and its evolution – with some surprising conclusions. Recommended. global.oup.com/academic/produ…
19/ And finally, by Henry Marsh @DrHenryMarsh. The latest from the irascible and deeply humane neurosurgeon and writer (of #DoNoHarm). And Finally is a meditation on life and its end, and is candid, insightful, and poetic. Spend time with it. uk.bookshop.org/books/and-fina…
20/ Planta sapiens, by Paco Calvo & Natalie Lawrence. Are plants conscious? Surely @Humprhen would say No (and so would I), but Calvo & Lawrence make a provocative case otherwise. Agree or not, you’ll not look at our leafy friends the same way again. uk.bookshop.org/books/planta-s…
21/ Stone blind, by Natalie Haynes @officialnhaynes. New from “the nation’s greatest muse” as @dradamrutherford correctly calls her (disclaimer – both are friends), this is a delightfully witty retelling of the legend of #Medusa. A wonderful listen: uk.bookshop.org/books/stone-bl…
22/ Bewilderment, by Richard Powers. As with The Overstory, a eulogy to the natural world. Surprisingly, a central device is ‘decoded neurofeedback’ – an innovative neuroscience method developed by @hakwanlau see 7) & others. Powerful stuff. (@Vincent_T_D) uk.bookshop.org/books/bewilder…
23/ How to think like a philosopher, by Julian Baggini @JulianBaggini. One to watch out for. He writes so well that perhaps his next book should be “How to write like Julian Baggini” but I doubt that even Baggini could teach that. Generously intelligent. press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book…
24/ That’s the wrap for this year. For some other book recommendations, check out my @five_books selection of my favourite books on the neuroscience of consciousness, in conversation with @philosophybites fivebooks.com/best-books/neu…
25/ And that’s all! Thanks for reading, and thanks also to everyone who read #BeingYou this year. It just tipped over 1,000 ratings on #Amazon, which is great – if you’ve read and haven’t rated, I’d be super grateful if you’d consider doing so amazon.co.uk/Being-You-Scie…
/end I’d also be grateful if you’d consider taking part in our @Drea_m_achine study of ‘perceptual diversity’ – of how we each experience a unique world. Find out more here perceptioncensus.dreamachine.world & here theguardian.com/books/2022/oct…, and look out for more @Drea_m_achine in 2023 🙏🏽🙏🏽
+1/ late addition (damn my memory, sorry) - Two heads, by @cdfrith, @utafrith, Alex Frith, and Daniel Locke - a unique graphic novel & a delightful perspective on neuroscience, the mind, and the self, from four excellent heads uk.bookshop.org/books/two-head…

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More from @anilkseth

Jan 30
1/🧵 Lots of fuss and bother about the announcement from @neuralink today about having implanted their tech in a human brain for the first time. bbc.co.uk/news/technolog…
2/ This technology is definitely advancing, and there are many exciting implications, especially in medicine: restoring function in people with paralysis, or after loss of vision, or some other sense, &c. And its great to have more players in this field to drive progress.
3/ But it's important to stress that there's nothing new here, at least not yet. Other groups have been developing brain implants for decades, and have demonstrated many more impressive results than today's highly prelimary announcement.
Read 14 tweets
Dec 18, 2023
1/🧵 Here's some books I read & (increasingly) listened to during 2023 - and before we get going, do consider getting #BeingYou if you haven't already - or leaving an @amazon review if you have 🙏🏽 Its now in translated into 8 languages w/ 6 more coming anilseth.com/being-you/
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2/ A great companion is #TheExperienceMachine, by Andy Clark @CogsAndy - his latest on predictive processing, and excellent on how ideas like active inference and the extended mind can work together. goodreads.com/en/book/show/6…
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3/ I loved #CloudCuckooLand, by Anthony Doerr @DoerrTorresal. A story about stories and a book about books. Unfolding across expanses of space and time, it reminded me of #CloudAtlas in sweep and narrative. One twist left me reeling with pleasure. uk.bookshop.org/p/books/cloud-…
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Read 25 tweets
Nov 1, 2023
1/🧵 As the UK #AISummit gets going, a reminder that AI is not about to become conscious, but that even AI that merely *seems* conscious will still pose grave ethical/social concerns. As @demishassabis said, this is not the time to move fast & break things nautil.us/why-conscious-…
2/ Intelligence and consciousness are very different thngs. Intelligence is about doing the right thing at the right time, while consciousness is about having subjective experience. You don't have to be (species-level) smart, in order to suffer. Image
3/ We humans tend to associate intelligence and consciousness together, thanks to strong pyschological biases to see things through a human lens (anthropocentrism) and to project human values into other things on the basis of superficial similarities (anthropomorphism) Image
Read 16 tweets
Oct 3, 2023
1/🧵 There are times when we acutely regret our unintended actions. For me, this is one. Regarding the ‘IIT as pseudoscience’ letter, I was quoted in The Atlantic saying something I sincerely regret, questioning peoples’ knowledge of IIT, and ...
2/ ... of the implications of signing the letter. I deeply apologise for this, and I unreservedly retract the quote.
3/ I was surprised and horrified to see this quote (which does not need repeating). It does not reflect my views. I can only imagine that I said it out of exasperation and general frustration with the whole IIT-gate business, ...
Read 9 tweets
Aug 27, 2023
1/ Interesting (long) post on AI consciousness, which makes some good points. But there are (it seems to me) many misconceptions too. What AI folk think about consciousness is important, so let's have a look 👀
2/ Consciousness (raw subjective experience, C) is not the same thing as self-awareness (which entails more than this) and sentience (which requires less). There is also no necessary connection between consciousness and free will or (arguably) agency (depends on your thoery) Image
3/ Correct to distinguish consciousness from intelligence, but AGI is different & it's unclear whether consciousness is needed or not. Non-general superhuman AI is different again: non-conscious AI already outpeforms humans in many domains. Image
Read 10 tweets
Jul 6, 2023
1/ "Why finding the neural correlates of consciousness is still a good bet" - my @NautilusMag take on the wager between @davidchalmers42 & Christof Koch, and (more so) on the first @ArcCogitate results, announced at @theASSC NYC 👇🏽 https://t.co/bfyixag9mpnautil.us/finding-the-ne…
2/ A few things to emphasise. First, adversarial collaborations are really hard - in design, implementation, and marshalling of the strong minds involved. Huge credit to Lucia Melloni @ncc_lab, @Liad_Mudrik & Michael Pitts for managing it so successfully - a real achievement👏🏽🙏🏽
3/ The students and young researchers who actually did the experiments deserve great credit too - these projects take time & teamwork, and they've invested a great deal. The outcome is definitely worth it. Hat's off again.
Read 13 tweets

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