The Book of Minds: How to Understand Ourselves and Other Beings, from Animals to AI to Aliens

by Philip Ball

Overview

Popular science writer Philip Ball explores a range of sciences to map our answers to a huge, philosophically rich question: How do we even begin to think about minds that are not human?
 
Sciences from zoology to astrobiology, computer science to neuroscience, are seeking to understand minds in their own distinct disciplinary realms. Taking a uniquely broad view of minds and where to find them—including in plants, aliens, and God—Philip Ball pulls the pieces together to explore what sorts of minds we might expect to find in the universe. In so doing, he offers for the first time a unified way of thinking about what minds are and what they can do, by locating them in what he calls the “space of possible minds.” By identifying and mapping out properties of mind without prioritizing the human, Ball sheds new light on a host of fascinating questions: What moral rights should we afford animals, and can we understand their thoughts? Should we worry that AI is going to take over society? If there are intelligent aliens out there, how could we communicate with them? Should we? Understanding the space of possible minds also reveals ways of making advances in understanding some of the most challenging questions in contemporary science: What is thought? What is consciousness? And what (if anything) is free will?

Informed by conversations with leading researchers, Ball’s brilliant survey of current views about the nature and existence of minds is more mind-expanding than we could imagine. In this fascinating panorama of other minds, we come to better know our own.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780226822044
Publisher:	University of Chicago Press
Publication date:	06/28/2022
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	499
File size:	7 MB

About the Author

Philip Ball is a freelance writer and broadcaster whose many books on the interactions of the sciences, the arts, and the wider culture include Bright Earth, Curiosity, Patterns in Nature, How to Grow a Human, The Modern Myths, and, most recently, The Elements, all also published by the University of Chicago Press. His book Critical Mass won the 2005 Aventis Prize for Science Books. Ball is also a presenter of Science Stories, the BBC Radio 4 series on the history of science. He trained as a chemist at the University of Oxford and as a physicist at the University of Bristol, and he was an editor at Nature for more than twenty years. He lives in London.

Table of Contents

1. Minds and Where to Find Them
2. The Space of Possible Minds
3. All the Things You Are
4. Waking Up to the World
5. Solomon’s Secret
6. Aliens on the Doorstep
7. Machine Minds
8. Out of This World
9. Free to Choose
10. How to Know It All
Acknowledgements
End notes
Bibliography
Index

Editorial Reviews

"An impressive investigation of the various dimensions of what we call 'the mind' with much discussion of what sorts of beings might have minds. The book surveys views of a variety of philosophers and scientists with the breadth of knowledge you would expect of prolific science author Ball. . . . The Book of Minds is a highly interdisciplinary work that nicely weaves together ideas from various disciplines that address matters of mind. The book is well-written and accessible, with a clear presentation of the major issues, including the intriguing topic of minds beyond the boundaries of our planet. . . . A fascinating introduction to the many different aspects of mind with intriguing discussion of who might have them."

Metascience

"In The Book of Minds: How To Understand Ourselves and Other Beings, From Animals to AI to Aliens, science writer Philip Ball explores the minds or mind-like qualities that seem to exist in the world, and how best to make sense of it all when the science of subjective experience remains so uncertain."

Storytelling Animals

"The Book of Minds helped me better adjust my perception of the fast-evolving world of artificial intelligence. And for me, the key was first to change my perception of 'minds.' The book, which talks about all kinds of minds, from humans to animals to machines and extraterrestrials, gives you a framework for looking past your instinctive tendency to view things through the lens of your own mind and experience."

TechTalks

"A most thought-provoking book. . . . Packed with loads of information on the behavior of animals representing diverse species—ranging from various mammals, including optimistic pigs and aesthetic dogs, to tool-making birds, bees and “hive minds,” intelligent alien octopuses, plants, machines, and other entities—this wide-ranging book is a gem. It opens up the door to a pluralistic view of what is a mind, that there isn’t one kind of mind in a wide range of nonhumans and other entities, that we’re not on top of the list of minded beings, and that there’s no reason to compare different kinds of minds to ours."

Psychology Today

"Writer and broadcaster Ball investigates how we might perceive the mind if we did not put humans at the centre of our understanding. Highlighting that other cultures have attributed 'minds' to everything from rocks and rivers to trees and the weather, he argues that we should look beyond humans to truly understand what a mind encompasses. Combining neurology, philosophy, computer science and artificial intelligence, it’s a fascinating and illuminating account."

Observer (Guardian UK)

"Ball argues that we must look beyond our own brains and delve into the minds of other creatures if we want to truly understand ourselves and comprehend the possibility of alien or machine intelligence."

"Don't Miss" New Scientist

"Peering into other putative minds—animal, plant, AI, alien—Ball breaks the narcissistic trap of our sapiocentrism, our default assumption that the world is ours first, and only later should we condescend to find a little space for the rest of creation. . . . Ball is the laureate of curiosity and a one-stop source of wisdom. This book will teach you a lot about minds; but it will also make you marvel at the capacious and sagacious one possessed by its author."

Prospect

"Despite its humorous. . . subtitle, in this book popular science writer Ball offers an engaging text on the philosophy of mind. His discussion of mind tap-dances between scientific and philosophical theories of mind and brings both to bear on classic and contemporary problems regarding the nature of minds, as well as problems about ascertaining which, if any, non-human animals have minds."

Choice

"This volume invites readers to reclaim the idea of mind as an essential scientific concept, and then challenges our common ideas about what mind is. This trip takes us through human cultural differences and human neurodiversity, priming readers to start thinking about minds different from one’s own. What follows is a deeper investigation of what, following Aaron Sloman, Ball calls the Space of Possible Minds. The author calls for a Copernican revolution in thinking about mind that decenters the human, and even one that decenters the animal... By inviting readers to escape their own minds and imagine different ways of being minded, this book offers an essential step forward in the Copernican revolution that the author hopes to see. It is highly recommended."

Quarterly Review of Biology

Ball’s synoptic overview of all the sorts of minds that may exist brings together a huge wealth of ideas and facts, presenting them in a digestible and engaging form. Beginning with a discussion of what we mean by mind and what seems notable about human minds, he considers, in turn, various sorts of animals, plants, animal colonies, AI, aliens, and God, before wrapping up with a chapter on the problem of free will. A valuable introduction to scientific and philosophical work on the varieties of mindedness.

Luke Roelofs

"With ambition and patience . . . Ball explores the parameters and functions of actual, virtual, and possible minds. The journey begins with humans and our fellow organisms on Earth (including plants and fungi) and ends with machine-based minds (artificial intelligence) and minds beyond our grasp (extraterrestrials and even God). The Book of Minds addresses everything from intelligence and consciousness to agency and free will. In doing so, Ball risks biting off more than we can chew. And yet the book reads swiftly and smoothly. Organized into ten generous chapters, the book often feels like the educated rambling of a passionate dilettante. Ball’s take is wide and balanced, likely to please the demigods of mainstream academe while veiling valiant minority reports in its interstices."

Science

The award-winning science writer [Ball] explores the diversity of thinking minds, from our human ones to those of mammals, insects, computers, and plants.

Bookseller

"Ball . . . urges us to explore ‘the space of possible minds’, rather than making the human mind, as pre-Copernican astronomers did the world, central and unique."

Spectator

The Book of Minds is an extremely thoughtful, well-written, and entertaining survey of current views about the nature—and existence—of minds. While fairly light in tone and often humorous, the book itself is quite serious, and Ball does an excellent job of explaining difficult or abstruse concepts (from quantum mechanics to evolution to neuroscience) in clear language. Omnivorous in its consideration of topics and resistant to dogmatism, Ball’s book is a sustained, intelligent meditation on questions of deep scientific and human importance.

David Sepkoski

"With ambition and patience . . . Ball explores the parameters and functions of actual, virtual, and possible minds. The journey begins with humans and our fellow organisms on Earth (including plants and fungi) and ends with machine-based minds (artificial intelligence) and minds beyond our grasp (extraterrestrials and even God). The Book of Minds addresses everything from intelligence and consciousness to agency and free will. In doing so, Ball risks biting off more than we can chew. And yet the book reads swiftly and smoothly. Organized into ten generous chapters, the book often feels like the educated rambling of a passionate dilettante. Ball’s take is wide and balanced, likely to please the demigods of mainstream academe while veiling valiant minority reports in its interstices."

Science

"Philip Ball... urges us to explore ‘the space of possible minds’, rather than making the human mind, as pre-Copernican astronomers did the world, central and unique."

The Spectator

07/01/2022

This is the latest contribution by well-known and prolific science writer Ball (H2O: A Biography of Water; Critical Mass). The author seeks to reveal the mysteries of the mind and answer the question what is a mind? The book is comprehensive and far-ranging because of its length and subjects. Ball explores the extent of the human mind, as well as the "mindedness" of artificial intelligence and octopuses. Because of the fairly accessible nature of the language and descriptions used to explain scientific and philosophical considerations, most readers with an interest in the subject should be able to navigate its pages without difficulty; however, it will be most easily understood by those with a background in psychology or cognitive science. Ball ultimately makes the argument that the continued exploration of the mind can help people best understand humanity and the world. VERDICT This extensive tome will be a must-read for those with a keen interest in psychology, philosophy, and cognitive science, and for those who want to embark on a deep dive into the significance of the mind.—Grace O'Hanlon

Library Journal

2022-03-24
A journey into the concept of the mind, mixing neurology, philosophy, technology, and other disciplines.

Although everyone has a mind, few experts agree on its makeup. Ball, longtime editor at scientific journal Nature and author of Patterns in Nature and other books, delivers a fine investigation of the possibilities. He points out that early cultures awarded “mind and motive” to everything: rivers, rocks, trees, weather, gods. Regarding modern conceptions of “minds” in nature, the author writes, “our habit of treating animals as though they are dim-witted humans explains a great deal about our disregard for their well-being; giving them fully fledged, Disneyfied human minds is only the flipside of the same coin.” We use our minds to experience the world, but we can only understand the mind by using the mind. Yes, it’s tautological, but few readers will object to Ball’s efforts. Traveling the world and talking to experts, the author has learned that the mind is not the same thing as consciousness. The mind has been called the software of the brain, but that brings up artificial intelligence, a sore subject with computer scientists, many of whom have discarded the notion that brain function can inform AI developers. Despite impressive advances in neurophysiology, “we can examine the brain as a biological organ all we like, but we still can’t get inside the mind it helps create, and see what is going on.” On the positive side, he adds, consciousness is intimately involved, perhaps even synonymous. The mind maintains consciousness as “a uniquely human ability to build and sustain a picture of ourselves as autonomous entities with a history and identity.” By the halfway point, it’s clear that Ball is writing a book as much about consciousness as the mind. Many of his topics are among the hottest in neuroscience today, explored by scores of academics and popularizers such as Oliver Sacks, Antonio Damasio, and Daniel Dennett. Building on their theories and others, Ball makes a useful addition to the literature.

A difficult subject lucidly illuminated, if not fully explained.

Kirkus Reviews