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  • Being You

  • A New Science of Consciousness
  • Written by: Anil Seth
  • Narrated by: Anil Seth
  • Length: 9 hrs and 46 mins
  • 4.6 out of 5 stars (43 ratings)

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Being You cover art

Being You

Written by: Anil Seth
Narrated by: Anil Seth
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Publisher's Summary

International Best Seller

"Being You is an exhilarating book: a vast-ranging, phenomenal achievement that will undoubtedly become a seminal text." (The Guardian)

Anil Seth's quest to understand the biological basis of conscious experience is one of the most exciting contributions to 21st-century science.

What does it mean to “be you” - that is, to have a specific, conscious experience of the world around you and yourself within it? There may be no more elusive or fascinating question. Historically, humanity has considered the nature of consciousness to be a primarily spiritual or philosophical inquiry, but scientific research is now mapping out compelling biological theories and explanations for consciousness and selfhood. 

Now, internationally renowned neuroscience professor, researcher, and author Anil Seth is offers a window into our consciousness in Being You: A New Science of Consciousness. Anil Seth is both a leading expert on the neuroscience of consciousness and one of most prominent spokespeople for this relatively new field of science. His radical argument is that we do not perceive the world as it objectively is, but rather that we are prediction machines, constantly inventing our world and correcting our mistakes by the microsecond, and that we can now observe the biological mechanisms in the brain that accomplish this process of consciousness.

Seth has been interviewed for documentaries aired on the BBC, Netflix, and Amazon and podcasts by Sam Harris, Russell Brand, and Chris Anderson, and his 2017 TED Talk on the topic has been viewed over 11 million times, a testament to his uncanny ability to make unimaginably complex science accessible and entertaining.

This audiobook includes a downloadable PDF of charts and illustrations from the book.

Cover photograph of iris courtesy of Eyemazy.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

©2021 Anil Seth (P)2021 Penguin Audio

What the critics say

“Seth makes a convincing case that perception masquerades as conscious reality.... Fluent and accessible.” (Financial Times)

“Drawing on philosophy, biology, cognitive science, neuroscience and artificial intelligence, he argues that our brains are prediction machines that constantly invent our world and then correct our mistakes, so that our sense of self derives from our body.” (Nature)

“Imaginative and compelling....” (Scientific American)

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What listeners say about Being You

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Excellent book!

I really enjoyed this book! I found it very informative and insightful. I am someone who enjoys philosophical thinking, and this book certainly, will not let you down.

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For those wanting an in between technical/ concept

This book helped provide some updating on the status of IIT from someone involved in the conversations, and I would recommend pairing this read with "are we smart enough to know how smart animals are" to really help break down the implicit bias we carry around consciousness, and intelligence.

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Possibly the most important book I've ever read

If you are looking to understand what it might mean to "be you", this book provides the most well-reasoned and evidence-based explanation currently available.

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    5 out of 5 stars

Great book by Anil Seth. Thank you.

This was a great book by Anil Seth.

This is my second book that I am listening to from Audible so far.

Thoroughly enjoyed this book.

I learn a lot of new things from listening to it.

I especially liked that it was narrated by the author.

Thank you very much.

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