Being You: A New Science of Consciousness

Anil Seth explores the biological basis of conscious experience and what it means to have a specific, conscious experience of the world and yourself within it. Historically, consciousness was considered primarily a spiritual or philosophical matter, but scientific research now offers biological theories and explanations for consciousness and selfhood. Seth argues that humans do not perceive the world as it objectively is. Instead, he proposes that we are prediction machines, constantly inventing our world and correcting mistakes microsecond by microsecond. He explains that we can now observe the biological mechanisms in the brain that accomplish this process of consciousness. Seth is a neuroscience professor and researcher who has made the neuroscience of consciousness accessible through documentaries, podcasts, and a 2017 TED Talk viewed over 11 million times.