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Chapter one
Inner Spaces


What My Stroke Taught Me
The surprising, quiet nourishment of losing my internal monologue.

Is There Awareness Behind Vegetative States?
The answer to a simple question may show if someone’s really “home.”

Is Matter Conscious?
Why the central problem in neuroscience is mirrored in physics.
Chapter two
Morals

What the Rat Brain Tells Us About Yours
The evolution of animal models for neuroactive medicine.

To Fix the Climate, Tell Better Stories
The missing climate change narrative.

What Do Animals See in a Mirror?
A controversial test for self-awareness is dividing the animal kingdom.

Do Aliens Have Inalienable Rights?
What ET teaches us about our moral obligations.
Chapter three
Origins

The Kekulé Problem
Where did language come from?

How Nostalgia Made America Great Again
When the present looks bleak, we reach for a rose-tinted past.

The Deep Space of Digital Reading
Why we shouldn’t worry about leaving print behind.

Why Poverty Is Like a Disease
Emerging science is putting the lie to American meritocracy.
Chapter four
Bugs & Bots

Why Doesn’t Ancient Fiction Talk About Feelings?
Literature’s evolution has reflected and spurred the growing complexity of society.

If Bugs Are Sentient, Should We Eat Them?
The ethics of eating insects.

You Can’t Upload Your “Self” Into Virtual Reality
Thomas Metzinger on the nature of subjective experience.

Ingenious: Julie Sedivy
Why language both enraptures and deceives us.

We Need Conscious Robots
How introspection and imagination make robots better.
Chapter five
Equations

Is Consciousness Fractal?
Our subconscious love for fractals may tell an evolutionary story.

A Theory of Consciousness Can Help Build a Theory of Everything
Neuroscience is weighing in on physics’ biggest questions.

Pre-Conscious Humans May Have Been Like the Borg
Does an alien race from Star Trek tell the story of human consciousness?

Roger Penrose On Why Consciousness Does Not Compute
The emperor of physics defends his controversial theory of mind.
Related Facts So Romantic
“Reality provides us with facts so romantic that imagination itself could add nothing to them.” —Jules Verne
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