We Are Beast Machines

[View this email in your browser]( [Nautilus logo]( Thursday, October 14, 2021 Chapter Four: Consciousness Dear Nautilus Reader, When we’re talking about the edge of knowledge in science, we have to talk about consciousness. Where our conscious experiences come from is a perennial mystery that neuroscientists and philosophers around the world are burning the midnight oil to solve. “How does the brain transform inherently ambiguous sensory signals into a coherent perceptual world full of objects, people, and places?” asks Anil Seth, a professor of cognitive and computational neuroscience at the University of Sussex in England, and co-director of the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research Program on Brain, Mind, and Consciousness. This week in Nautilus, Seth spells out an answer to how our brain gives rise to joy, fear, regret, to all our emotions and perceptions. He explains we have brains for reasons we might not have imagined. “Evolutionarily speaking, brains are not for rational thinking, linguistic communication, or even for perceiving the world,” Seth writes. The most fundamental reason we have a brain is to direct physiological functions to keep us alive. Seth’s provocative essay, “We Are Beast Machines,” is joined this week by articles that feature two other big thinkers about the nature of consciousness, Christof Koch, and our own regular contributor George Musser, who writes about the intersection between physics and neuroscience. [READ ISSUE]( [We Are Beast Machines]( [We understand conscious experiences only in light of our nature as living creatures.]( [Anil Seth]( [I have a childhood memory of looking in the bathroom mirror, and for the first time realizing that my experience at that precise moment—the experience of being me—would at some point come to an end, and that “I” would die.]( PAID ADVERTISEMENT Hims Takes the Stress Out of Men’s Wellness Finding what works can be hard. Hims offers personalized treatment plans in minutes for hair loss, erectile dysfunction, skincare, and mental health. Just make an online appointment with a licensed medical professional to start your FDA-approved treatment plan today. Each treatment is specialized to fit your needs. Feel your best with a simple process and convenient care. [LEARN MORE]( [Neuroscience Weighs in on Physics’ Biggest Questions]( [A theory of consciousness can help build a theory of everything.]( [George Musser]( [For an empirical science, physics can be remarkably dismissive of some of our most basic observations.]( NAUTILUS PARTNER 14th Annual Imagine Science Film Festival Starts Tomorrow! The 14th Annual Imagine Science Film Festival festival kicks off on the evening of October 15 and runs through October 22. The line-up includes 25 programs with 64 films from over 30 countries. This year the festival theme is RESISTANCE, and it will explore the act of resistance from a micro and macro perspective. We're currently living in a time where resistance seems to be part of our everyday life. For more info, visit [imaginesciencefilms.org](. [The Spiritual Consciousness of Christof Koch]( [What the neuroscientist is discovering is both humbling and frightening him.]( [Steve Paulson]( [Consciousness is a thriving industry. It’s not just the meditation retreats and ayahuasca shamans.]( [Facebook]( [Instagram]( [Twitter]( [Web Site]( Copyright © 2021 NautilusNext, All rights reserved. You were subscribed to the newsletter from [nautil.us](. Our mailing address is: NautilusNext 360 W 36th Street, 7S, New York, NY 10018 Don't want to hear from us anymore? [Click here to unsubscribe.](