I just finished reading The Crucible of Consciousness: An Integrated Theory of Mind and Brain by Zoltan Torey. The book deals with the concept that we call “consciousness” or “the mind”: what it is, how it works, and how we evolved to have this amazing ability.
Torey approaches the subject based purely on the evidence at hand. While at times this read requires a dictionary for those like myself without a background in psychology or neurology, the book is accessible enough to the lay person to allow a trek into the mechanics of the brain. If one takes the time to plow through some of the more dense areas, the reward is a more thorough explanation later in each section and chapter.
Torey’s central theme is that human evolution slowly began developing brain structures to help with a number of tasks before consciousness came into play. These specialized brain regions helped with a number of tasks including simple naming communication, such as “lion” or “danger”. In time mankind developed speech-thought, which gave these enhanced areas of the brain the ability to form a framework with which to achieve self-reflection or consciousness. At times Torey glosses over the underlying science that supports his theory and instead references other papers and books. In this respect the book can seem slightly out of reach to the layman that has not read the other seminal works in cognitive science. At other times he dives into some detail, rewarding the reader with real insights into the science supporting his claims.
Near the end of the book Torey drifts away from his hard-science approach and speculates on a number of subjects related to consciousness. It was this part I enjoyed the least. While he clearly states that these are just speculations, I feel that he drifts far off target and perhaps frames some of the science incorrectly, particularly his characterizations around quantum mechanics.
All and all I really enjoyed this book. It offers a wonderful insight supported by real science as to what we are as conscious beings.
