Impossible Minds: My Neurons, My Consciousness

"... his book provides a popular account of the problem of consciousness. It is a personal view, from the perspective of a plain-speaking and clear-sighted engineer, articulated with all the optimism and confidence that engineers need to pursue the audacious goal of designing intelligent and conscious robots ... it is more of an 'ideas' book, and was fun to read. It should be an adventure and an inspiration for the human, if not yet the robotic, mind." William Clocksin Nature, 1996 "... no one could deny that Aleksander is doing a good job in this book of rehabilitating and making accessible some of the more unreasonable, some might say unfathomable, of AI's tenets: would recommend Aleksander's book as if nothing else, an excellent primer on matters of AI consciousness and philosophy." Peter Thomas New Scientist, 1996 "... reading 'Impossible Minds' is a lot of fun, both for the variety of topics and for the controversies it touches upon. For the beginner it is a good introduction to a fast-growing discipline; for every reader it is a good starting point of healthy argument with the author's views." International Journal of Neural Systems Apr 1997

• Yet another book on consciousness?; who's afraid of Magnus?; neurons and thought; automata and brains; the inner eye of consciousness; who am I?; beginnings and words; give me a teddy...; qualia, instinct and emotion; what's the use of artificial minds?; Magnus 2030 AD - an interview.