{"product_id":"the-book-of-minds-how-to-understand-ourselves-and-other-beings-from-animals-to-ai-to-aliens-9780226795874","title":"The Book of Minds: How to Understand Ourselves and Other Beings, from Animals to AI to Aliens","description":"\u003cb\u003ePopular science writer Philip Ball explores a range of sciences to map our answers to a huge, philosophically rich question: How do we even begin to think about minds that are not human?\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e Sciences from zoology to astrobiology, computer science to neuroscience, are seeking to understand minds in their own distinct disciplinary realms. Taking a uniquely broad view of minds and where to find them--including in plants, aliens, and God--Philip Ball pulls the pieces together to explore what sorts of minds we might expect to find in the universe. In so doing, he offers for the first time a unified way of thinking about what minds are and what they can do, by locating them in what he calls the \"space of possible minds.\" By identifying and mapping out properties of mind without prioritizing the human, Ball sheds new light on a host of fascinating questions: What moral rights should we afford animals, and can we understand their thoughts? Should we worry that AI is going to take over society? If there are intelligent aliens out there, how could we communicate with them? Should we? Understanding the space of possible minds also reveals ways of making advances in understanding some of the most challenging questions in contemporary science: What is thought? What is consciousness? And what (if anything) is free will? \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e Informed by conversations with leading researchers, Ball's brilliant survey of current views about the nature and existence of minds is more mind-expanding than we could imagine. In this fascinating panorama of other minds, we come to better know our own.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePhilip Ball\u003c\/b\u003e is a freelance writer and broadcaster whose many books on the interactions of the sciences, the arts, and the wider culture include \u003ci\u003eBright Earth\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eCuriosity\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003ePatterns in Nature\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eHow to Grow a Human\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eThe Modern Myths\u003c\/i\u003e, and, most recently, \u003ci\u003eThe Elements\u003c\/i\u003e, all also published by the University of Chicago Press. His book \u003ci\u003eCritical Mass\u003c\/i\u003e won the 2005 Aventis Prize for Science Books. Ball is also a presenter of \u003ci\u003eScience Stories\u003c\/i\u003e, the BBC Radio 4 series on the history of science. He trained as a chemist at the University of Oxford and as a physicist at the University of Bristol, and he was an editor at \u003ci\u003eNature\u003c\/i\u003e for more than twenty years. He lives in London.\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"University of Chicago Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50646143828242,"sku":"9780226795874","price":18.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_d99f47f8-86a6-4e61-bac2-a4f4156a4d6b.jpg?v=1733170746","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/the-book-of-minds-how-to-understand-ourselves-and-other-beings-from-animals-to-ai-to-aliens-9780226795874","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}