2001: A Space Odyssey celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2018. In Stanley Kubrick’s groundbreaking movie, HAL, a computer, is the psychologically flawed tragic figure that drives the action. HAL was designed to be a fully conscious being that could interact with the human astronauts as a companion as well as manage the spaceship. Its level of consciousness, including both the good and the bad, is as fully formed as that of a tragic hero in a conventional drama.

Much of the hype about artificial intelligence (AI) is related to those capabilities that emulate human behavior and could eventually evolve into “the singularity,” that is, the device shows the consciousness of a human being. This book goes back to the basics by asking, “What is consciousness?”

The book’s seven chapters are grouped into two parts. The first part (five chapters) describes the levels of consciousness, beginning with that of an amoeba and ending with human beings as social creatures. They are presented as evolutionary stages, each characterized by what the author calls a “revolution.”

The first chapter describes the most basic level of consciousness, that of being aware of phenomena in an environment, which even an amoeba can do. An amoeba can sense temperatures, chemical presence, concentrations, and so on, and can differentiate among them. That is, it can sense temperature and distinguish that from a change in sodium ion concentration in the surrounding medium. An amoeba can also prefer one environmental condition over another.

Chapter 2 builds on the basic behaviors to describe the next evolutionary stage: the “effective self” that can perceive cause and effect and know suffering. Chapter 3 continues this evolutionary model with the generation of self-aware individuals who exercise body ownership, perspective, and agency. This level describes the evolutionary trail and state of most animals.

The fourth chapter’s focus is on language, the crucial component of human existence. The author believes that language originated as a way of documenting the meager technology of early humans and providing instruction to future generations in preserving knowledge, for example, “this is how you make a stone spear point.” Language became a tool of persuasion as humans applied language to the general external world and looked inside their own heads. The major revolutionary stage in the use of language is its use in reciprocal persuasion to achieve cooperation. The author points out that, at this stage, human hope arises--the present leads to the future and choices matter.

The fifth chapter concludes the first part by showing how the properties and opportunities language affords lead to more complex relationships with others. At this level the pangs of conscience and fear of social exclusion arise. The community has the power to support positive aspects of the social milieu and good behavior of individuals and groups. It also has the power to corrupt, and this seems to be the general situation.

The second part (two chapters) reflects back on the observation presented in the fifth chapter that the social milieu fails to support the good. Specifically, chapter 6 reflects on the ubiquity of suffering observed and expressed by language-mediated thought. Chapter 7’s topic is alienation. The only antidote to alienation is connecting one’s personal experience with that of others. The second part has a political agenda that is well argued. It would be unfair to the author to be a spoiler of his arguments. You may or may not agree with his conclusions, either in whole or in part; however, they should stimulate plenty of reflection.

This is an unconventional book. It is a fusion of scientific review, psychological analysis, personal memoir, and political manifesto. It works. The tone is conversational, apparently borrowing a lot from graduate seminar discussions where much of the subject matter was discussed. The erudition of the author is amazing. It is nontechnical, but there are pointers to research questions that could and should be considered by developers and investigators in AI. There are plenty of endnotes that can be read almost as a parallel chapter to the main text. Each chapter has an extensive bibliography as well. This book is a job well done.

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