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How to take on AI's challenge to ideas about what can be conscious

An impressive and exuberant book by neuroscientist Christof Koch challenges the idea that simulating intelligence and consciousness is identical to the real deal

By Jonathan R. Goodman

5 June 2024

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Psychedelic drugs are said to lead to expanded consciousness

Jorm Sangsorn/iStockphoto/Get​ty Images


Christof Koch (Hachette UK; Basic Books (US))

A FEW weeks ago, during a journey on the Eurostar, I started reading a new book about consciousness. I had barely begun when the man sitting opposite asked about it. He told me – a consequence perhaps of the unique way that train travel can create short yet oddly close friendships – that, after a near-death experience, he became interested in the mind.

He asked if I knew what consciousness was, and I said I…

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