Consciousness: confessions of a romantic reductionist

For centuries, consciousness has fascinated philosophers, artists, and scientists. In modern times, advances in neuroscience have firmly established the crucial role of specific brain regions in maintaining consciousness, but fundamental questions regarding the mind-body relationship remain controversial as ever. Can the conventional scientific method, relying on empirical observation and “objective” reasoning, be used to address the inherently subjective concept of consciousness? Christof Koch’s perspective on the matter is deeply rooted in the camp believing that consciousness, or at least significant aspects of it, are amenable to rigorous, experimentally based neurobiological inquiry. An intense collaboration between Koch and Francis Crick during the 1990s and 2000s brought consciousness to the limelight of the neuroscience community. Consciousness: Confessions of a Romantic Reductionist is a tale of two stories that, like the two strands in Crick and Watson’s double helix, intertwine and complement each other. The first story is autobiographical: from Koch’s upbringing in a Roman Catholic family and his fascination with computing-machines as a child to his current views on faith, science, and the universe. “I’ll tell you about myself,” writes Koch, “insofar as my life is relevant to the questions: Why was I motivated — consciously or otherwise — to pursue certain problems? And, why did I adopt a particular scientific stance?” The second story is about science: an up-to-date account of experimental and theoretical studies aimed at unraveling the neurobiological basis of consciousness. The book is engaging, fluent, thought provoking, and appeals to a wide audience, scientists and non-scientists alike. It describes methodologies and concepts, such as functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), optogenetics, and information theory, in concise, clear, and non-technical language. The book starts by introducing the millennia-old mind-body problem and the general approach taken toward this problem in Koch’s work. The following chapters discuss a gamut of topics and questions pertaining consciousness, illustrating its centrality in human life: why certain sensory stimuli reach awareness and others do not; how conscious and unconscious forces shape our social life; what happens in disorders of consciousness and how they impact patients’ life and our society. In contrast to the solid science and impeccable logic guiding most of the book, the last few chapters lead toward a deliberately speculative, abstract, and futuristic climax that is likely to elicit a raised eyebrow at one point or another. At the same time, Koch’s optimism and passion regarding the quest for consciousness makes the story compelling and enjoyable to its very last pages.