George Musser's 'Putting Ourselves Back in the Equation' was a dense and detailed read. As it's outside my typical genre, I found it challenging to follow."

I am not a physicist, but I do have a psychology degree. I am fascinated when people can apply new ideas to a subject I know in a completely different way. That is why I was so excited that NetGalley allowed me to read this in exchange for an honest review.
I listened to the audio, and the narrator was very clear and easy to understand. The topics themselves were broken down in unusual but practical ways, and it was amazing how the book covered everything from time to perception. If I had my own copy, I would listen to this several times so that I could develop a better overall understanding of physics, because there were several topics I would like to understand better.
There need to be more great science communicators.

Extremely engaging and thought-provoking, I'm tempted to read everything by this author (The Complete Idiot's Guide to String Theory? lol) but also my brain needs a little break.

I am definitely not a scientist, but I love the genre. My complaints are usually that the writing isn't engaging or that the books are too surface-level and just spend 300 pages reinforcing the same basic comments, but neither apply in this case.

The tiny little topics covered here are space, time, matter, and the mind. The influence of neuroscience on physics is discussed, and what can be gained from the pairing is contemplated. I definitely did not understand everything here, but appreciated the depth with which George Musser explained the concepts presented and tried to get me to learn them. Lots of analogies here to help a non-scientist understand, but the author definitely doesn't stray from difficult topics. The book is also extremely relevant and mentions the pandemic, political drama, etc., recent to the time of publication.

I thought so much about so many interesting things, and I learned quite a bit. Would highly recommend.

2023 has born witness to an explosion of book publications on cognitive neuroscience topics, especially consciousness and free will. George Musser's Putting Ourselves Back in the Equation is yet another entry, following on books from Kevin Mitchell, Max Bennett, Robert Sapolsky, Erik Hoel (featured prominently in Musser's book), and others. Musser's angle is a closer look at what physicists can contribute to question. With reciprocal symmetry, Musser contends that revealing the nature of consciousness may be fundamental to solving other conundrums in physics, such as reconciling quantum mechanic and general relativity (the so-called "theory of everything").

Although attempts to bridge knowledge from physics with knowledge from neuroscience and psychology - or, in other words, to solve the "hard problem of consciousness" - have clearly been generative, it is hard to say there has been meaningful progression or insights. We appear to be in a place where of questions, paradoxes, and theoretical models are proliferating, while empirical and experimental work languishes or proceeds discursively. In fact, I think one of the most interesting things to come out of books like these is that the most useful insights about how our higher-order processes in the brain work appear to come from the tinkering of those trying to apply neural networks to achieve different types of artificial intelligence. Musser explores this idea early in the book, but it would have been great to have more of it.

Alternatively, Musser plows forward through the varied conception of consciousness, fleshing out the differences between the various theories (predictive processing, integrated information theory (IIT), panpsychism, and quantum theories) and what physics suggests about the validity or fruitfulness of each one. Overall, this was a reasonably good introduction to these ideas especially contextualized against the insights of cosmology and quantum physics. The challenge is that the accessibility of the content varies substantially. Musser, where he able to convey some very complex subjects like Hoel's work on causal emergence quite clearly while sort of bumbling through different theories of wave function collapse and observer theories.

Despite the blooming in cognitive neuroscience publications, Musser's work does enough to be distinct and fresh. It also have useful curious and open tone that allows for a fairly balanced exploration of the models in this space. Unfortunately, the pre-paradigmatic state of the science of consciousness and the indeterminacy and paradoxical quality of quantum physics, it is hard to derive great takeaways from the book. It is a journey. So I recommend to those who are very curious and patient.

This was a very interesting read. It answered a lot of questions and presented even more! Definitely not a read for someone who’s just curious about physics. There’s weighty quantum physics info, but it’s all rather interesting. A lot of stories and examples that help to further break down the framework. Have a highlighter and dictionary.com on deck when reading.

This book is really interesting, exploring the link between the theory of everything and the theory of mind. If you're interested in this, this book is great. Here's the thing - it's written by a physicist, and it's just a topic that can get a little boring. The author did a fantastic job of writing this as interestingly as possible, but I just got bored by the topic at hand. The narrator also did a great job, it's just hard to make such an academic topic interesting for 9+ hours.

Thank you to Macmillan Audio and NetGalley for this audio ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Enjoyed this topic. There was definitely a lot of physics that I had to kind of hold loosely in my hand in front of me instead of trying for a solid understanding, but I really loved the idea of physicists diving into the idea of consciousness. I'll probably give it a while and read it again to see what else I can tease out of it. The author does a great job of presenting the material in understandable language and with tangible explanations.

Musser, George, Putting Ourselves Back in the Equation.
As humans, we are made of matter and have consciousness. Current physics research is trying to understand the brain and how AI is going to play into it. He explores how AI might imitate the role of the observer, better understand neurons, and mimic other pieces related to mind and matter. Consciousness, however, is a complex problem that has much to discover and understand.
Exploring these questions and more, Musser uses vivid descriptive writing to pain portraits of scientists on the cutting edge. His explorations are intriguing and informative. His leaving of readers with more questions than answers, however, may cause some readers to feel unsatisfied. Recommended for fans of books about science, physics, and consciousness. Recommended for general purchase. 3 stars, ADULT

This fascinating book explores the potential link between the "theory of everything" in physics and the "theory of mind" in neuroscience. In the quantum realm, the act of observation affects results. Is is possible for science to faithfully represent reality at that scale? Physicists, neuroscientists, and philosophers now collaborate to explore how the brain creates consciousness.

This entertaining book raises interesting questions and suggests new ways of looking at the universe. The style is engaging and readable. The audiobook narration was well done.

Thanks, NetGalley, for the ARC I received. This is my honest and voluntary review.

This book takes the “if a tree falls in the forest but there’s nobody there to hear it” scenario to galactic levels and actually gives answers that are fascinating, scary and unexpected. The author explores many really complicated concepts in ways that are easier to grasp. There is still a lot of quantum physics, which I have really, really tried and failed to understand. I’m afraid that I still can’t get it, but at least the examples provided made it a little easier to follow (this is no fault of the author, I just can’t get it). Other subjects unrelated to quantum physics were illuminating (and those I understood). Part of the content is psychological, philosophical and it really makes you wonder. Just one example, have you ever considered how we’d see the world if we didn’t perceive time lineally? Not everything has an answer, but just asking the questions made me think. I enjoyed Alan Peterson’s narration for the audiobook, he sounds like a cool professor that brings up interesting facts. This is not an easy book to follow, you really need to take your time to digest the information (I paused the audiobook more than once, and thank goodness for the rewind button), but it is not long and, like I mentioned, it’s easy to follow if you’re paying attention.
I chose to listen to this audiobook and all opinions in this review are my own and completely unbiased. Thank you, #NetGalley/#Macmillan Audio!