__W__ho are you? Answering this question can easily make you a victim of the old "I think, therefore I am" virus, precursor to the deadly Descartes syndrome. Hoping to inoculate the world once and for all from the dangers of this pesky meme is Tor Nørretranders, whose new book, The User Illusion, is intended to bring you to your senses. Literally.
Nørretranders, one of Denmark's leading science writers, cuts a wide and winding path through 20th-century intellectual history in his attempt to articulate what he sees as a fundamental shift in consciousness. Making stops at the houses of thermodynamics, Marxism, information theory, psychology, astronomy, and many others, the result is an arduous journey that's not for the faint of heart.
The book's title refers to the illusion that greets most digital machine users: the desktop - an imperfect and rather rudimentary mechanism that filters complex stimuli into recognizable patterns. Nørretranders equates consciousness with this computer metaphor, postulating that "consciousness is the instance of selection that picks and chooses among the many options nonconsciousness offers up." In other words, it's a sieve for all of the bits that constantly flit through our beings.
Nørretranders' real project, indicated in the subtitle, is cutting consciousness down to size, which he does by citing research that indicates there's a delay between the moment nonconsciousness registers something and the moment consciousness becomes aware of it. This obscure fact enables him to postulate that consciousness is basically a gatekeeper and, given things like Freudian slips, not a very adept one at that.
The author winds up his journey basking in the warm nonconscious glow of these slips and other messy life situations. Whether you, dear reader, will make it with him to his nirvana is unclear. You'll first have to get through lots of thermodynamic muck and philosophical thickets such as "Because everything is constantly being diluted by nothing, we can experience it as everything." In the end, you might feel like screaming, "Stop making sense!" Just remember, however, that Nørretranders' primary goal is to bring you back to your senses.
STREET CRED
Speech Recognition - To Go Dutch Hitmeister
When the Background Eclipses the Game
Making Sense
