Conscious

Annaka Harris examines consciousness, the felt experience of being in the world, in a short guide to the definitions, philosophies and scientific findings that try to explain it. She considers where consciousness resides and what gives rise to it, whether it is illusory or a property shared by all matter, and why any collection of matter would be conscious at all. She also takes up who or what might possess it in an age of artificial intelligence. Along the way the book touches on the self and free will, and it invites readers to reason about consciousness for themselves. It appeared on the New York Times science best seller list.

Adam Grant endorsed it as the clearest explanation of consciousness he had seen, Daniel Goleman called it a user's guide to scientific thinking on the subject, and Wait But Why founder Tim Urban said it reshaped his beliefs about the nature of consciousness.