Me, Myself, and Why: Searching for the Science of Self Author: Jennifer Ouellette | Language: English | ISBN:
0143121650 | Format: PDF
Me, Myself, and Why: Searching for the Science of Self Description
A fascinating tour through the science behind who we are and how we got this way—from the author of The Calculus Diaries
As diverse as people appear to be, all of our genes and brains are nearly identical. In Me, Myself, and Why, Jennifer Ouellette dives into the miniscule ranges of variation to understand just what sets us apart. She draws on cutting-edge research in genetics, neuroscience, and psychology—enlivened as always with her signature sense of humor—to explore the mysteries of human identity and behavior. Readers follow her own surprising journey of self-discovery as she has her genome sequenced, her brain mapped, her personality typed, and even samples a popular hallucinogen. Bringing together everything from Mendel’s famous pea plant experiments and mutations in The X-Men to our taste for cilantro and our relationships with virtual avatars, Ouellette takes us on an endlessly thrilling and illuminating trip into the science of ourselves.
- Paperback: 368 pages
- Publisher: Penguin Books (January 28, 2014)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0143121650
- ISBN-13: 978-0143121657
- Product Dimensions: 7.7 x 5.4 x 0.6 inches
- Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
As usual I received this book for the sum of nothing in exchange for a review. This time from NetGalley. Also as usual I give my scrupulously honest opinions below.
The best summary I can give of this book is that it's broad but not necessarily deep. It starts with Mendel and his peas, makes its way through LSD experiments and brain chemistry, stops for a while in virtual reality and ends up in philosophy. It is all over the place and doesn't spend much time in any one area. This is a book best taken at a chapter every night as your first reading of the evening while you're still wide awake.
To the positive, the book is very easy to digest. Even the most complex ideas (and what's more complicated than the brain) are brought down to earth in a way that anyone can understand. There's plenty of technical jargon here but it's all defined and not at all mysterious even to the neophyte. Also, as I said above, the author covers a dizzying array of topics with wit, cleverness and clarity. For those interested in further reading there's an extensive bibliography that consumes the last 20% of the book so it's a good jumping-off point for further in-depth investigation.
To the negative, there is a lot of personal anecdote spread throughout this book. The book is 20% bibliography, 30% about the author and her life and 50% about science. For some readers this is exactly what they were probably hoping for but those looking for hard and gritty science may find themselves annoyed by how much 'Jennifer' there is in this book.
In summary, if this your first foray into such topics then you'll make a good choice to buy thsi one. If this is your 50th book on the topic, don't bother.
Self is a process and not a thing and the process is present at all times when we are presumed to be conscious. It is not located in any particular part of the body but it is an emergent phenomenon. If there is no matter (or energy), the mind doesn't exist. Soul is uniquely generated by the causal interaction with myriads of elements of the self. The Self-as-Object (the material "me") and Self-as-Knower (the subjective, self-aware "I") are linked. The former is the fundamental cognitive layer that we share with all animals and the latter is a richer self-representation that is uniquely human.
The Self is viewed differently in many fields of study. Physicists suggest that consciousness and the laws of physics are a coherent whole. Existence is explained by the operation of laws of physics on matter (or energy) in spacetime, and consciousness is inherently entangled with physical reality. For a biochemist, self would result from biochemical mechanisms involving genes, hormones, proteins, enzymes and a host of environmental factors that shapes up an individual. The intricate wirings of the brain are the essence of self for a neurobiologist, and for a social psychologist, it is a product of our environment and surroundings. For Vedanta philosophy of Hinduism and many philosophers, reality is an illusion.
In this book, Science journalist Jennifer Ouellette has done extensive literature study to write this challenging book. Even though she has not done any original research in this field, but she has been in touch with the subject matter from discussions with leading biologists, neurologists, geneticists and psychologists. A brief summary of the book is as follows; one of the most active regions of brain, when it comes to our sense of self, is the prefrontal cortex.
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