Hidden Spring
by Mark Solms · first published 2021
100% recommend
Why HN recommends it
Argues that consciousness is rooted in emotion and the brainstem rather than the cortex, drawing on clinical case studies; suits readers curious about the science of consciousness who want a grounded, accessible take.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
"A revelatory new theory of consciousness that returns emotions to the center of mental life. For Mark Solms, one of the boldest thinkers in contemporary neuroscience, discovering how consciousness comes about has been a lifetime's quest. Scientists consider it the "hard problem" because it seems an impossible task to understand why we feel a subjective sense of self and how it arises in the brain. Venturing into the elementary physics of life, Solms has now arrived at an astonishing answer. In The Hidden Spring, he brings forward his discovery in accessible language and graspable analogies. S
Affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
Check out Chapter 11 of The Hidden Spring by Mark Solms. In it he identifies subjective experience, for example perceiving the colour red, as an observational perspective. He reminds us that we can also experience vision objectively, with the…
on “We Are Beast Machines” ↗I read an interesting book about consciousness recently: The Hidden Spring by Mark Solms. Solms argues, I think convincingly, that consciousness fundamentally has to do with emotions and not cognition. Consciousness is not produced by the cortex but rather by the brainstem,…
on “I'm Scared About Biological Computing” ↗…discuss consciousness without first trying to come of a definition of it. Is self-awareness a condition for consciousness, or even the ability to contemplate consciousness? That being said I liked "the hidden spring" by Mark Solms which puts emotion at the core of consciousness. A very interesting premise that seems to be backed up by research (though I don't know nearly enough of it to evaluate). This allows for…
on “Can consciousness be explained by quantum physics?” ↗If you are looking for information about current research into consciousness, there is a book, The Hidden Spring by Mark Solms. He gave a talk organised by The Royal Institution that talked about case studies that explore where consciousness comes from. I hope this is helpful. https://youtu.be/CmuYrnOVmfk
on “Thomas Nagel: Thoughts Are Real (2013)” ↗> Philosophical mumbo-jumbo. Would you expand on that? Having done a small amount of learning adjacent to this work, I’d like to find out more. I was introduced to Friston’s work through “The Hidden Spring” by Mark Solms [0]. It seems well grounded in theory that there exist certain materials that maintain a specific range of entropy (S). Within some of those materials (i.e. biological), there are meta…
on “Artificial consciousness: a perspective from the free energy principle” ↗…was sort of all over the place (especially in the second half). I was reading another book on related topic (how the brain operates and why/how the consciousness has evolved) at about the same time (The Hidden Spring: A Journey to the Source of Consciousness) and had a much more positive impression with a good picture on what the author was trying to convey.
on “Books I loved reading this year” ↗