Table of Contents

Is There Anything Left For Us? Humans and Animals: The Same but Different. Of Fleeing Anemones and Smart Lobsters. Can Animals Talk? The Brain. Of Tamping Rods and Grandmother Cells: How the Brain Works. How Did We Get to Be So Smart?: The Evolution of Intelligence. Moving Wheels and Moving Electrons: How a Computer Works. Artificial Intelligence, Learning Machines, and Chinese Rooms. Why the Brain Is Not a Computer. Can the Brain Do Something a Computer Can't?: Godel and Penrose. The Problem of Consciousness. Consciousness and Complexity. Is There Anything Left for Us? Bibliography. Acknowledgments. Index.

About the Author

JAMES TREFIL is Robinson Professor of Physics at George Mason University. He is the author of fifteen books, including coauthorship of the bestselling Science Matters and the perennially popular Sharks Have No Bones. A regular contributor to Smithsonian magazine, he is also a science commentator for National Public Radio. Mr. Trefil lives in Fairfax, Virginia.