my mind on books

Multiplicity: The New Science of Personality, Identity, and the Self is a new book by Rita Carter that I picked up at the bookstore recently.
From the book description:

MULTIPLICITY presents an entirely new view of our selves. Instead of seeing each person as a single personality, Carter argues that we all consist of multiple characters, each one with its own viewpoint, emotions and ambitions. The mother who feeds breakfast to her children, for example, has quite different concerns and opinions from the woman taking part in a boardroom discussion two hours later, and from the woman she will be with her husband that night. Yet all three may share the same body, and none is any more “authentic” than another.

Personality changes in a person are conventionally frowned upon, but Carter shows that in today’s world our ability to switch from one personality to another according to what is demanded of us is a huge strength, providing one’s personalities work together as a team rather than against each other. In addition to its groundbreaking scientific thesis, MULTIPLICITY contains extensive exercises designed to help readers achieve this harmony.

Carter’s previous books include Mapping the Mind and Exploring Consciousness.

The Mind Science Foundation has put together a nice list of over 40 books in their “Consciousness Cyber Library”; plus they are compiling a “Consciousness Researchers Database.” If you’re in the San Antonio, Texas, area you can also take advantage of their speakers and events.

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Brain Rules: 12 Principles for Surviving and Thriving at Work, Home, and School by John Medina is a new book with a nice website/blog.
He has boiled it all down to 12 rules dealing with exercise, survival, wiring, attention, short-term memory, long-term memory, sleep, stress, sensory integration, vision, gender and exploration.

3/31/08: Seattle Times article

Today’s San Francisco Chronicle (3/16/08) has an interview with Tom Wolfe, discussing “surprisingly trendy neuroscience.” According to the article Wolfe is working on a book on the topic, to be called The Human Beast.

Wolfe’s 1996 essay “Sorry, But Your Soul Just Died,” referred to in the article, is reprinted here.

Wolfe’s 2006 Jefferson Lecture is “The Human Beast.”

Jose Delgado’s “Physical Control of the Mind,” recommended by Wolfe, is available online here

David Chalmers has posted about Andy Clark‘s upcoming book Supersizing the Mind: Embodiment, Action, and Cognitive Extension. I enjoyed Clark’s earlier book Natural-Born Cyborgs: Minds, Technologies, and the Future of Human Intelligence so I’ll be looking forward to this new one.