Picturing The Mind, Ginsburg, Simona

What is consciousness, and who (or what) is conscious--humans, nonhumans, nonliving beings? How did consciousness evolve? Picturing the Mind pursues these questions through a series of vistas--short, engaging texts by Simona Ginsburg and Eva Jablonka, accompanied by Anna Zeligowskis lively illustrations. Taking an evolutionary perspective, Ginsburg and Jablonka suggest that consciousness can take many forms and is found not only in humans but even in such animals as octopuses (who seem to express emotions by changing color) and bees (who socialize with other bees). They identify the possible evolutionary marker of the transition from nonconscious to conscious animals, and they speculate intriguingly about aliens and artificial intelligence.