The Limits of Language

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The original, whatever creature was the first to experience a subjective feeling of self, that creature is lost to us. And I like consciousness, right? The poem in this book 19 Ways of Looking at Wong Way is the same poem translated 19 different times by various authors throughout 1400 years. It's like compressing an image or a bitmap or sound. You do it too many times and it's lossy.

How does the mind work? What makes us sad? What makes us laugh? Despite advances in neuroscience, the answers to these questions remain elusive. Neuroscientist Patrick House talks about these mysteries and about his book Nineteen Ways of Looking at Consciousness with EconTalk host Russ Roberts. House's insights illuminate not just what we know and don't know about our minds--he also helps us understand what it means to be human.