This title is printed in full color throughout.

From one of the most original and influential neuroscientists at work today, here is an exploration of consciousness unlike any other—as told by Galileo, who opened the way for the objectivity of science and is now intent on making subjective experience a part of science as well.

Galileo’s journey has three parts, each with a different guide. In the first, accompanied by a scientist who resembles Francis Crick, he learns why certain parts of the brain are important and not others, and why consciousness fades with sleep. In the second part, when his companion seems to be named Alturi (Galileo is hard of hearing; his companion’s name is actually Alan Turing), he sees how the facts assembled in the first part can be unified and understood through a scientific theory—a theory that links consciousness to the notion of integrated information (also known as phi). In the third part, accompanied by a bearded man who can only be Charles Darwin, he meditates on how consciousness is an evolving, developing, ever-deepening awareness of ourselves in history and culture—that it is everything we have and everything we are.

Not since Gödel, Escher, Bach has there been a book that interweaves science, art, and the imagination with such originality. This beautiful and arresting narrative will transform the way we think of ourselves and the world.

朱利奥•托诺尼（Giulio Tononi）

神经科学家、精神病学家，威斯康星大学睡眠医学教授、意识科学讲座教授。

他是意识现代科学的代表人物，提出了“整合信息理论”（Integrated Information Theory of Consciousness，IITC）去解释意识的成因。他的工作被克里斯托弗•科赫称为“唯一有前途的意识基础理论”。他也是睡眠研究领域的权威，特别是睡眠遗传学和病因学的研究。

他的研究成果除了发表在一些重要杂志上，还在《新科学家》、《每日科学》、《科学美国人》等杂志上发表。同时，《纽约时报》、《经济学家》等报纸刊物也对他的研究成果做了报导。他与杰拉尔德•埃德尔曼（1972年诺贝尔生理学奖或医学奖得主）共同撰写了《意识的宇宙：物质如何转变为精神》。