The Boilerplate Rhino

I read The Boilerplate Rhino: Nature in the Eye of the Beholder by David Quammen and heard him on Fresh Air talking about his new book Monster of God: The Man-Eating Predator in the Jungles of History and the Mind. (Listen here.) I am enjoyed Boilerplate Rhino so much. The book is a collection of essays. The essays come from Quammen's work at Outside magazine and works as a vicarious traveler journal of the field naturalist sort.

Find David Quammen at these other links:
Fresh Air: Tuesday - September 23, 2003
National Geographic Adventure: On Assignment--Grand Canyon
National Geographic Magazine @ nationalgeographic.com

David Quammen blends science and travel. He reminds me of Oliver Sacks.

I finished Evolving the Mind by A. G. Cairns-Smith a few days ago. For me it was rather ponderous. I may need to re-read it.

I picked this book because I came across a quote of Cairns-Smith's in Darwin Among the Machines by George B. Dyson. [A history of computing.]

As I understand it Cairns-Smith proposes that the conscious mind, the parts of mind that have feelings and effect behavior, are like a macro-quantum mechanical effect. (i.e. superfluidity or coherent light lasers) He argues that the mind is an evolved 'physical' phenomenon but its clear to him that our models of physicality are insufficient to know the mind. Indeed our misunderstanding of our world is the most substantial impression I took from the book.

For me this book was a challenging science primer, structured to hold up a proposal for consciousness. I would recommend it to interested readers who feel they have a strong grasp of the physical sciences.