The Muse in the Machine

Designed for a wide audience, this book claims that the standard approach to human thought is wrong in fundamental ways. The author challenges, in particular, the views of Daniel Dennett ("Consciousness Explained") and Roger Penrose ("The Emperor's New Mind"): first, emotion is a necessary part of thought and so a thinking computer will not be possible until a feeling computer is possible; second, reasoning, logic and analysis are only part of the way we think - there are also other kinds of thinking, such as poetic and religious; third, the nature of thought is intertwined with the nature of art. He also discusses philosophy, psychology, technology, art and literature, in particular the poetry of Wordsworth, Blake, Keats and the Bible.