Books like From Bacteria to Bach and Back

01

Consciousness Explained

Daniel C. Dennett · Philosophy

Consciousness Explained is Daniel Dennett's attempt to replace what he calls the Cartesian Theater — the intuitive picture of consciousness as a single unified stream of experience observed by a self — with a model he calls Multiple Drafts.

Both dig into consciousness.

02

The Selfish Gene

Richard Dawkins · Science

The Selfish Gene reframes evolution from the organism's point of view to the gene's.

Both dig into evolution.

03

The Blank Slate: The Modern Denial of Human Nature

Steven Pinker · Science

The Blank Slate is Steven Pinker's comprehensive attack on what he calls the three linked doctrines that dominated twentieth-century thinking about human nature: the Blank Slate (the mind begins without innate content and is formed entirely by experience), the Noble Savage (humans are naturally peaceful and corrupted only by civilization), and the Ghost in the Machine (the mind is separable from the body and exempt from natural laws).

A kindred science read.

04

A Brief History of Time

Stephen Hawking · Science

A Brief History of Time is Stephen Hawking's attempt to explain the biggest questions in physics — where the universe came from, how it behaves, and where it might be going — to readers with no scientific training.

A kindred science read.

05

Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind

Yuval Noah Harari · History

Sapiens traces the full arc of human history from the emergence of Homo sapiens in Africa roughly 70,000 years ago to the present.

Both dig into evolution.

06

Other Minds: The Octopus, the Sea, and the Deep Origins of Consciousness

Peter Godfrey-Smith · Science

Peter Godfrey-Smith is a philosopher of science and a scuba diver who began spending time with octopuses off the coast of Sydney, and Other Minds is the result of that dual perspective.

Shares evolution and consciousness with From Bacteria to Bach and Back.

07

Intuition Pumps and Other Tools for Thinking

Daniel Dennett · Philosophy

Intuition Pumps and Other Tools for Thinking is Daniel Dennett's handbook for thinking well — a collection of seventy-odd conceptual tools assembled across a long career in philosophy of mind, cognitive science, and evolutionary theory.

Shares evolution and consciousness with From Bacteria to Bach and Back.

08

Seven and a Half Lessons About the Brain

Lisa Feldman Barrett · Psychology

Lisa Feldman Barrett wrote this short book — genuinely short at under thirty thousand words — as an accessible introduction to seven core findings of modern neuroscience, each presented as a lesson that overturns something most people believe.

Shares evolution and consciousness with From Bacteria to Bach and Back.

09

A Crack in Creation: Gene Editing and the Unthinkable Power to Control Evolution

Jennifer A. Doudna and Samuel H. Sternberg · Science

A Crack in Creation is Jennifer Doudna and Samuel Sternberg's account of how CRISPR-Cas9 works, what it can do, and why its possibilities should give everyone pause.

Both dig into evolution.

10

A Short History of Nearly Everything

Bill Bryson · Science

A Short History of Nearly Everything is Bill Bryson's attempt to understand the scientific story of everything — from the Big Bang to the emergence of modern humans — by spending three years talking to scientists and reading science history.

Both dig into evolution.

11

Are We Smart Enough to Know How Smart Animals Are?

Frans de Waal · Science

Frans de Waal's central argument is that we've spent most of the last century asking the wrong questions about animal intelligence.

Both dig into evolution.

12

Behave: The Biology of Humans at Our Best and Worst

Robert M. Sapolsky · Science

Behave is Robert Sapolsky's attempt to explain why humans do what they do — the violence, the altruism, the tribalism, the heroism — by working through every layer of biology that contributes to a single act.

Both dig into evolution.