Why do you exist? How did atoms and molecules transform into
sentient creatures that experience longing, regret, compassion, and even
marvel at their own existence? What does it truly mean to have a
mind―to think? Science has offered few answers to these existential
questions until now.

Journey of the Mind is the first
book to offer a unified account of the mind that explains how
consciousness, language, self-awareness, and civilization arose
incrementally out of chaos. The journey begins three billion years ago
with the emergence of the universe’s simplest possible mind. From there,
the book explores the nanoscopic archaeon, whose thinking machinery
consists of a handful of molecules, then advances through amoebas,
worms, frogs, birds, monkeys, and humans, explaining what each “new”
mind could do that previous minds could not. Though they admire the
triumph of human consciousness, Ogi Ogas and Sai Gaddam argue that
humans are hardly the most sophisticated minds on the planet. The same
physical principles that produce human self-awareness are leading cities
and nation-states to develop “superminds,” and perhaps planting the
seeds for even higher forms of consciousness.