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Can computers be conscious?
Is our universe real of a simulation?
Is the mind a unique quality of human beings?

As technological breakthroughs in AI continue to advance, topics like this have become part of the daily news cycle. But what does it all mean and what is at stake for the human race?

When Tim Parks came across a radical new theory of consciousness he set off on a quest to discover more about this fascinating topic and also let him to observe his own experience with immense attention.

Out of My Head tells the gripping, highly personal, often surprisingly funny, story of a paradigm shift. It frames complex metaphysical considerations and technical laboratory experiments in terms we can all understand. Above all, it invites us to see space, time, colour and smell, sounds and sensations in an entirely new way. The world will feel more real after reading it.

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"With wit, humanity and insight... [Parks] tackles a question that the greatest philosophical and scientific minds have struggled with for centuries: what is consciousness?... Parks is an entertaining companion throughout" Mail on Sunday

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Born in Manchester, Tim Parks grew up in London and studied at Cambridge and Harvard. He lives in Milan.

He is the acclaimed author of novels, non-fiction and essays, including Europa, In Extremis, A Season with Verona, Teach Us to Sit Still and Italian Ways. He has been shortlisted for the Booker Prize, won the Somerset Maugham Award, the Betty Trask Prize, the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize, the John Florio Prize and the Italo Calvino Prize.

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