Julian Jaynes: Did Consciousness Begin Only 3,000 Years Ago?
The Origin of Consciousness (2008)
A look at Julian Jaynes's controversial theory that human consciousness is a recent development, arising around 3,000 years ago. Jaynes argues that before this, humans operated in a 'bicameral' state, with the right brain generating hallucinated commands from gods. The post explores evidence from ancient texts and modern neurology, and touches on a bizarre case of alien hand syndrome linked to involuntary masturbation.
Nearly everyone seems to agree that this is either a work of profound genius, or of profound crackpottery, and also that they aren't sure which it is.