The book is well-written, if sometimes repetitive, and deserves the attention of anyone interested in this great and central problem. The global workspace is a neuronal machine, a hypothesized algorithm for the workings of the highest and most general levels of brain organization. 0utputs of perceptual systems, needs such as hunger, goals, and emergencies all crowd around the table of the global workspace, clamoring for the attention of the organism and access to coordinated behavior. One or a small number of these modules gets selected, and dominates until its task is completed or another demon gains ascendency. It becomes the momentary content of consciousness.
Selection is based on the urgency of the request, with each module inhibiting the others.
The selected module broadcasts its contents widely, recruiting parts of the brain that are needed to perform the selected function. At the same time, there is both access to memory systems and recording of the event in experiential memory. We can think of episodic memory as recording whatever is selected. There is no homunculus watching the performance in the global workspace. The global workspace is similar to Dennett and Kinsbourne's 'multiple drafts' concept, though the Baars theory is more firmly grounded in neurophysiological and functional analysis.