The irony of waking perception
McRaney isolates this irony right out of the gate. We experience one waking reality that seems continuous and runs the course of our human lives, but ironically, we are often able to ignore the fact that it is happening and get caught up in the dream-like reality of consciousness. In other words, McRaney notices that there is an implicit irony in waking perception—we are in charge of how confident we will be in trusting our assumptions about reality, but ultimately, reality is scientifically different than our brains alone could perceive. He says that we have to use science to prove this.
The irony of intelligence
The irony of intelligence is that, as the book suggests, the human mind is only intelligent when compared to other animals. In terms of the computational power of the brain, there is an upper limit on our intelligence that we can explore past through scientific inquiry and the scientific method, but otherwise, we are severely limited in our perception of reality. For example, some people's eyes and brains see better than others, but none of us can see at the molecular level. We are limited.
The irony of animal nature
We don't feel like animals, but as McRaney observes, all human beings are animals by nature. We are all born, and we all die, for instance. We feel as though we choose, but McRaney observes that, actually, humans are compelled by biological instinct just like every other animal. He lists all the ways this single irony affects our consciousness. He explores the delusions of consciousness and explains where the blind spots are, where our minds typically don't compute things correctly.
The irony of group life and community
Community is something that we cannot take for granted, but ironically, it is something that seems very easy to take that way. Who hasn't been frustrated with their community before? Ironically, our individual waking consciousness is embedded in an animal network of relationships. It isn't optional, in other words. In prison, they have to follow laws about solitary punishments, because it is scientific fact: Humans can not exist in isolation without extreme suffering. We are not designed to be isolated.
The irony of the internet and virtual reality
Although the internet might be a useful tool, it certainly doesn't fulfill our animal biology, because our animal bodies like to exist in close proximity to others who are loved ones of ours. We like to unwind by hanging out with friends, and although we can find a way to do that through the internet—McRaney mentions Facebook—we can also find ourselves feeling incredibly isolated. Why? The internet gives us the ironic feeling that we are being social when we are not.
