How Our Minds Predict and Shape Reality
by Andy Clark
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Published May 2023
304 pages
Genre: Science, Health and the Environment
Publication Information
A brilliant new theory of the mind that upends our understanding of how the brain interacts with the world
For as long as we've studied human cognition, we've believed that our senses give us direct access to the world. What we see is what's really there—or so the thinking goes. But new discoveries in neuroscience and psychology have turned this assumption on its head. What if rather than perceiving reality passively, your mind actively predicts it?
Widely acclaimed philosopher and cognitive scientist Andy Clark unpacks this provocative new theory that the brain is a powerful, dynamic prediction engine, mediating our experience of both body and world. From the most mundane experiences to the most sublime, reality as we know it is the complex synthesis of sensory information and expectation. Exploring its fascinating mechanics and remarkable implications for our lives, mental health, and society, Clark nimbly illustrates how the predictive brain sculpts all human experience. Chronic pain and mental illness are shown to involve subtle malfunctions of our unconscious predictions, pointing the way towards more effective, targeted treatments. Under renewed scrutiny, the very boundary between ourselves and the outside world dissolves, showing that we are as entangled with our environments as we are with our onboard memories, thoughts, and feelings. And perception itself is revealed to be something of a controlled hallucination.
Unveiling the extraordinary explanatory power of the predictive brain, The Experience Machine is a mesmerizing window onto one of the most significant developments in our understanding of the mind.
"The author defines and explains complex ideas with admirable clarity, and black-and-white illustrations underscore the concrete importance of specific theoretical claims. A startling, profoundly illuminating account of our mind's predictive abilities." —Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
"[An] eye-opening study.... The mind-bending research upends conventional wisdom about how humans interact with the world around them, and the lucid prose ensures lay readers won't get lost. This head trip delivers." —Publishers Weekly
"It's tempting to think that our eyes and ears passively record the world like cameras and microphones, but our perceptions are much more interesting than that. Andy Clark is a leading figure in understanding the brain as a prediction machine—we don't passively take in the world, we're constantly anticipating it and interpreting it accordingly. This thoroughly readable book will convince you that the brain and the world are partners in constructing our understanding." —Sean Carroll, New York Times bestselling author of The Biggest Ideas in the Universe: Space, Time, and Motion
"Is the universe a simulation? Yes! But the simulation takes place in your brain. In this engaging and fascinating book, Andy Clark explains how our expectations dominate the input of our senses to construct our individual perceptions of reality. After reading it, you'll look at human experience in a new way." —Leonard Mlodinow, bestselling author of Emotional and Subliminal
"There are many metaphors for how your brain works: a magician, an architect, a fortune-teller, a scientist. Andy Clark's marvelous book The Experience Machine unpacks these metaphors to reveal your brain's mind-bending (and mind-making) predictive powers that construct the reality you see, hear, and feel. Without them, there is only buzzing, blooming confusion. Strap on your seatbelt and prepare to be amazed!" —Lisa Feldman Barrett, author of How Emotions Are Made and Seven and a Half Lessons About the Brain
This information about The Experience Machine was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Andy Clark is a Professor of Cognitive Philosophy at the University of Sussex. He is the author of six books including Supersizing the Mind, Natural-Born Cyborgs, and Mindware.
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