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The Beginning of Infinity: Explanations that Transform The World (Penguin Press Science) by [Deutsch, David]

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The Beginning of Infinity: Explanations that Transform The World (Penguin Press Science) Kindle Edition

by David Deutsch (Author)

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A bold and all-embracing exploration of the nature and progress of knowledge from one of today's great thinkers.

Throughout history, mankind has struggled to understand life's mysteries, from the mundane to the seemingly miraculous. In this important new book, David Deutsch, an award-winning pioneer in the field of quantum computation, argues that explanations have a fundamental place in the universe. They have unlimited scope and power to cause change, and the quest to improve them is the basic regulating principle not only of science but of all successful human endeavor. This stream of ever improving explanations has infinite reach, according to Deutsch: we are subject only to the laws of physics, and they impose no upper boundary to what we can eventually understand, control, and achieve.

In his previous book, The Fabric of Reality, Deutsch describe the four deepest strands of existing knowledge-the theories of evolution, quantum physics, knowledge, and computation-arguing jointly they reveal a unified fabric of reality. In this new book, he applies that worldview to a wide range of issues and unsolved problems, from creativity and free will to the origin and future of the human species. Filled with startling new conclusions about human choice, optimism, scientific explanation, and the evolution of culture, The Beginning of Infinity is a groundbreaking book that will become a classic of its kind.

Length: 494 pages	Word Wise: Enabled	Enhanced Typesetting: Enabled
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Product details

File Size: 2153 KB
Print Length: 494 pages
Page Numbers Source ISBN: 0670022756
Publisher: Penguin (March 31, 2011)
Publication Date: March 31, 2011
Sold by: Amazon Digital Services LLC
Language: English
ASIN: B004TRQAP4
Text-to-Speech: Enabled

X-Ray:

Enabled

Word Wise: Enabled
Lending: Not Enabled
Screen Reader: Supported

Enhanced Typesetting: Enabled

Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #303,701 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)
- #10 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Nonfiction > Science > Mathematics > Infinity
- #25 in Books > Science & Math > Mathematics > Infinity
- #51 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Nonfiction > Science > Physics > Mathematical Physics

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Humans as Universal Explainers

April 27, 2013

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

One of the best book I have ever read.
Or how people have used ideas/conjectures to explain the reality around them, what makes for a good explanation and how useful ideas tend to replicate themselves(memes) just like living organisms. David Deutsch argues that we are merely vessels of information replicating itself and our theories(explanations) are just an approximation of reality. And as with all approximations they can forever be improved.

Why did evolution pour so many resources into human Creativity? Why is it that such a seemingly useless ability for immediate human survival has been developed over the course of countless millennia? According to this book, it is because we needed to replicate ideas in order to transmit useful information, such as how to build a house, a bridge, etc. Since we cannot just copy our thoughts a mechanism evolved to instance them in another brain, by observing reality or a behavior, through a process of Conjecture, Criticism and Experimentation(CCE). This is similar to how we come up with new theories/ideas/explanations. So what has begun as an idea copying mechanism has evolved into Creativity. Nature has invested in it because it ensured survival. Other species accomplish tasks by numbingly repeating actions without understanding, individuals are mimicking each others behavior to pass information. We have evolved a more efficient process by looking for Meaning(idea/explanation). And that is what separates us from all the other species, making us Universal Explainers.

This book is so full of great ideas, that it wouldn't do it justice to go over them in such little detail here.
We may never know the truth but we can always get closer to it.
A MUST READ!

0Comment 5 people found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you?

Great book for explanations of where we are in physics and philosophy of science

July 2, 2013

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

Dr. Deutsch is an extremely intelligent person, well versed not on science and philosophy, but in almost all facets of Western culture. He uses this knowledge wisely to bring forward his explanations (a term one finds central to this book) of how the Universe works. He's also an optimist and sees the emergence of intelligence as the take off point towards infinity. In this case "infinity" means the very long road that the Universe itself is beginning to take in order to know itself. And that's an amazing fact in itself, that the Universe, in its eternal process of emergence of things more interesting and complex at each turn, emerges conscience/intelligence, a property which can begin to understand the Universe itself.

The book is sometimes heavy because of its high density of ideas/page (a measure of how much attention you have to pay if you want to follow it). I think sometimes Dr. Deutsch goes a bit on a limb on certain topics that he cannot be an expert on, for nobody is an expert on everything. I am still unclear on whether memes have a drive to expand and if so, whether it means they posses some kind of will, which he makes quite clear they don't, but not too clear how they grow and expand. I guess some day will understand that when we have a theory of emergence, which to me is the next big big thing in physics.

I have never myself been a great fan of the multiverse theories and although Dr. Deutsch makes a good case for them, or at least one of them, his own version, I find that part the most questionable. To me, not yet a definite explanation of quantum weirdness.

I do recommend it to those who want to be aware of where we are in the frontiers of physics and philosophy of science.

0Comment 3 people found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you?

Excellent study of the nature of modern progress and reason

January 7, 2018

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

This is a pretty deep book. Parts will require re-reading, but the effort is worth it. The reader will be rewarded with an increased understanding of things that everyone wonders about but does not easily find the answers to.

Fantastic book.

0CommentWas this review helpful to you?

Brave New (for many of us ;)) Perspective of Life And How Things Are.

August 13, 2016

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

When it comes to reading modern day literature, I am embarrassed to admit that I am often discouraged by 1) Most Recent Messiahs telling us The True Secret of Life and 2) typographical, spelling and grammar errors.

Mr. Deutsch is a good writer, if a little pompous. I enjoyed reading this book, it's very well written - but if you have different views than his, please suspend them & mull over what he has to say. It will be worth it, I promise.

0Comment One person found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you?

Profound-- a life changing book

August 25, 2016

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

This requires reading and rereading and rereading. Deutsch has obviously thought long and deeply on this subject, and the book is literally page upon page of challenging thought. It is not an easy read, yet it is on my shortlist of books that have/will change my way of thinking and my approach to life.

Fantastic!

0Comment One person found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you?

A MOST IMIPORTANT BOOK

January 1, 2015

Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase

I have been meaning to write a long review of this outstanding book, I have recommended it to everyone I know who can read, and some of them have read it. I think it is a game-changing work, and I am looking forward to David Deutsch getting a Nobel prize one day.

0Comment 2 people found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you?

May 11, 2016

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

This book is like Gödel Escher Bach in its ambitious scope and its capacity to inspire deep insight and shift the reader's entire worldview. It is a grand unified theory of intelligence, creativity, and the human project writ large. Intoxicatingly optimistic, a superb example of poetic naturalism at its best. When it stumbles, it is because of its outrageous velocity and the difficulty of the terrain, when it leaps, it soars.

0Comment One person found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you?

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Most recent customer reviews

Fascinating, Fun, but Probably Overly-Optimistic

If you want a thought-provoking book that is suitable for airplane reading, this would be a great choice.Read more

Published 10 days ago

Good book, well written. Not a revelation maker like I'd hoped for.

Published 1 month ago

A tough slog of a book.

A bit too wordy for my taste.

Published 3 months ago

An unexpected gem of a book.
At times too mathematical in its discussion of infinity but the take-home messages regarding the importance of optimism and creativity are...Read more

Published 4 months ago

Awesome. Mind-straining.

Published 7 months ago

Great philosophy.

Well reasoned and unique conclusions about explanations. Gives you optimism about human capacity for reason and logic. Quantum chapter sort of difficult to wrap head around.

Published 7 months ago

Published 8 months ago

A complete software upgrade for your brain

I stumbled across this book by accident, and it changed my life. It is the product of a beautiful mind which has thought deeply about topics that matter in an attempt to...Read more

Published 8 months ago

The book ends too soon

This is my first David Deutsch book. In it he explains that explanations have a fundamental palace in the universe.Read more

Published 9 months ago

Riccardo Leggio

Truly horizon expanding!

This book was a rare experience for me, one of those very few sources that come along only a few times in one's life to provide intellectual underpinnings for understanding how...Read more

Published 9 months ago

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