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The Emperor's New Mind Paperback – January 1, 1991

by
Roger Penrose (Author)
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Roger Penrose (Author)
4.1 out of 5 stars 110 customer reviews
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Product Details

  • Paperback: 480 pages
  • Publisher: Penguin Books; Reprint edition (January 1, 1991)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0140145346
  • ISBN-13: 978-0140145342
  • Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 1.3 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
  • Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (110 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #794,054 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Top Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 starsThe Emperor's New Mind.
By Wesley L. Janssen on December 18, 2003
Format: Hardcover
Roger Penrose, "one of the world's most knowledgeable and creative mathematical physicists," presents in his 1989 Emperor's New Mind one of the most intriguing and substantive popularizations of mathematical logic and physical theory that has ever been published. As a reader of many books written by scientists, I will say that few compare with this one. Penrose wrestles with what he sees as some of science's most inadequate or poorly developed (although popularly accepted) ideas. As certain physical theories are found wanting, his grapplings extend to some of the deepest questions of metaphysics. Of the deepest questions, Penrose says, "To ask for definitive answers to such grandiose questions would, of course, be a tall order. Such answers I cannot provide; nor can anyone else, though some may try to impress us with their guesses." While he speaks respectfully of individuals with whom he has certain differences of opinion, the "some" in that statement might be taken to be Hawking, Dawkins, Dennett, to suggest a few. The author here tends toward a more humble and questioning approach. Penrose's puzzlings are complex, creative, and speculative, and even his admirers might easily misrepresent certain of his opinions and conjectures. A case in point may be the fact that he finds cosmic inflation theories to have less explanatory power than others claim for them -- this doesn't mean he necessarily rejects inflation, rather he doubts claims that inflation significantly helps explain the specialness of the early universe. Positivists may be disposed to discount the problem but there appears to be good reason for Penrose's skepticism. However this is not treated in this volume.Read more ›
5 Comments 109 people found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No Sending feedback...
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5.0 out of 5 starsA great, great book.
By Pinner Blinn on September 11, 2007
Format: Paperback
I was compelled to write as I came by on the way to buying Dr. Penrose's more recent book ("Road to Reality") and was appalled that Amazon features 2 out of 3 negative views on the first page, including one which dismisses the "Emperor's new mind" as "rubbish". Surely the book is controversial in certain quarters, but the vehemence of much of the criticism can only make me wonder why some people are so defensive about it.

I have to admit I have not reread this book since my original reading around 1990, so take my remarks at some discount on that basis. But I will tell you that this book remains influential in my choice of what I read and how I evaluate things even to this day. It has indeed changed my life.

Dr. Penrose's premise is that a computer simulation of a brain will not achieve the equivalent of human consciousness. I don't wish to enter the fray of arguing points. Dr. Penrose is a mathematical and scientific genius, a deep thinker on the nature of reality, and he can do his own counterpoint. Read this book with an open mind, and even if you disagree with some of his arguments, you will take much away with you.

Here's my take. "Consciousness" is pretty central to the whole enterprise of scientific endeavor, as well as how each of us understands our place in the world. Consciousness, as modeled by psychological and AI researchers, has a lot to say about the biological/physical systems that underpin what is happening in our heads, but one has to wonder about claims that consciousness is now completely understood. To this end, Dr. Penrose takes us on a fascinating journey to the frontiers of scientific knowledge, at scales both large and small. This is entirely relevant to the central theme.Read more ›
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3.0 out of 5 starsExhausting
By limelight on May 10, 2011
Format: Paperback Verified Purchase
If you could only use one word to describe this book, "Exhausting" would certainly be it. While the basic premise is that consciousness cannot be the product of complex algorithms, Penrose spends the vast majority of the text thoroughly exploring every irrelevant aspect of physics and every nuanced, extraneous detail of our current understanding of the nature of the universe, while attempting to accomplish the task of presenting the material in a way that the average Joe can understand (Hint: if your text contains the phrase, "Here, theta is the angle which the pair of points z and w subtend at the origin in the Argand plane" then you have failed).

After extensively winding his way through everything from Turing machines, the big bang, general relativity, special relativity, complex numbers, natural numbers, irrational numbers, Fractals and the Mandelbrot set, Euclidean geometry, Fermat's last theorem, Gödel's theorem, recursively enumerable sets, non-recursive mathematics, Hamiltonian space, periodic tiling, quantum mechanics, P and NP completeness, the two-slit experiment, quantum spin, Riemann spheres, Lobachevskian space, the EPR paradox, Newton's laws of motion, Schrodinger's equations, quantum field theory, Galilean space-time, entropy, black holes, vector mathematics and vector fields, cosmology, time symmetry/asymmetry, Maxwell's electromagnetic theory, quantum gravity, Lorentz equations of motion, Minkowskian space time, Poincare motion, the tidal effect and many, many, many other subjects, the author finally spends a mere two chapters on the main topic.Read more ›
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 starsFive Stars

veeery good, thank so much, it arrived in just 4 days even faster than prime. so good

Published 4 months ago by Amazon Customer
5.0 out of 5 starsGood read if you're interested in Artificial intelligence and studies...

As with all of Roger Penrose's work, it's excellent. I appreciate the fact that I was made aware of this particular work by Dr. Read more

Published 4 months ago by Mark Shindler
5.0 out of 5 starsReally enjoyed chapter 2 in Turing machine

Very deep very satisfying when expounding maths, physics and computing. Really enjoyed chapter 2 on Turing machine.

Published 5 months ago by pgathogo
5.0 out of 5 starsPenrose's best work

Excellent ptesentation

Published 6 months ago by HAROLD KING
5.0 out of 5 starsBad news for artificial intelligence zealots

This book demonstrates rigorously that the brain (even of a dog) does not work like a Turing machine. The argument is based on the incompleteness theorem of Gödel. Read more

Published 7 months ago by Jean-Jacques Malosse
1.0 out of 5 starsA great example of how not to write a non-science book

A great example of how not to write a non-science book. Just awful. Save your money for someone who knows how to write these kinds of books, like Brian Greene, Kip Thorne or Sean... Read more

Published 9 months ago by Michael G. DuPuis
5.0 out of 5 starsFive Stars

5 stars

Published 13 months ago by Trust fund squanderer
5.0 out of 5 starsPenrose is right: http: //arxiv. org/pdf/1308. ...

Penrose is right:

http://arxiv.org/pdf/1308.4526v4.pdf

Also:

http://arxiv.org/pdf/0705.1617v1.pdf

Published 18 months ago by Julien Bourgault
4.0 out of 5 starsWorth reading, despite being less developed than the later work

This book reads like an early draft of Penrose's "Shadows of the Mind." The reader coming afresh to Penrose's ideas would be tempted to skip this earlier book and going... Read more

Published 18 months ago by Simon Manley
4.0 out of 5 starsFour Stars

Highly technical for me

Published 19 months ago by TimeTraveller

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