The Experience Machine

Author Andy Clark
Narrator Andy Clark
Publisher Penguin Books Ltd
Publish Date 2 May 2023
Run Time 8 hours and 37 minutes
Format Audio
Genre Cognitive and behavioural neuroscience, Cognitive studies, Popular science, Psychology: states of consciousness, Science: general issues, Society and Social Sciences.

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What to expect

Brought to you by Penguin.

For as long as we've studied the mind, we've believed that information flowing from our senses determines what our mind perceives. But as our understanding of neuroscience and psychology has advanced in the last few decades, a provocative and hugely powerful new view has flipped this assumption on its head. The brain is not a passive receiver, but an ever-active predictor.

At the forefront of this cognitive revolution is widely acclaimed philosopher and cognitive scientist Andy Clark, who has synthesized his ground-breaking work on the predictive brain to explore its fascinating mechanics and implications. Among the most stunning of these is the realization that experience itself, because it is guided by prior expectation, is a kind of controlled hallucination. This even applies to our bodies, as the way we experience pain and medical symptoms is shaped by our expectations. From the most mundane experiences to the most sublime, it is our predictions that sculpt our experience.

A landmark study of cognitive science, The Experience Machine lays out the extraordinary explanatory power of the predictive brain for our lives, mental health and society.

©2022 Andy Clark (P)2022 Penguin Audio

Critics Review

Enjoyable and surprising

Guardian

For those who want to know more about an important and growing field of neuroscience, The Experience Machine is an excellent primer

New Scientist

A predictably groundbreaking exploration of the predictive basis of our extended minds from one of our deepest and clearest thinkers, and a true pioneer of this transformational view of who we are and how we work.The Experience Machine delivers a remarkable combination of profound insight and practical relevance, and it showcases Clark’s ability to convey complex ideas with fluent and accessible language

Anil Seth, author of BEING YOU: A NEW SCIENCE OF CONSCIOUSNESS

Rare among science books, this one has changed the way I experience the world. I now feel the experience machine doing its work as I pay attention, am surprised, or catch myself having made completely ridiculous predictions. It’s a book that will help you understand the way you see, think and act-and it is also a pleasure to read

Susan Blackmore, author of CONSCIOUSNESS: AN INTRODUCTION and THE MEME MACHINE

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, author of THE BIGGEST IDEAS IN THE UNIVERSE

The Experience Machine is one of the most fascinating and profound books I have ever read. With incredible clarity, Andy Clark presents a grand unified theory of brain processing and describes its enormous implications for our understanding of ourselves. Clark’s writing is elegant and entertaining, with many mind-blowing examples of the ways our expectations can shape our reality. This book sets the highest possible bar for popular science writing and is sure to become an instant classic of the genre

David Robson, author of The Expectation Effect

This is a book that grabs you and literally changes your mind. I perused the preface after my morning coffee and found myself on the last page before nightfall! The Experience Machine is a further testament to Andy Clark’s standing as one of the greatest theoreticians and influencers in philosophy of mind. It is a wonderfully lucid and compelling-and occasionally touching-account of our sentient behaviour, and the way we construct our experienced world

Karl Friston, theoretical neuroscientist at University College London

In this stunning book, Andy Clark is once again reshaping our understanding of the mind. Clark expertly mobilises the full extent of the predictive Experience Machine, unifying mind, body and the environment. He then reveals the surprising predictive hacks that enable us better grasp our own unfolding experiences

Jakob Hohwy, author of THE PREDICTIVE MIND, Director of the Monash Centre for Consciousness and Contemplative Studies

There are many metaphors for how your brain works: a magician, an architect, a fortune-teller, a scientist. Andy Clark’s marvellous 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, How Emotions Are Made and Seven and a Half Lessons About the Brain

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, author of Emotional

User Reviews

Book 5.0

Narration 5.0

5.0

zattrix 25/03/2024

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