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The Experience Machine

How Our Minds Predict and Shape Reality

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The Experience Machine

By: Andy Clark
Narrated by: Andy Clark
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About this listen

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.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

©2022 Andy Clark (P)2022 Penguin Audio Biological Sciences Neuroscience & Neuropsychology Human Brain Mental Health

Critic Reviews

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)

What listeners say about The Experience Machine

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Fascinating and well read

Thought provoking and fascinating, and I found the quality performance by the author in reading his work added to my enjoyment of the material.

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Profile Image for Edward

Amazing. Transformative.

So interesting. Foundational. I don’t know what to say really. I’m dumbfounded. I think about this book everyday. I will certainly be reading it again. It has given me a whole new way to understand reality.
Read it for yourself and see what you think.
But the way, the voice is no issue. It’s just an English accent that you get used to very quickly.

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Profile Image for TMG-BoB

The Story - a discourse - a game of truth (FDA☮️)

I am a part-time PhD student, full time old Aussie battling doubter & author of humorous text's including "BoB's wisdums" (in print). In my humble opinion this work by Andy Clark succinctly states what I have wondered happens in my mind (I am sympathetic to Andy's explanation of the extended Brain in Ch 6). In particularly during summer months, in my life thus far, my pondering ventures into this domain. It's summer in Australia in 2024 at the time of writing this story (review).... I wholeheartedly (or more accurately 'wholemindedly') recommend this story to other ponderers, even to skeptics/cynics/doubters. Particularly, as I am a foundational card carrying member of the 'Doubters Party'😂 and somehow still sympathetic to Andy's account of the mind processes, then it has truly been through my rigorous process of scrutiny, trust me 😁... This work is revelatory in it's effect on my subjective 'story'. Thank you Andy may you live long and Flourish. ---- The mandatory Meritocratic Metrics -- 5 Stars - Overall experience ... 3 Stars - Performance (personal preference issue as I use an Irish/English 'voice' on my devices and prefer that accent to Andy's accent (apologies to Andy) ..... 5 Stars - Story (see above). Endnote .. ☮️ (FDA) refers to Foucauldian Discourse Analysis which I employ as a methodology when problematising my research data set in performance of my PhD project.

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Great book, distracting performance

The way the book was read was very distracting from the content of the book.

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