The Experience Machine: How Our Minds Predict and Shape Reality

(Paperback)

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A grand new vision of cognitive science that explains how our minds build our worlds 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 has advanced in the last few decades, a 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. We don't passively take in the world around us; instead our mind is constantly making and refining predictions about what we expect to see. This even applies to our bodies, as the way we experience pain and other states is shaped by our expectations, and this has broader implications for the understanding and treatment of conditions from PTSD to schizophrenia to medically unexplained symptoms. 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.

Reviews

Enjoyable and surprising -- Steven Poole * 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
If you would like to read the most promising theory of how your brain works (and who doesn't), told by the clearest and most colourful storyteller, this is the only book you need. Tender yet assertive, Andy takes us by the hand as deep into our mind as anyone can glean -- Moshe Bar, author of Mindwandering
There's a growing body of evidence that suggests we don't receive information from the outside world passively. Instead, our minds act as predictive engines, anticipating what we'll encounter next, filling in blanks and bridling at the unexpected... This mind-bending stuff is at the forefront of science, technology, philosophy and much else. Clark makes it thrillingly understandable. * Prospect Book of the Year 2023 *

Author Bio

Andy Clark is a Professor of Cognitive Philosophy at the University of Sussex, and at Macquarie University, Australia. He is the author of six books including Supersizing the Mind, Natural-Born Cyborgs and Surfing Uncertainty. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh and the British Academy, and is an occasional Academic Consultant for Google, UK.