The Beginning of Infinity

Explanations That Transform the World

By: David Deutsch

Narrated by: Walter Dixon

Length: 20 hrs

Publisher's summary

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 audio book that will become a classic of its kind.

©2011 David Deutsch (P)2011 Gildan Media Corp

Critic reviews

“Provocative and persuasive…Mr. Deutsch’s previous tome, The Fabric of Reality, took a broad-ranging sweep… The Beginning of Infinity is equally bold, addressing subjects from artificial intelligence to the evolution of culture and of creativity; its conclusions are just as profound." ( The Economist)

changed my thinking forever must read

truly an amazing clarification of what is happening inside of creativity, science and progress. no other thinker I have read has shown the potential of man so well. read it

Infinity

What did you love best about The Beginning of Infinity?

His knowledge of evolution could be more up to date. But, his message of motion v static in the universe and on Earth was fantastic.

Good read

Quite an interesting and thought provoking book. Parts of which made me think and re-listen.

This book is a wild ride!

Wow. I do not pretend to understand even the 20th part of the ideas in this book. Who would have thought that a physicist and mathematician could express himself so eloquently on so many disparate subjects? This book is all over the map; it's a wild romp through an amazing mind. David Deutsch's ego must be at least the size of the Milky Way Galaxy--no, wait, that's too "parochial", too provincial by N orders of magnitude! Well, I guess it does take some bravado to take on evolution, quantum mechanics, history, universality, even knowledge itself, and still find time for politics, philosophy, artificial intelligence, and a conversation with Socrates. Along the way, as Deutsch manages to drop an amazing idea you never heard before into just about every paragraph, his major theses boils down to two things: first, good explanations lead to an infinity of knowledge, while bad explanations have only the power to fool us; and secondly, there will always be problems, but they can be solved if we can separate the good explanations from the bad ones.

Doing that in the real world we live in every day is hard, way harder than I think Deutsch realizes. We are fallible human beings who more often than not ignore even the most elegant of explanations with impunity. That said, being inside his head for the last couple of days was a privilege indeed.

By the way, the reader did a great job of not being in the way!

Life changing ideas

I am a huge fan of revolutionary ideas, and this book is full of them.

Great ideas

This book has lots of great ideas - in particular an objective justification for an open and questioning society. The central theme - that humans can achieve limitless knowledge if they are willing to pursue it and live in a dynamic and creative society is a fundamentally optimistic view, and in my opinion, a much-needed antidote to the pessimistic thinking that is rife throughout modern society. That said, I wish it was a bit easier to follow. I still do not see the point of either the chapter-long dialog between Socrates and Hermes nor the extended explanation for quantum physics in the form of a hypothetical science-fiction novel that together serve to bisect this book. Also there are lots of little tangents throughout the book. Overall, they do not fatally compromise this book, however.

Extremely influential

Superficially this book seems to meander through disparate topics such as cosmology, political science, aesthetics, evolution and philosophy, but upon careful reading, it definitely has a central thesis. The central thesis is about the fundamental nature of explanations, the process of creating good explanations, and the central role that humans play in the cosmos because of our unique ability among creatures to create explanations.

This book has been the most influential on my thinking bar none.

Optimistic

An optimistic and uplifting view of humanity and how progress occurs. Especially enjoyed the Socrates chapter. Not a book to learn anything specific but entertaining

Actual Genius

If you've ever wondered how a true genius of the times thinks about things, this is your opportunity. Deutsch charges through complexity after complexity, abstraction after abstraction, layer after layer; with such pure intellect, he seems to be gliding through them with ghostly precision. I recommend this to anyone that wants to push their own minds to the limit, while Deutsch brings it all down to a level that is surprisingly easy to understand given the content.

Interesting but a little trite

Cool ideas, bro, but it's really just a rehashing of ideas from many other books I've read. Decent summary of various topics nonetheless