The Experience Machine

How Our Minds Predict and Shape Reality

By: Andy Clark

Narrated by: Andy Clark

Length: 8 hrs and 36 mins

Publisher's summary

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

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)

A New Way of Seeing the World

This was a really interesting, accessible, and unpretentious look at the emerging field of predictive processing theory.

Pros: read authentically by the author and communicated in a simple way for non-scientific but curious readers. Anyone who has dabbled in this topic will appreciate just how complex it can be but I suspect a bright 12 year old could understand most of this; not because it is simple but because it was masterfully communicated.

Cons: the ‘hacking the brain’ chapter was easily the weakest chapter and supported by speculative evidence (at best). The author even goes so far as to acknowledge this, which was strange. Unfortunately it stuck out like a sore thumb amongst the otherwise excellent and well evidenced preceding chapters. It was a shame to finish on this relatively low note, given that it was the last full chapter. That said, I would still strongly recommend this book as the vast majority of it was outstanding. Had it not been for the hacking the brain chapter I would’ve given it five stars.

We should be grateful for wonderful scientists and philosophers like Andy Clark