The Island of Knowledge

The Limits of Science and the Search for Meaning

De: Marcelo Gleiser

Narrado por: William Neenan

Why discovering the limits to science may be the most powerful discovery of all.

How much can we know about the world? In this audiobook physicist Marcelo Gleiser traces our search for answers to the most fundamental questions of existence, the origin of the universe, the nature of reality, and the limits of knowledge. In so doing he reaches a provocative conclusion: Science, like religion, is fundamentally limited as a tool for understanding the world. As science and its philosophical interpretations advance, we face the unsettling recognition of how much we don't know.

Gleiser shows that by abandoning the dualistic model that divides reality into the known and the unknown, we can embark on a third way based on the acceptance of our limitations. Only then, he argues, will we be truly able to experience freedom, for to be free in an age of science we cannot turn science into a god. Gleiser ultimately offers an uplifting exploration of humanity's longing to conquer the unknown and of science's power to transform and inspire.

Download the accompanying reference guide.©2014 Marcelo Gleiser (P)2014 Audible Inc.

Excellent content, boring narrator

The book itself was fascinating and thought-provoking, and I can't wait to check out more of Glesier's work. A lot here for science and philosophy nerds alike. But unfortunately the monotone of the narrator caused my mind to drift at times, and I would have to back-track over and over. I typically love male narrators with British accents, but the complete lack of modulation left me.... zzzzz.....

Consciousness Altering

One of those books that can affirm all your intuitions about life without having to do years of study to gain and get lost, along the way, in specific study. An epic overview of the history of science/knowledge which builds like a blockbuster and an open ended finally.

Fantastic narration and flow to the audio which, I’m sure, ads to the authority of the authors words.

A must read!!

Opens your eyes to the relationship between science and humanity. Very inspiring, recommend science skeptics to read this!

A MYTH OF SCIENCE

Marcelo Gleiser believes an A.I. singularity predicted by Ray Kurzweil is a myth of science that will be stranded on “The Island of Knowledge”. His point is that the nature of science, human cognition, and quantum physics make computers incapable of superseding or equaling human intelligence. The horizon of the unknown will always be present for human beings, even with computational advances. Gleiser implies that the computer will only be a tool of humankind to explore the unknown.

Gleiser is saying pursuit of nature’s truth is important but precise truth is unattainable. He argues that a final truth will never be found because discoveries of science will only lead to more questions, more experiments, and better tools of measurement. Nature’s truth will always be beyond human understanding; i.e. at best, nature’s truth will only be shadows of reality with sharper outlines.

Gleiser is quick to point out that this conclusion is not meant to discourage scientific exploration. He believes human beings have an innate desire to understand nature. The life of humans suggests pursuit of nature’s essence is true of all cultures because of a common desire for money, power, and prestige; i.e. motivations that are magnified by scientific discovery.

excellent recap summation of the worlds knowledge

Had to listen to it twice but well worth the effort! One of the few places for a novice to try to grasp quantum theory.

Mind bending

I am not a scientist. I got this book specifically because it sounded like it would explain things in layman's terms, which it did. It is chock full of things that make you think about how you know what you know. The content is well organized into chapters dealing with various areas of questions. I especially liked the history of scientific thinking in the first chapter because it reminds us that we always font know something. I had thought the book would be about limits such as why we can'it predict human behavior or why medications (and other life things) effect each body a little differently, but it was only about the mathematical and physical limits such as the event horizon of the Big Bang. I still loved learning about anyway.

Boundaries Are Most Interesting

If you are like me, you might find what you can't know more interesting than what you can know. For example, if you can come up with all the logical boundaires of a given set of things you want to know, filling that bucket with empirical data suddenly becomes much less interesting. Why? Because you can know a lot about that data before you go looking into the universe for it, you can understand the confines it will take, based upon the logical necessities you are bringing to your search. Maybe I just read too much Wittgenstein in college - as he approached this problem/situation from language - but this is where things get interesting. In this book the author does a great job of painting a picture of the knowable universe from both science AND philosophy. I was really impressed with him starting way back with philosphy 101 with pre-Socratics most people have never heard of (Thales) but who are the modern developers of systemic world views. I found this book intuitive, but I have already gone through many of its topics in previous studies. I'd still recommend it to beginner and expert. We all feel there is a bigger world than that which we can ever possibly sketch - but sketch we must - and this author does a great chop of sketching, really painting the limits of modern, and future (and all possible thought) in the process.

Boring

only interesting thing I heard was Newton had papers from Hermes Tri. or Thoth.
book is written by a scientist barely out of the materialistic mind set. his observances are beset with many of the presumptions scientists make. categorical imperatives that are only presumptions.
not worth listening to... IMHO

thanks

it's a little opinionated but eye opening

first let me say that this is the least opinionated book I've read. It merges philosophy and scientific thinking wonderfully. It is pretty clear to see his opinion on quantum physics though.

Great destination, wasn't into the journey

This book was peppered with fascinating ideas & interesting viewpoints, but too often got bogged down in details of the science involved. this was probably a personal thing, as I am a graduate in physics that's learned (and thought deeply about) quantum mechanics, relativity, & thermodynamics so the explanations behind these wasn't compelling to me. Some of the history presented about them was, though. I also thought the ending was fantastic, brilliantly synthesizing previous ideas into deep thoughts & insights about science, the nature of reality, & consciousness.