The Beginning of Infinity, David Deutsch
The Beginning of Infinity, David Deutsch
4 Rating(s)
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The Beginning of Infinity
Explanations That Transform the World

Author: David Deutsch

Narrator: Walter Dixon

Unabridged: 20 hr

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Ascent Audio

Published: 07/27/2011

Categories: Nonfiction, Science, Physics


Synopsis

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.

Reviews

AudiobooksNow review by Auditory learner on 2022-06-05 16:53:40

I'm eager to read Deutsch but this narrator is so heinously overacting that this audiobook is just unlistenable. Dixon, you were hired to put this book into people's ears, not try to be some one-man show. Can't you just read the words on the page? Is this so hard? Inserting awkward, breathy pauses is your idea of listenability? I'm gonna just download an ebook and have my OS robot voice read it to me.

Goodreads review by Anastasia on May 06, 2012

David Deutsch is brilliant, iconoclastic, and so sure of himself that it takes my breath away. No political correctness here! And no homage to that creaky old ideal of writing within your own speciality. But then he's a cosmologist, so what's not within his specialty?! Accordingly, this book is abou......more

Goodreads review by rmn on November 19, 2011

Who knew that the beginning of infinity was also the start of boring, I mean really, what a crappy way to have to spend infinity. Anyway, this book is dryly written (despite what the back of the book jacket says) and confusingly uneven with some parts being informative and some being so incomprehens......more

Goodreads review by Gary on November 12, 2012

I finished this book a month ago and at first I wasn't sure what I thought of it. But a month has gone by and I still think about it. In fact I think about it a lot. Some other reviewer mentioned that his favorite word was "parochial" which made me laugh because it does seem to be true. And I finally......more

Goodreads review by Ryan on May 25, 2018

Expanding on the philosophy of Karl Popper, The Beginning of Infinity by David Deutsch is the definitive work of philosophy for the twenty-first century. I suspect that on first exposure it may not be entirely clear what the underlying message and philosophy is. The structure of the book, the chapter......more