The Emperors New Mind, Roger Penrose
The Emperors New Mind, Roger Penrose
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The Emperor's New Mind
Concerning Computers, Minds, and the Laws of Physics

Author: Roger Penrose

Narrator: Julian Elfer

Unabridged: 18 hr 27 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 10/15/2019


Synopsis

For decades, proponents of artificial intelligence have argued that computers will soon be doing everything that a human mind can do. Admittedly, computers now play chess at the grandmaster level, but do they understand the game as we do? Can a computer eventually do everything a human mind can do?

In this absorbing and frequently contentious book, Roger Penrose puts forward his view that there are some facets of human thinking that can never be emulated by a machine. The book's central concern is what philosophers call the "mind-body problem." Penrose examines what physics and mathematics can tell us about how the mind works, what they can't, and what we need to know to understand the physical processes of consciousness. He is among a growing number of physicists who think Einstein wasn't being stubborn when he said his "little finger" told him that quantum mechanics is incomplete, and he concludes that laws even deeper than quantum mechanics are essential for the operation of a mind. To support this contention, Penrose takes the listener on a dazzling tour that covers such topics as complex numbers, Turing machines, complexity theory, quantum mechanics, formal systems, Godel undecidability, phase spaces, Hilbert spaces, black holes, white holes, Hawking radiation, entropy, quasicrystals, and the structure of the brain.

About Roger Penrose

Roger Penrose, one the world's foremost theoretical physicists, has won numerous prizes, including the Albert Einstein Medal, for his fundamental contributions to general relativity and cosmology. He is the bestselling author, with Stephen Hawking, of The Nature of Space and Time. Penrose's other books include Cycles of Time: An Extraordinary New View of the Universe and The Road to Reality: A Complete Guide to the Laws of the Universe. He is the Rouse Ball Professor of Mathematics Emeritus at the University of Oxford and lives in Oxford, England.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Mark on April 03, 2024

I've been reading this one since June and it's now 3 days til Christmas! Roger Penrose is a famous mathematician who worked with Stephen Hawking on black holes and who has done ground breaking work elsewhere (including on the surprisingly fundamental issue of tiling 2D spaces!). The book is about the......more

Goodreads review by Manny on March 12, 2009

I suggested that one could imagine Albertine's gang in A L'Ombre Des Jeunes Filles En Fleurs as a kind of wave function of girls (see my review), and that made me think of The Emperor's New Mind. Given that it's all about quantum mechanics, I suppose it's appropriate that I have two different and co......more

Goodreads review by Ivan on February 03, 2013

First of all, I absolutely love Penrose. His style simply amazes me! There's this feeling that he wants to tell you SO MUCH and that he's trying hard to control himself so that he doesn't end up with a book several thousand pages long. Also, it's obvious that he enjoys science and mathematics on a re......more

Goodreads review by Ami on February 06, 2016

The contents of quantum mechanics is the highest peak Among every physics books. Climax of this book Quantum gravity theory is not currently elucidated. Description of the structure of the brain is very weak, Currently, neuroscience is progressing rapidly Books in the system are better than this book. Wha......more

Goodreads review by Paul on April 13, 2012

After scanning the host of negative reviews of this book, I feel compelled to speak my piece. I've read this book more than once, and often return to it and find a few more nuggets. Is seems to me that there are few other books that grapple as honestly with the nature of consciousness. The AI commun......more