Overview

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.

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9798200639410

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Reviews

"""A brilliant and exhilarating and profoundly eccentric book. It's about everything: art, science, philosophy, history, politics, evil, death, the future, infinity, bugs, thumbs, what have you...It hardly seems worth saying...that the chutzpah of this guy is almost beyond belief, and that any book with these sorts of ambitions is necessarily, in some overall sense, a failure, or a fraud, or a joke, or madness. But Deutsch...is so smart, and so strange, and so creative, and so inexhaustibly curious, and so vividly intellectually alive, that it is a distinct privilege, notwithstanding everything, to spend time in his head."" -- ""New York Times Book Review"" ""Among the most ambitious works of nonfiction I have read."" -- ""New Yorker"" ""An adventurous, intellectually stimulating book on how problems are solved."" -- ""Barnes & Noble, editorial review"" ""Both skeptical and optimistic, Deutsch devotes ingenious chapters to refuting ideas (empiricism, induction, holism) and philosophies (positivism, most modernism, post-modernism) that limit what we can learn...[a] provocative, imaginative investigation of human genius."" -- ""Kirkus Reviews (starred review)"" ""Makes the case for infinite progress with such passion, imagination, and quirky brilliance."" -- ""Wall Street Journal"""

Author Information

Coming soon... Walter Dixon is a winner of Audible's #1 Editor's Choice and Customer Favorites award. The narrator of more than 200 audiobooks, he has performed on stage in stand-up comedy, theater, and opera productions. He has also voiced animated features, vintage radio dramas, and audio tours for the Guggenheim and other museums.

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