Playing With Reality is a book that explores the role of games in human progress, from the Enlightenment to the present day. It argues that games have been deeply intertwined with the arc of history, shaping the outcomes of real wars, warping our understanding of human behaviour, and determining the shape of society and the future of democracy. The book also explores the hidden history of games and their impact on our daily lives, including the social media and technology that can warp our preferences, polarise us, and manufacture our desires.

Format: Hardback
Length: 368 pages
Publication date: 18 June 2024
Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd

‘A book to get the neurons firing. As a passionate game player, I loved reading a neuroscientist's perspective on the role games have played in humanity's attempts to navigate the game of life. A dopamine hit on every page - Marcus du Sautoy A sweeping intellectual history of games and their importance to human progress. We play games to learn about the world, to understand our minds and the minds of others, and to practice making predictions about the future. Games are thought to be older than written language, and have now become the dominant cultural media - bigger than movies, TV, music, and literature combined. They are also fun. But as neuroscientist and physicist Kelly Clancy argues, it's time we started taking them more seriously. In Playing With Reality, she chronicles the riveting and hidden history of games since the Enlightenment, weaving an unexpected path through military theory, biology, artificial intelligence, neuroscience, cognitive psychology, and the future of democracy. Games, Clancy shows us, have been deeply intertwined with the arc of history. War games shaped the outcomes of real wars in nineteenth and twentieth century Europe. Game theory warped our understanding of human behaviour and brought us to the brink of annihilation - yet still underlies basic assumptions in economics, politics, and technology. We used games to teach computers how to learn for themselves, and now we are designing games that will determine the shape of society and the future of democracy. Games also inform the basic systems that govern our daily lives: the social media and technology that can warp our preferences, polarise us, and manufacture our desires. Lucid, thought-provoking, and masterfully told, Playing With Reality makes the bold argument that the human fascination with games is not just a matter of entertainment but a profound reflection of our humanity. It challenges us to rethink our relationship with games and to recognise their potential as a force for good in the world.

A book to get the neurons firing

As a passionate game player, I loved reading a neuroscientist's perspective on the role games have played in humanity's attempts to navigate the game of life. A dopamine hit on every page - Marcus du Sautoy

A sweeping intellectual history of games and their importance to human progress

We play games to learn about the world, to understand our minds and the minds of others, and to practice making predictions about the future. Games are thought to be older than written language, and have now become the dominant cultural media - bigger than movies, TV, music, and literature combined. They are also fun. But as neuroscientist and physicist Kelly Clancy argues, it's time we started taking them more seriously.

In Playing With Reality, she chronicles the riveting and hidden history of games since the Enlightenment, weaving an unexpected path through military theory, biology, artificial intelligence, neuroscience, cognitive psychology, and the future of democracy.

Games, Clancy shows us, have been deeply intertwined with the arc of history. War games shaped the outcomes of real wars in nineteenth and twentieth century Europe. Game theory warped our understanding of human behaviour and brought us to the brink of annihilation - yet still underlies basic assumptions in economics, politics, and technology. We used games to teach computers how to learn for themselves, and now we are designing games that will determine the shape of society and the future of democracy.

Games also inform the basic systems that govern our daily lives: the social media and technology that can warp our preferences, polarise us, and manufacture our desires.

Lucid, thought-provoking, and masterfully told, Playing With Reality makes the bold argument that the human fascination with games is not just a matter of entertainment but a profound reflection of our humanity. It challenges us to rethink our relationship with games and to recognise their potential as a force for good in the world.

Weight: 580g
Dimension: 240 x 160 x 30 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780241545508