The Experience Machine: How Our Minds Predict and Shape Reality

The predictive brain is a powerful new view that explains how our minds build our worlds, challenging the traditional assumption that information flowing from our senses determines what we perceive. Andy Clark's book explores the fascinating mechanics and implications of this cognitive revolution, including the realization that experience itself is a controlled hallucination. This has broader implications for the understanding and treatment of conditions from PTSD to schizophrenia to medically unexplained symptoms.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 304 pages
Publication date: 16 May 2024
Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd

A groundbreaking new perspective on cognitive science has emerged, challenging the long-held belief that information from our senses determines our perception. Instead, the brain is now recognized as an active predictor, shaping our experiences. Leading philosopher and cognitive scientist Andy Clark has synthesized his groundbreaking work on the predictive brain to explore its fascinating mechanics and implications. One of the most remarkable discoveries is that experience itself is a controlled hallucination, guided by prior expectations. We don't simply passively take in the world around us; instead, our mind constantly makes and refines predictions about what we expect to see. This applies to our bodies as well, as the way we experience pain and other states is shaped by our expectations, with broader implications for understanding and treating conditions ranging from PTSD to schizophrenia to medically unexplained symptoms. From the most mundane experiences to the most sublime, it is our predictions that sculpt our experience. A landmark study of cognitive science, "The Experience Machine," highlights the extraordinary explanatory power of the predictive brain for our lives, mental health, and society.

Weight: 230g
Dimension: 198 x 130 x 18 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780141990583