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  • The Beginning of Infinity

  • Explanations That Transform the World
  • By: David Deutsch
  • Narrated by: Walter Dixon
  • Length: 20 hrs
  • 4.6 out of 5 stars (244 ratings)
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The Beginning of Infinity

By: David Deutsch
Narrated by: Walter Dixon
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Summary

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.

©2011 David Deutsch (P)2011 Gildan Media Corp
  • Unabridged Audiobook
  • Categories: History

Critic reviews

“Provocative and persuasive…Mr. Deutsch’s previous tome, The Fabric of Reality, took a broad-ranging sweep… The Beginning of Infinity is equally bold, addressing subjects from artificial intelligence to the evolution of culture and of creativity; its conclusions are just as profound." ( The Economist)

What listeners say about The Beginning of Infinity

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars

Interesting, complex and sometimes flawed!

David Deutsch is a genius. As the father of modern quantum computing, he has an exceptional mind, and I found this book full of stimulating ideas and arguments going well beyond the reach of Physics.



His thesis, based on a synthesis of Popper, Dawkins and Hilbert, as well as his own interpretation of the Many Worlds theory of QM, is that through creativity, and the continuous search for "good explanation", we are able to shape our environment in ways no other force of nature is capable, and the reach of that ability is infinite.



At times his arguments are really hard to follow, and I suspected he may be slipping in some slightly dubious logic. For instance, his argument against the "Anthropic Principle" explanation for the "fine tuning problem". However, his early chapters e.g. on Hilberts "Infinity Hotel" and on "fungible" universes in QM are exhilarating.



However, as the book went on, I became increasingly irritated. Having persuaded us of the power and reach of "good explanations", he betrays these very values. In his chapter on aesthetics, he specifically rejects the explanation that we find flowers beautiful for biological reasons (e.g. bright colours as a super stimulus for a species once adapted to seek brightly coloured ripe fruits), and instead opts for an "objective beauty" explanation, which explains nothing.



To add insult to injury he follows this by a lengthy explanation of cultural evolution based on Dawkins "meme" theory, (which itself is a poor explanation, which even Dawkins has not bothered to develop). Deutsch's conclusion that in the past creativity was used to suppress innovation is bizarre. "Dual Inheritance Theory" (which includes memes), provides a better explanation, contrasting vertical (traditional) and horizontal (progressive) modes of cultural information transmission, each of which carries benefits and dangers. His final chapters on ecology, were therefore unconvincing.



Overall, very interesting, often complex, sometimes flawed.

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19 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars

Could be better narration

Why do publishers inflict this in audio? Especially on an audience like the UK, why not Jonathan Kebble, Simon Vance, Stephen Fry, Jeremy Irons, Kate Winslet, Emma Thompson or any actor able to emote and speak in a clear variable intonation about a clearly interesting topic? So many books it's the same bottom line thought that it's cheaper to have one narrator so UK can just be shelled out the American one! But it makes it like getting through mud to me. The author speaking would be better even because normal people vary their voice which would be more interesting. That said, this narrator is better than most, say, Mel Forster narrating.

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5 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Stuff David Deutsch Was Interested In At The Time

This is a weird grab-bag of ideas all jumbled into a book and tenuously brought under a single title.

It starts badly. After listening to the first couple of chapters I was close to abandoning it. Firstly it seemed like this was going to be Yet Another Neo-Atheism book. That's fine, but it's covered better elsewhere and it isn't why I bought this book. I got the impression his publisher had told him to put in concepts X, Y and Z liberally to appeal to a particular book-purchasing audience. Yawn.

One of his foundational concepts is nonsense on its face: he argues that to say there is a limit to human understanding is to invoke the supernatural. But any concept which can't be expressed in the number of particles in a brain can't be understood by it, so a limit obviously exists. You might have an interesting discussion about what it is, but he denies the possibility. He even comes back to it many times, which is disappointing.

Also, the multiverse. Don't get me wrong, this chapter was actually pretty interesting, but what's it doing in this book? I think it's his pet theory or something. He tries to argue to reject the multiverse explanation is bad philosophy. This just comes across as sour grapes.

There were many good things in this book, and on balance I'm glad I finished it. His theory of explanations is interesting and well expressed. The chapter involving the discussion between Socrates and Hermes was initially weird, but I ultimately really enjoyed where he went with it and appreciated the style. Also, despite having nothing to do with the rest of the book his exposition on the multiverse is worth a listen.

Narrator was excellent, very easy to listen to.

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4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Very worthwhile. Fantastically narrated

Like some other reviewers I wasn't convinced by the author's interpretation of a few issues such as the description of objective beauty and arguments leading on from it. However, for the most part this is fantastic with some very thought inducing analogies, including Startrek teleporters in parallel dimensions. The bit about political systems and fair political representation was also incite full.

The book is also very well narrated, one of the best I've heard. I listened to it in 1.25x speed.

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Knowing you know very little is the first step.

It's a great book to revisit maths and science to show you how little we know when we know so much.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Surprisingly poor

I find David Deutsch a very interesting thinker and like his approach to exploring new paradigms e.g. Constructor Theory. I have also read his paper on Quantum Turing Machines which was fascinating. I was looking forwards to this book.m very much but am not impressed. There are one or two insights in the book and I thoroughly endorse the motivation to write it, but I found there was little that was not obvious and one or two conclusions that I did not find convincing. There is significant padding and meandering in the book and with a suitable edit the content would be a lot shorter. Disappointing.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

A groundbreaking book

One of the most important books written in the last century. It will change the way you think and view the world.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Perspective changing

Great book for pessimistic people.
I'd wonder what David Deutsch's opinion of AI is now.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

A ridiculous (but awesome) book

Ridiculous because the topics covered are immense. Expect: physics, philosophy, history, computer science, creativity, political science, and evolution,

Awesome because: the same reasons as above.

A very creative book. And very convincing at times. Some parts are very accessible. Others are complicated. But this is the kind of book that will probably be valuable in 100 years, if not more. I look forward to reading it again in the future. Simply put, this is a book for multiple readings and I highly recommend it.

Ridiculous. But awesome

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  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars

Disappointing delivery

I read a good chunk of this book a few years ago and really enjoyed it, found it very interesting and thought provoking. I was excited to hear the whole thing via audio, but the narration is so bad it sounds like the most boring thing I’ve ever heard. Had to turn it off before chapter 2! What a shame. Back to the paperback!

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