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The Emperor's New Mind
- Concerning Computers, Minds, and the Laws of Physics
- Narrated by: Julian Elfer
- Length: 18 hrs and 27 mins
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The Emperor's New Mind
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Summary
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.
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What listeners say about The Emperor's New Mind
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance3 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- Neeraw, Kevin
- 21-10-21
zero zero zero zero zero one one
If there were a system of the performer not having to read half a page of binary code, I am very sure I could have enjoyed listening to this interesting subject.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance1 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Svein Olav Nyberg
- 08-05-21
Bender from Futurama on 100-hour repeat
This is a great book, but a terrible audio book. I don't know if the narrator is to blame for being mathematically incompetent, or if he was not allowed to read anything but strict verbatim, but anything having to do with equations is read in the worst way possible! This is not limited to the long dronings on to list Turing machine states, but begins almost at the very beginning, when the narrator reads "G(P)" - an expression that anyone even remotely competent in mathematics would have read as "G of P" - this expression, the narrator reads as "G open parenthesis P close parenthesis". And it goes downhill from there.
So the whole exercise of listening to this book, if I am to compare (and I really feel I should!), feels like listening to one of those 100-hour repeat videos on YouTube, this time of Bender from Futurama reading his serial number.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- George Warrington
- 09-11-22
Informed and concise
Clear and correct, but be patient with algorithms/diagrams being read out, they don't matter much.
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story2 out of 5 stars
- Amazon Customer
- 03-09-22
Wonderful reading of a boring book
You need to know and enjoy math to get much out of the earlier chapters, and enjoy listening to very long strings of numbers and formulae. the later, more discursive chapters have great insights and items of interest, but the central theme of the Platonic world is not convincing or well elaborated for the lay person. The narration is marvelous, lovely voice tone, incredibly clear and precise, great pronunciation- could read the phone book and make it enjoyable!
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Kindle Customer
- 15-09-22
Book That I Have Barley Understood
Great book, but I have barley understood anything. Seems to me that my professor is in the same boat as me ⛵ in regard to this book. That's why this man has a Noble Prize.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance3 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Anonymous User
- 26-10-20
One zero one zero one zero right arrow
Great read in general, but the algorithm/functions/mathematics stuff is a car crash in audio!
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5 people found this helpful
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Overall2 out of 5 stars
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Performance2 out of 5 stars
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Story2 out of 5 stars
- Amazon Customer
- 26-11-23
0110111011100011100111100010111-wtf
the audio book should not have listed out the binary. this ruined the listening experience for me.
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Overall2 out of 5 stars
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Performance2 out of 5 stars
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Story2 out of 5 stars
- Chefboy
- 04-09-23
Virtually unlistenable
Although the broad outline of this book is interesting, if a little out of date, it soon becomes a pointless exercise to try to listen to endless lists of binary numbers and symbols. It probably reads fine in paper but discontinued work as an audiobook.
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Overall1 out of 5 stars
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Performance1 out of 5 stars
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Story2 out of 5 stars
- Martin Gausby
- 03-03-23
Figures and code listings are literally read out loud
This book is impossible to follow. As another review correctly states: code and math formulas are read out. Some of the code examples take minutes for the narrator to get through, and after listening to “zero zero zero one one zero zero one” for minutes, you have forgotten what led up to the code example.
I wish I could get a refund. This book is probably best in paper form.
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Overall2 out of 5 stars
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Performance1 out of 5 stars
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Story2 out of 5 stars
- Amazon Customer
- 17-04-22
the binary language of moisture vaporators
This book needs adapting not reading verbatim. It has a binary solo on a par with The Humans are Dead by Flight of the Concords.
I don't think the narrator understood the content so the phrasing is really weird sometimes, however nuances of presentation don't change the fact that long audio streams of digits and equations cannot be consumed by the human mind
Might get a physical copy of the book ...
... might not
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1 person found this helpful