The Beginning of Infinity Audiobook By David Deutsch cover art

The Beginning of Infinity

Explanations That Transform the World

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The Beginning of Infinity

By: David Deutsch
Narrated by: Walter Dixon
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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 Astronomy & Space Science Cosmology History & Philosophy Philosophy Physics Science World Mathematics Thought-Provoking Inspiring

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)
Thought-provoking Ideas • Comprehensive Explanations • Clear Narration • Intellectual Depth • Optimistic Perspective
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Wow. I do not pretend to understand even the 20th part of the ideas in this book. Who would have thought that a physicist and mathematician could express himself so eloquently on so many disparate subjects? This book is all over the map; it's a wild romp through an amazing mind. David Deutsch's ego must be at least the size of the Milky Way Galaxy--no, wait, that's too "parochial", too provincial by N orders of magnitude! Well, I guess it does take some bravado to take on evolution, quantum mechanics, history, universality, even knowledge itself, and still find time for politics, philosophy, artificial intelligence, and a conversation with Socrates. Along the way, as Deutsch manages to drop an amazing idea you never heard before into just about every paragraph, his major theses boils down to two things: first, good explanations lead to an infinity of knowledge, while bad explanations have only the power to fool us; and secondly, there will always be problems, but they can be solved if we can separate the good explanations from the bad ones.

Doing that in the real world we live in every day is hard, way harder than I think Deutsch realizes. We are fallible human beings who more often than not ignore even the most elegant of explanations with impunity. That said, being inside his head for the last couple of days was a privilege indeed.

By the way, the reader did a great job of not being in the way!

This book is a wild ride!

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I am a huge fan of revolutionary ideas, and this book is full of them.

Life changing ideas

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This book has lots of great ideas - in particular an objective justification for an open and questioning society. The central theme - that humans can achieve limitless knowledge if they are willing to pursue it and live in a dynamic and creative society is a fundamentally optimistic view, and in my opinion, a much-needed antidote to the pessimistic thinking that is rife throughout modern society. That said, I wish it was a bit easier to follow. I still do not see the point of either the chapter-long dialog between Socrates and Hermes nor the extended explanation for quantum physics in the form of a hypothetical science-fiction novel that together serve to bisect this book. Also there are lots of little tangents throughout the book. Overall, they do not fatally compromise this book, however.

Great ideas

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Superficially this book seems to meander through disparate topics such as cosmology, political science, aesthetics, evolution and philosophy, but upon careful reading, it definitely has a central thesis. The central thesis is about the fundamental nature of explanations, the process of creating good explanations, and the central role that humans play in the cosmos because of our unique ability among creatures to create explanations.

This book has been the most influential on my thinking bar none.

Extremely influential

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An optimistic and uplifting view of humanity and how progress occurs. Especially enjoyed the Socrates chapter. Not a book to learn anything specific but entertaining

Optimistic

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If you've ever wondered how a true genius of the times thinks about things, this is your opportunity. Deutsch charges through complexity after complexity, abstraction after abstraction, layer after layer; with such pure intellect, he seems to be gliding through them with ghostly precision. I recommend this to anyone that wants to push their own minds to the limit, while Deutsch brings it all down to a level that is surprisingly easy to understand given the content.

Actual Genius

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Cool ideas, bro, but it's really just a rehashing of ideas from many other books I've read. Decent summary of various topics nonetheless

Interesting but a little trite

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Very sophisticated, very intellectual; but contradictory in some arguments and refutes other arguments without explaining why, simply says “that is wrong” or “that is an incorrect explanation”.

Narration is dry and non-engaging.

Dry.

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Would you listen to The Beginning of Infinity again? Why?

I'd HAVE to listen to it again if I want to understand some of the many highly abstract intellectual concepts introduced by Deutsch. I think this is a compelling read anyway. I will listen again.

Were the concepts of this book easy to follow, or were they too technical?

No. I wouldn't say they were too technical, just above my intellectual and cognitive "pay grade" in some areas. I suspect most listeners will feel the same way. Though I personally have a PhD in an admittedly unrelated-to-physics but nonetheless a very analytical and technical field, I simply could not follow certain discussions, such as the one relating to Quantum Mechanics.

What does Walter Dixon bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

He was competent and a clear enunciator. However, I think actually READING a physical book would be better in this case: It would enable one to go back to prior sentences or pages to reread them. The nature of his book is such that if you didn't understand the initial paragraphs of a topic he introduces, the odds are good that you won't understand the rest of the discussion. His arguments are like building blocks.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

Yes, "Infinity Hotel" was one. Another was a discussion of his views, which I share, on how mankind should deal with the prospects of global warming.

Any additional comments?

Deutsch is absolutely a genius. I am not convinced he is necessarily right when he tries to extend his scientific reasoning to completely unrelated fields, but he definitely makes you think in a completely new light. I'd say "Bravo". This is a very important book.

Brilliant but difficult to understand

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Would you recommend The Beginning of Infinity to your friends? Why or why not?

The major problem I have with this excourse is that there does not seem to be a POINT. I would like to recommend books (or ideas) to my friends that have some "deeper meaning" or provoce some thinking of yourself. That I just cannot find here, as it seemed to me that the author was trying his best (or did he?) to just bring some half-baked idea of his across, hoping for some brilliant mind in the audience to find the missing pieces he deliberately avoided to discuss.

To me one important aspect of scientific thinking is to always try to "falsify" a theory: Finding counter-arguments and discussing them, trying hard to "fight" your own theory and improving it in order to better cope with critics is what fascinates me about science.
Mr. Deutsch takes it easy. He ignores all (sometimes obvious) arguments that would speak against his ideas of "static societies" (doomed to die) versus "dynamic, western style, modern" societies (doomed to succeed), his somewhat crude and, sorry to say, ignorant picture of "creativity" (exclusively focussing on humans and apes, ignoring that other animals, including some birds, show EXACTLY the behavior and abilities that Mr. Deutsch wants to appoint to humans alone).
His examples often are flawed and it feels as if, as soon as he starts to stumble over the problems of his examples, he kind of says "it's not really like that but you get the idea" (which is a bad sign for an example to be valid). Some research summaries he gave sounded plain false, but I just did not get motivated enough to read up the topics. I may be completely wrong there! But that is exactly the point I want to make:
I want a good book / course to ENCOURAGE me to learn more, to contradict, to question my own perspective.
The worst I can say about a philosophical or scientific book is that it is boring or - as I have to say in this case - just not relevant to my life, to my view of the world or to anyone I know.

Did the narration match the pace of the story?

While I think that Mr. Dixon does a good job of NARRATING, the style of his presentation does not well match the supposed topic. Mr. Dixon is usually starting a sentence at a specific tone, then lifts his voice aproximately half a tone step.
Constantly. Always. Giving every sentence - or probably paragraph - the tonal meaning of "something very strange is happening here, will the couragous detective figure out who killed the flummy?" That's fine if something very strange is happening or some detective is going to solve a murder, but for a philosophical discussion or even (which this book is NOT) an excourse about physics and/or reality, it is too, well ... dramatic (for the lack of a more suitable word).

Do you think The Beginning of Infinity needs a follow-up book? Why or why not?

I'd like to find out if Mr. Deutsch some time found out what his idea actually meant. To him or to anyone. :-)

Somewhat unambitious, self-centered pet-theory?

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