The Book of Minds Audiobook By Philip Ball cover art

The Book of Minds

How to Understand Ourselves and Other Beings, from Animals to AI to Aliens

Preview

Try for $0.00
Prime logo Prime members: New to Audible?
Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Premium Plus auto-renews for $14.95/mo after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

The Book of Minds

By: Philip Ball
Narrated by: James Cameron Stewart
Try for $0.00

$14.95/month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy for $21.49

Buy for $21.49

Confirm purchase
Pay using card ending in
By confirming your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and Amazon's Privacy Notice. Taxes where applicable.
Cancel

About this listen

Popular science writer Philip Ball explores a range of sciences to map our answers to a huge, philosophically rich question: How do we even begin to think about minds that are not human?

Sciences from zoology to astrobiology, computer science to neuroscience, are seeking to understand minds in their own distinct disciplinary realms. Taking a uniquely broad view of minds and where to find them—including in plants, aliens, and God—Philip Ball pulls the pieces together to explore what sorts of minds we might expect to find in the universe. By identifying and mapping out properties of mind without prioritizing the human, Ball sheds new light on a host of fascinating questions: What moral rights should we afford animals, and can we understand their thoughts? If there are intelligent aliens out there, how could we communicate with them? Should we? Understanding the space of possible minds also reveals ways of making advances in understanding some of the most challenging questions in contemporary science: What is thought? What is consciousness? And what (if anything) is free will?

Informed by conversations with leading researchers, Ball's brilliant survey of current views about the nature and existence of minds is more mind-expanding than we could imagine. In this fascinating panorama of other minds, we come to better know our own.

©2022 Philip Ball (P)2022 Tantor
History Psychology Genetics Animal Minds
activate_Holiday_promo_in_buybox_DT_T2

What listeners say about The Book of Minds

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    8
  • 4 Stars
    7
  • 3 Stars
    0
  • 2 Stars
    2
  • 1 Stars
    0
Performance
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    8
  • 4 Stars
    4
  • 3 Stars
    1
  • 2 Stars
    3
  • 1 Stars
    1
Story
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    9
  • 4 Stars
    7
  • 3 Stars
    0
  • 2 Stars
    1
  • 1 Stars
    0

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

The book was like an engrossing conversation but the delivery of

The narrator’s style sounded more like he was making a grand announcement with every sentence. I found this distracting. I preferred a more conversational reading style. Once I got past that, the topic was super interesting and entertaining.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Good book. Unlistenable narration.

Like the author, interested in the topic. But this is the worst match between reader and text that I’ve ever experienced in professionally produced work. It’s uncanny that anyone it the production team could have thought this was working.
Feel so badly for the author

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

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

A good 2 hour lecture hidden in this 18 hour book

This is a relatively recent title, so it was surprising to find so much filler that is decades old and of questionable relevance to the current discussion. A couple of hours worth of newish material to ponder, if you can endure the painful rehash of every google entry even remotely related to this topic, not presented just as history, but with the added pleasure of listening to Ball's interpretation of each trivial bit. At length.

Maybe not boring if this is the first book on this topic you have ever read or listened to.

The author's habit of constructing long, convoluted, and digressive sentences didn't combine well with the narrator's style, which tried to emphasize every third or fourth syllable in a kind of singsong that sounds like a mix of a wartime newsreel and an auctioneer.

Works as performance art, I can definitely see having this on at a gallery show, with the right pieces.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!