
The World Behind the World
Consciousness, Free Will, and the Limits of Science
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Narrated by:
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Sean Patrick Hopkins
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By:
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Erik Hoel
About this listen
From a Forbes 30 Under 30 scientist comes a fascinating exploration into how the brain creates our conscious experiences—potentially revolutionizing neuroscience and the future of technology—transforming the very fabric of our society.
Throughout history, two perspectives on the world have dueled in our minds: the extrinsic—that of mechanism and physics—and the intrinsic—that of feelings, thoughts, and ideas. The intrinsic perspective allows us to tell stories about our lives, to chart our anger and our lust, to understand our psychologies. The extrinsic allows us to chart the physical world, to build upon it, and to travel across it. These perspectives have never been reconciled; they almost seem to exist on different planes of thought. Only recently, due to the pioneering work of DNA-discoverer Francis Crick, have these two perspectives been conjoined.
This attempt to reconcile these perspectives is the science of consciousness, and posits that the intrinsic aspect of the world, how and what we perceive, can coexist in the extrinsic part of the world, in the realm of physics. The World Behind the World is a grand tour of the state of this science, an exploration of the point where tectonic metaphysical forces meet, often in paradoxical conclusions.
Dr. Erik Hoel lays out the evidence that nothing in the brain makes sense except in the light of a theory of consciousness. Some topics he examines include what the similarities are between our brains and black holes; where consciousness fits into physics and morality; and why it may be impossible for AI to ever become conscious, despite popular belief.
What does the science of consciousness tell us about what happens beyond brain death? Does our understanding of consciousness strengthen or weaken the case for free will? Is science itself incomplete in the way Gödel showed mathematics is? By taking us through the heated debates of the field and drawing on Hoel’s own original research to shed light on the latest theories about how the brain creates consciousness, The World Behind the World shows us that at long last, science is coming to understand the fundamental mystery of human existence.
PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.
©2023 Erik Hoel (P)2023 Simon & Schuster AudioListeners also enjoyed...
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Critic reviews
"Brace yourself--this expertly executed audiobook on the nature of consciousness will shake your brain to its core. Sean Hopkins wisely delivers it at a fast pace that matches the author's groundbreaking intelligence and giddy dedication to understanding how the mind works.... Hopkins's spirited performance imparts Hoel's intellectual excitement. The audiobook's questions and ideas whiz through history, pausing only to smash the paradigms of psychology and neuroscience. Hang on for the ride because this listening experience will forever change your understanding of yourself and the human mind." (AudioFile)
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Fosse
- By: Sam Wasson
- Narrated by: Jim Meskimen
- Length: 21 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
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The only person ever to win Oscar, Emmy, and Tony awards in the same year, Bob Fosse revolutionized nearly every facet of American entertainment. His signature style would influence generations of performing artists. Yet in spite of Fosse’s innumerable—including Cabaret, Pippin, All That Jazz, and Chicago, one of the longest-running Broadway musicals ever—his offstage life was shadowed by deep wounds and insatiable appetites.
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Amazing!
- By Helen on 11-06-24
By: Sam Wasson
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Sailing the Graveyard Sea
- The Deathly Voyage of the Somers, the U.S. Navy's Only Mutiny, and the Trial That Gripped the Nation
- By: Richard Snow
- Narrated by: Jacques Roy
- Length: 8 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
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On December 16, 1842, the US brig-of-war Somers dropped anchor in the New York Harbor at the end of a voyage intended to teach a group of adolescents the rudiments of naval life. But this routine exercise ended in catastrophe. Commander Alexander Slidell Mackenzie came ashore claiming he had prevented a mutiny that would have left him and his officers dead. Some of the thwarted mutineers were being held under guard, but three had already been hanged at sea.
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the day to day brutality
- By L. Lombard on 01-15-24
By: Richard Snow
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Sentience
- The Invention of Consciousness
- By: Nicholas Humphrey
- Narrated by: Michael Langan
- Length: 7 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
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We feel, therefore we are. Conscious sensations ground our sense of self. They are crucial to our idea of ourselves as psychic beings: present, existent, and mattering. But is it only humans who feel this way? Do other animals? Will future machines? Weaving together intellectual adventure and cutting-edge science, Nicholas Humphrey describes in Sentience his quest for answers: from his discovery of blindsight in monkeys and his pioneering work on social intelligence to breakthroughs in the philosophy of mind.
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Audible, please re-record this!
- By H on 03-13-24
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This Is Berlin
- Radio Broadcasts from Nazi Germany
- By: William Shirer
- Narrated by: Grover Gardner
- Length: 21 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
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This collection of William L. Shirer’s radio broadcasts tells the vivid story of WWII and brings the suspense of the times to life for today’s audience. As the first journalist hired by CBS to cover the war in Europe, Shirer compiled two and a half years’ worth of wartime broadcasts including Hitler’s invasion of Austria, the armistice between France and Nazi forces in June of 1940, daily roundups of news from Paris, Vienna, Berlin, London and Rome, documenting the conditions of these countries under invasion.
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Another banger from Willy and Grover
- By Garrett Webster on 04-08-24
By: William Shirer
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The Palace
- From the Tudors to the Windsors, 500 Years of British History at Hampton Court
- By: Mr. Gareth Russell
- Narrated by: John Telfer
- Length: 14 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
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Architecturally breathtaking and rich in splendid art and décor, Hampton Court Palace has been the stage of some of the most important events in British history, such as the commissioning of King James’s version of the Bible, the staging of many of Shakespeare’s plays, and Queen Elizabeth II’s coronation ball. The Palace takes us on “an entertaining journey into the past” (Kirkus Reviews) as it reveals the ups and downs of royal history and illustrates what was at play politically, socially, and economically at the time.
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Gareth Russell is a true talent
- By clandstu on 12-13-23
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The Well-Gardened Mind
- The Restorative Power of Nature
- By: Sue Stuart-Smith
- Narrated by: Sue Stuart-Smith
- Length: 11 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
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The Well-Gardened Mind provides a new perspective on the power of gardening to change people’s lives. Here, Sue Stuart-Smith investigates the many ways in which mind and garden can interact and explores how the process of tending a plot can be a way of sustaining an innermost self. Stuart-Smith’s own love of gardening developed as she studied to become a psychoanalytic psychotherapist.
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Fabulous book
- By Maude on 02-26-21
By: Sue Stuart-Smith
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The Blind Spot
- Why Science Cannot Ignore Human Experience
- By: Adam Frank, Marcelo Gleiser, Evan Thompson
- Narrated by: Perry Daniels
- Length: 11 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
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The Blind Spot goes where no science book goes, urging us to create a new scientific culture that views ourselves both as an expression of nature and as a source of nature's self-understanding, so that humanity can flourish in the new millennium.
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Good book.
- By Daniel L Mercer on 08-01-24
By: Adam Frank, and others
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The Vital Question
- Energy, Evolution, and the Origins of Complex Life
- By: Nick Lane
- Narrated by: Kevin Pariseau
- Length: 11 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
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The Earth teems with life: in its oceans, forests, skies, and cities. Yet there's a black hole at the heart of biology. We do not know why complex life is the way it is, or, for that matter, how life first began. In The Vital Question, award-winning author and biochemist Nick Lane radically reframes evolutionary history, putting forward a solution to conundrums that have puzzled generations of scientists.
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Ouch!
- By Mark on 06-24-16
By: Nick Lane
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The Metaverse
- And How It Will Revolutionize Everything
- By: Matthew Ball
- Narrated by: Luis Moreno
- Length: 13 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
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The term metaverse is suddenly everywhere, from debates over Fortnite to the pages of the New York Times to the speeches of Mark Zuckerberg, who proclaimed in June 2021 that “the overarching goal” of Facebook is to “bring the metaverse to life”. But what, exactly, is the metaverse? As pioneering theorist and venture capitalist Matthew Ball explains, it is the successor to the mobile internet that has defined the last two decades.
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Not a must read
- By Andrew on 08-09-22
By: Matthew Ball
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A Beginner's Guide to the End
- Practical Advice for Living Life and Facing Death
- By: Dr. BJ Miller, Shoshana Berger
- Narrated by: BJ Miller, Shoshana Berger
- Length: 11 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
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The first-ever practical, compassionate, and comprehensive guide to dying - and living fully until you do.
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Essential reading wiithout exception
- By Daniel J. DiBona on 08-24-19
By: Dr. BJ Miller, and others
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The Self-Assembling Brain
- How Neural Networks Grow Smarter
- By: Peter Robin Hiesinger
- Narrated by: Joel Richards
- Length: 12 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
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How does a neural network become a brain? While neurobiologists investigate how nature accomplishes this feat, computer scientists interested in AI strive to achieve this through technology. The Self-Assembling Brain tells the stories of both fields, exploring the historical and modern approaches taken by the scientists pursuing answers to the quandary: What information is necessary to make an intelligent neural network? As Peter Robin Hiesinger argues, "the information problem" underlies both fields.
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Not sure what to think
- By Andrew T. Doren on 01-05-25
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Einstein in Time and Space
- A Life in 99 Particles
- By: Samuel Graydon
- Narrated by: George Reid
- Length: 9 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
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Most of us would agree that Albert Einstein’s name is synonymous with “genius” and that his likeness is often used as a shorthand for all scientists, appearing everywhere from cartoons to textbooks. He has become more myth than man. That being the case, how best to capture his essence? In Einstein in Time and Space, talented young science journalist Samuel Graydon answers that question with an illuminating mosaic—99 intriguingly different particles that cumulatively reveal Einstein’s contradictory and multitudinous nature.
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easy listening Einstein
- By Video Drone on 03-07-25
By: Samuel Graydon
One of the most important books in your life
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The best part of the book for me was Chapter 10: How Science Got Its Scale, which I have already read three times now. The author explains the theory of causal emergence, which is a type of emergence in between strong emergence and weak emergence that illuminates how a deterministic system could nevertheless come to possess free will. The key mechanism is error correction in an information processing system. I am a physicalist, and I've never had a religious attachment to free will, but I was still thrilled to get a scientific explanation for compatibilism. The author developed the theory of causal emergence as his PhD thesis, while working on Integrated Information Theory under Giulio Tononi. Causal emergence seems to work just as well inside or outside IIT, though. I am doing my best to spread these ideas, but they are quite hard to explain. I hope, and I expect, that Erik Hoel's ideas will come to be viewed as groundbreaking new insights.
An insightful overview of consciousness research
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