
Your Brain Is a Time Machine
The Neuroscience and Physics of Time
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed

Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Buy for $19.95
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
Aaron Abano
-
By:
-
Dean Buonomano
About this listen
A leading neuroscientist embarks on a groundbreaking exploration of how time works inside the brain.
In Your Brain Is a Time Machine, brain researcher and best-selling author Dean Buonomano draws on evolutionary biology, physics, and philosophy to present his influential theory of how we tell and perceive time. The human brain, he argues, is a complex system that not only tells time but creates it; it constructs our sense of chronological flow and enables "mental time travel" - simulations of future and past events. These functions are essential not only to our daily lives but to the evolution of the human race: without the ability to anticipate the future, mankind would never have crafted tools or invented agriculture. The brain was designed to navigate our continuously changing world by predicting what will happen and when.
Buonomano combines neuroscience expertise with a far-ranging, multidisciplinary approach. With engaging style, he illuminates such concepts as consciousness, spacetime, and relativity while addressing profound questions that have long occupied scientists and philosophers alike. What is time? Is our sense of time's passage an illusion? Does free will exist, or is the future predetermined? In pursuing the answers, Buonomano reveals as much about the fascinating architecture of the human brain as he does about the intricacies of time itself. This virtuosic work of popular science leads to an astonishing realization: Your brain is, at its core, a time machine.
Download the accompanying reference guide.©2017 Dean Buonomano (P)2017 Audible, Inc.Listeners also enjoyed...
-
Buzz
- The Nature and Necessity of Bees
- By: Thor Hanson
- Narrated by: Brant Pope
- Length: 7 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Bees are like oxygen: ubiquitous, essential, and, for the most part, unseen. While we might overlook them, they lie at the heart of relationships that bind the human and natural worlds. In Buzz, the beloved Thor Hanson takes us on a journey that begins 125 million years ago, when a wasp first dared to feed pollen to its young. From honeybees and bumbles to lesser-known diggers, miners, leafcutters, and masons, bees have long been central to our harvests, our mythologies, and our very existence. They've given us sweetness and light, the beauty of flowers, and as much as a third of the foodstuffs we eat. And, alarmingly, they are at risk of disappearing.
-
-
Not just honeybees!
- By Joshua R. Jacobs on 11-28-18
By: Thor Hanson
-
The Grand Biocentric Design
- How Life Creates Reality
- By: Robert Lanza, Matej Pavšič
- Narrated by: Peter Ganim
- Length: 8 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
What is consciousness? Why are we here? Where did it all come from - the laws of nature, the stars, the universe? Humans have been asking these questions forever, but science hasn't succeeded in providing many answers - until now. In The Grand Biocentric Design, Robert Lanza, one of Time magazine's "100 Most Influential People", is joined by theoretical physicist Matej Pavšic and astronomer Bob Berman to shed light on the big picture that has long eluded philosophers and scientists alike.
-
-
Should be in the fiction section.
- By Frank on 12-29-20
By: Robert Lanza, and others
-
12 Notes
- On Life and Creativity
- By: Quincy Jones
- Narrated by: JD Jackson, Quincy Jones
- Length: 5 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Wisdom and musings on creativity and life from one of the world’s most beloved musicians, producers, and mentors, Quincy Jones. 12 Notes is a self-development guide that will affirm that creativity is a calling that can and should be answered, no matter your age or experience.
-
-
I lived these notes with Quincy
- By Thomas Bähler on 04-29-22
By: Quincy Jones
-
Welcome to the Universe
- An Astrophysical Tour
- By: Michael A. Strauss, J. Richard Gott, Neil deGrasse Tyson
- Narrated by: Michael Butler Murray
- Length: 17 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Welcome to the Universe is a personal guided tour of the cosmos by three of today's leading astrophysicists. Inspired by the enormously popular introductory astronomy course that Neil deGrasse Tyson, Michael A. Strauss, and J. Richard Gott taught together at Princeton, this book covers it all - from planets, stars, and galaxies to black holes, wormholes, and time travel.
-
-
All About What We Know About the Universe - ALL
- By J.B. on 02-17-17
By: Michael A. Strauss, and others
-
Against the Grain
- A Deep History of the Earliest States
- By: James C. Scott
- Narrated by: Eric Jason Martin
- Length: 8 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Why did humans abandon hunting and gathering for sedentary communities dependent on livestock and cereal grains and governed by precursors of today's states? Most people believe that plant and animal domestication allowed humans, finally, to settle down and form agricultural villages, towns, and states, which made possible civilization, law, public order, and a presumably secure way of living. But archaeological and historical evidence challenges this narrative.
-
-
World without Women
- By Paul Richards on 04-28-18
By: James C. Scott
-
The Pyrocene
- How We Created an Age of Fire, and What Happens Next
- By: Stephen J. Pyne
- Narrated by: Adam Barr
- Length: 5 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Pyrocene tells the story of what happened when a fire-wielding species, humanity, met an especially fire-receptive time in Earth's history. Since terrestrial life first appeared, flames have flourished. Over the past two million years, however, one genus gained the ability to manipulate fire, swiftly remaking both itself and eventually the world. We developed small guts and big heads by cooking food; we climbed the food chain by cooking landscapes; and now we have become a geologic force by cooking the planet.
-
-
Knowledge of Fire today
- By M. D. Brown on 06-11-23
By: Stephen J. Pyne
-
Buzz
- The Nature and Necessity of Bees
- By: Thor Hanson
- Narrated by: Brant Pope
- Length: 7 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Bees are like oxygen: ubiquitous, essential, and, for the most part, unseen. While we might overlook them, they lie at the heart of relationships that bind the human and natural worlds. In Buzz, the beloved Thor Hanson takes us on a journey that begins 125 million years ago, when a wasp first dared to feed pollen to its young. From honeybees and bumbles to lesser-known diggers, miners, leafcutters, and masons, bees have long been central to our harvests, our mythologies, and our very existence. They've given us sweetness and light, the beauty of flowers, and as much as a third of the foodstuffs we eat. And, alarmingly, they are at risk of disappearing.
-
-
Not just honeybees!
- By Joshua R. Jacobs on 11-28-18
By: Thor Hanson
-
The Grand Biocentric Design
- How Life Creates Reality
- By: Robert Lanza, Matej Pavšič
- Narrated by: Peter Ganim
- Length: 8 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
What is consciousness? Why are we here? Where did it all come from - the laws of nature, the stars, the universe? Humans have been asking these questions forever, but science hasn't succeeded in providing many answers - until now. In The Grand Biocentric Design, Robert Lanza, one of Time magazine's "100 Most Influential People", is joined by theoretical physicist Matej Pavšic and astronomer Bob Berman to shed light on the big picture that has long eluded philosophers and scientists alike.
-
-
Should be in the fiction section.
- By Frank on 12-29-20
By: Robert Lanza, and others
-
12 Notes
- On Life and Creativity
- By: Quincy Jones
- Narrated by: JD Jackson, Quincy Jones
- Length: 5 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Wisdom and musings on creativity and life from one of the world’s most beloved musicians, producers, and mentors, Quincy Jones. 12 Notes is a self-development guide that will affirm that creativity is a calling that can and should be answered, no matter your age or experience.
-
-
I lived these notes with Quincy
- By Thomas Bähler on 04-29-22
By: Quincy Jones
-
Welcome to the Universe
- An Astrophysical Tour
- By: Michael A. Strauss, J. Richard Gott, Neil deGrasse Tyson
- Narrated by: Michael Butler Murray
- Length: 17 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Welcome to the Universe is a personal guided tour of the cosmos by three of today's leading astrophysicists. Inspired by the enormously popular introductory astronomy course that Neil deGrasse Tyson, Michael A. Strauss, and J. Richard Gott taught together at Princeton, this book covers it all - from planets, stars, and galaxies to black holes, wormholes, and time travel.
-
-
All About What We Know About the Universe - ALL
- By J.B. on 02-17-17
By: Michael A. Strauss, and others
-
Against the Grain
- A Deep History of the Earliest States
- By: James C. Scott
- Narrated by: Eric Jason Martin
- Length: 8 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Why did humans abandon hunting and gathering for sedentary communities dependent on livestock and cereal grains and governed by precursors of today's states? Most people believe that plant and animal domestication allowed humans, finally, to settle down and form agricultural villages, towns, and states, which made possible civilization, law, public order, and a presumably secure way of living. But archaeological and historical evidence challenges this narrative.
-
-
World without Women
- By Paul Richards on 04-28-18
By: James C. Scott
-
The Pyrocene
- How We Created an Age of Fire, and What Happens Next
- By: Stephen J. Pyne
- Narrated by: Adam Barr
- Length: 5 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Pyrocene tells the story of what happened when a fire-wielding species, humanity, met an especially fire-receptive time in Earth's history. Since terrestrial life first appeared, flames have flourished. Over the past two million years, however, one genus gained the ability to manipulate fire, swiftly remaking both itself and eventually the world. We developed small guts and big heads by cooking food; we climbed the food chain by cooking landscapes; and now we have become a geologic force by cooking the planet.
-
-
Knowledge of Fire today
- By M. D. Brown on 06-11-23
By: Stephen J. Pyne
-
Letters from an Astrophysicist
- By: Neil deGrasse Tyson
- Narrated by: Neil deGrasse Tyson, Vikas Adam, Piper Goodeve, and others
- Length: 5 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson has attracted one of the world’s largest online followings with his fascinating, widely accessible insights into science and our universe. Now, Tyson invites us to go behind the scenes of his public fame by unveiling his candid correspondence with people across the globe who have sought him out in search of answers. In this hand-picked collection of 100 letters, Tyson draws upon cosmic perspectives to address a vast array of questions about science, faith, philosophy, life, and of course, Pluto.
-
-
Dear Neil...
- By Tina G. on 10-14-19
-
The Peanuts Papers
- Writers and Cartoonists on Charlie Brown, Snoopy & the Gang, and the Meaning of Life
- By: Andrew Blauner - editor
- Narrated by: Mark Boyett, JD Jackson, Khristine Hvam, and others
- Length: 8 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Over 50 years, Charles M. Schulz created a comic strip that is one of the indisputable glories of American popular culture. Some 20 years after the last strip appeared, the characters Schulz brought to life in Peanuts continue to resonate with millions of fans, their beguiling four-panel adventures and television escapades offering lessons about happiness, friendship, disappointment, childhood, and life itself. Here, 33 writers and artists reflect on the deeper truths of Schulz’s deceptively simple comic, its impact on their lives and art and on the broader culture.
-
-
interesting
- By Snoopy on 10-23-21
-
The Order of Time
- By: Carlo Rovelli
- Narrated by: Benedict Cumberbatch
- Length: 4 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In lyric, accessible prose, Carlo Rovelli invites us to consider questions about the nature of time that continue to puzzle physicists and philosophers alike. For most listeners, this is unfamiliar terrain. We all experience time, but the more scientists learn about it, the more mysterious it appears. We think of it as uniform and universal, moving steadily from past to future, measured by clocks. Rovelli tears down these assumptions one by one, revealing a strange universe where, at the most fundamental level, time disappears.
-
-
Rovelli is a Genius
- By Mike on 05-11-18
By: Carlo Rovelli
-
The Second Kind of Impossible
- The Extraordinary Quest for a New Form of Matter
- By: Paul J. Steinhardt
- Narrated by: Peter Larkin
- Length: 11 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When leading Princeton physicist Paul Steinhardt began working in the 1980s, scientists thought they knew all the conceivable forms of matter. The Second Kind of Impossible is the story of Steinhardt’s 35-year-long quest to challenge conventional wisdom. It begins with a curious geometric pattern that inspires two theoretical physicists to propose a radically new type of matter - one that raises the possibility of new materials with never-before-seen properties but that violates laws set in stone for centuries.
-
-
In anticipation of low review marks...
- By James S. on 05-14-19
-
Anaximander
- And the Birth of Science
- By: Carlo Rovelli
- Narrated by: Roy McMillan
- Length: 5 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Over two millennia ago, the prescient insights of Anaximander paved the way for cosmology, physics, geography, meteorology, and biology, setting in motion a new way of seeing the world. His legacy includes the revolutionary ideas that the Earth floats in a void, that animals evolved, that the world can be understood in natural rather than supernatural terms, and that universal laws govern all phenomena. In this elegant work, the renowned theoretical physicist Carlo Rovelli brings to light the importance of Anaximander’s overlooked influence on modern science
-
-
Father of Science
- By Darwin8u on 10-31-24
By: Carlo Rovelli
-
War on Peace
- The End of Diplomacy and the Decline of American Influence
- By: Ronan Farrow
- Narrated by: Ronan Farrow
- Length: 10 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
American diplomacy is under siege. Offices across the State Department sit empty while abroad, the military-industrial complex has assumed the work once undertaken by peacemakers. We're becoming a nation that shoots first and asks questions later. In an astonishing account ranging from Washington, DC, to Afghanistan, Pakistan, and North Korea in the years since 9/11, acclaimed journalist and former diplomat Ronan Farrow illuminates one of the most consequential and poorly understood changes in American history.
-
-
Well Timed and Authoritative:
- By JC on 04-24-18
By: Ronan Farrow
-
Reality Is Not What It Seems
- The Journey to Quantum Gravity
- By: Carlo Rovelli, Simon Carnell - translator, Erica Segre - translator
- Narrated by: Roy McMillan
- Length: 6 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From the New York Times best-selling author of Seven Brief Lessons on Physics, The Order of Time, and Helgoland, a closer look at the mind-bending nature of the Universe. What are the elementary ingredients of the world? Do time and space exist? And what exactly is reality? Theoretical physicist Carlo Rovelli has spent his life exploring these questions. He tells us how our understanding of reality has changed over the centuries and how physicists think about the structure of the Universe today.
-
-
Most compelling physics book in at least 10 years!
- By Kyle on 02-03-17
By: Carlo Rovelli, and others
-
Brain Bugs
- How the Brain’s Flaws Shape Our Lives
- By: Dean Buonomano
- Narrated by: William Hughes
- Length: 8 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
With its trillions of connections, the human brain is more beautiful and complex than anything we could ever build, but it’s far from perfect: our memory is unreliable; we can’t multiply large sums in our heads; advertising manipulates our judgment; we tend to distrust people who are different from us; supernatural beliefs and superstitions are hard to shake; we prefer instant gratification to long-term gain; and what we presume to be rational decisions are often anything but.
-
-
Superficial, but mostly correct
- By Sean on 09-03-11
By: Dean Buonomano
-
Helgoland
- Making Sense of the Quantum Revolution
- By: Carlo Rovelli, Erica Segre - translator, Simon Carnell - translator
- Narrated by: David Rintoul
- Length: 4 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
One of the world's most renowned theoretical physicists, Carlo Rovelli has entranced millions of readers with his singular perspective on the cosmos. In Helgoland, he examines the enduring enigma of quantum theory. The quantum world Rovelli describes is as beautiful as it is unnerving. Helgoland is a treeless island in the North Sea where the 23-year-old Werner Heisenberg made the crucial breakthrough for the creation of quantum mechanics, setting off a century of scientific revolution.
-
-
The cat is not sleeping
- By Anonymous on 05-30-21
By: Carlo Rovelli, and others
-
Something Deeply Hidden
- Quantum Worlds and the Emergence of Spacetime
- By: Sean Carroll
- Narrated by: Sean Carroll
- Length: 10 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Sean Carroll, theoretical physicist and one of this world’s most celebrated writers on science, rewrites the history of 20th-century physics. Already hailed as a masterpiece, Something Deeply Hidden shows for the first time that facing up to the essential puzzle of quantum mechanics utterly transforms how we think about space and time. His reconciling of quantum mechanics with Einstein’s theory of relativity changes, well, everything. Most physicists haven’t even recognized the uncomfortable truth: Physics has been in crisis since 1927.
-
-
The Best Layperson Book on Quantum Physics
- By Conrad Barski on 09-11-19
By: Sean Carroll
-
Conscious
- A Brief Guide to the Fundamental Mystery of the Mind
- By: Annaka Harris
- Narrated by: Annaka Harris
- Length: 2 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This mind-expanding dive into the mystery of consciousness is an illuminating meditation on the self, free will, and felt experience.
-
-
Perhaps a better definition?
- By Eratosthenes on 06-19-19
By: Annaka Harris
-
A Thousand Brains
- A New Theory of Intelligence
- By: Jeff Hawkins, Richard Dawkins - foreword
- Narrated by: Jamie Renell, Richard Dawkins
- Length: 8 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
For all of neuroscience's advances, we've made little progress on its biggest question: How do simple cells in the brain create intelligence? Jeff Hawkins and his team discovered that the brain uses map-like structures to build a model of the world - not just one model, but hundreds of thousands of models of everything we know. This discovery allows Hawkins to answer important questions about how we perceive the world, why we have a sense of self, and the origin of high-level thought.
-
-
Starts out good, ends up a train wreck
- By Warren on 03-15-21
By: Jeff Hawkins, and others
People who viewed this also viewed...
-
Stress-Proof
- The Scientific Solution to Protect Your Brain and Body - and Be More Resilient Every Day
- By: Mithu Storoni
- Narrated by: Katharine Lee McEwan
- Length: 6 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This practical and groundbreaking guide reveals seven paths to fighting the effects of stress - to strengthen our natural defenses so that our minds remain sharp, and our bodies resilient, no matter what life throws at us. Each chapter examines a common stress agent - including inflammation, an out-of-sync body clock, cortisol levels, and emotional triggers - and presents simple ways to minimize its harmful effects with changes in diet, exercise, and other daily habits - including surprising hacks involving music, eye movements, body temperature, daily routine, and more.
-
-
Simply the best book I have ever read on stress!
- By Jessica B. on 02-06-18
By: Mithu Storoni
-
Anaximander
- And the Birth of Science
- By: Carlo Rovelli
- Narrated by: Roy McMillan
- Length: 5 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Over two millennia ago, the prescient insights of Anaximander paved the way for cosmology, physics, geography, meteorology, and biology, setting in motion a new way of seeing the world. His legacy includes the revolutionary ideas that the Earth floats in a void, that animals evolved, that the world can be understood in natural rather than supernatural terms, and that universal laws govern all phenomena. In this elegant work, the renowned theoretical physicist Carlo Rovelli brings to light the importance of Anaximander’s overlooked influence on modern science
-
-
Father of Science
- By Darwin8u on 10-31-24
By: Carlo Rovelli
-
The Forgetting Machine
- Memory, Perception, and the Jennifer Aniston Neuron
- By: Rodrigo Quian Quiroga
- Narrated by: Dan Woren
- Length: 4 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From Plato to Westworld, these questions have fascinated and befuddled philosophers, artists, and scientists for centuries. In The Forgetting Machine, neuroscientist Rodrigo Quian Quiroga explains how the mechanics of memory illuminates these discussions, with implications for everything from understanding Alzheimer's disease to the technology of Artificial Intelligence.
-
Billions & Billions
- Thoughts on Life and Death at the Brink of the Millennium
- By: Carl Sagan
- Narrated by: Adenrele Ojo, Ann Druyan
- Length: 9 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the final book of his astonishing career, Carl Sagan brilliantly examines the burning questions of our lives, our world, and the universe around us. These luminous, entertaining essays travel both the vastness of the cosmos and the intimacy of the human mind, posing such fascinating questions as how did the universe originate and how will it end, and how can we meld science and compassion to meet the challenges of the coming century?
-
-
To The Stars
- By Judy on 12-31-19
By: Carl Sagan
-
The World Behind the World
- Consciousness, Free Will, and the Limits of Science
- By: Erik Hoel
- Narrated by: Sean Patrick Hopkins
- Length: 7 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
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.
-
-
An insightful overview of consciousness research
- By Vanilor on 07-27-24
By: Erik Hoel
-
Brain Bugs
- How the Brain’s Flaws Shape Our Lives
- By: Dean Buonomano
- Narrated by: William Hughes
- Length: 8 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
With its trillions of connections, the human brain is more beautiful and complex than anything we could ever build, but it’s far from perfect: our memory is unreliable; we can’t multiply large sums in our heads; advertising manipulates our judgment; we tend to distrust people who are different from us; supernatural beliefs and superstitions are hard to shake; we prefer instant gratification to long-term gain; and what we presume to be rational decisions are often anything but.
-
-
Superficial, but mostly correct
- By Sean on 09-03-11
By: Dean Buonomano
-
Stress-Proof
- The Scientific Solution to Protect Your Brain and Body - and Be More Resilient Every Day
- By: Mithu Storoni
- Narrated by: Katharine Lee McEwan
- Length: 6 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This practical and groundbreaking guide reveals seven paths to fighting the effects of stress - to strengthen our natural defenses so that our minds remain sharp, and our bodies resilient, no matter what life throws at us. Each chapter examines a common stress agent - including inflammation, an out-of-sync body clock, cortisol levels, and emotional triggers - and presents simple ways to minimize its harmful effects with changes in diet, exercise, and other daily habits - including surprising hacks involving music, eye movements, body temperature, daily routine, and more.
-
-
Simply the best book I have ever read on stress!
- By Jessica B. on 02-06-18
By: Mithu Storoni
-
Anaximander
- And the Birth of Science
- By: Carlo Rovelli
- Narrated by: Roy McMillan
- Length: 5 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Over two millennia ago, the prescient insights of Anaximander paved the way for cosmology, physics, geography, meteorology, and biology, setting in motion a new way of seeing the world. His legacy includes the revolutionary ideas that the Earth floats in a void, that animals evolved, that the world can be understood in natural rather than supernatural terms, and that universal laws govern all phenomena. In this elegant work, the renowned theoretical physicist Carlo Rovelli brings to light the importance of Anaximander’s overlooked influence on modern science
-
-
Father of Science
- By Darwin8u on 10-31-24
By: Carlo Rovelli
-
The Forgetting Machine
- Memory, Perception, and the Jennifer Aniston Neuron
- By: Rodrigo Quian Quiroga
- Narrated by: Dan Woren
- Length: 4 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From Plato to Westworld, these questions have fascinated and befuddled philosophers, artists, and scientists for centuries. In The Forgetting Machine, neuroscientist Rodrigo Quian Quiroga explains how the mechanics of memory illuminates these discussions, with implications for everything from understanding Alzheimer's disease to the technology of Artificial Intelligence.
-
Billions & Billions
- Thoughts on Life and Death at the Brink of the Millennium
- By: Carl Sagan
- Narrated by: Adenrele Ojo, Ann Druyan
- Length: 9 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the final book of his astonishing career, Carl Sagan brilliantly examines the burning questions of our lives, our world, and the universe around us. These luminous, entertaining essays travel both the vastness of the cosmos and the intimacy of the human mind, posing such fascinating questions as how did the universe originate and how will it end, and how can we meld science and compassion to meet the challenges of the coming century?
-
-
To The Stars
- By Judy on 12-31-19
By: Carl Sagan
-
The World Behind the World
- Consciousness, Free Will, and the Limits of Science
- By: Erik Hoel
- Narrated by: Sean Patrick Hopkins
- Length: 7 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
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.
-
-
An insightful overview of consciousness research
- By Vanilor on 07-27-24
By: Erik Hoel
-
Brain Bugs
- How the Brain’s Flaws Shape Our Lives
- By: Dean Buonomano
- Narrated by: William Hughes
- Length: 8 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
With its trillions of connections, the human brain is more beautiful and complex than anything we could ever build, but it’s far from perfect: our memory is unreliable; we can’t multiply large sums in our heads; advertising manipulates our judgment; we tend to distrust people who are different from us; supernatural beliefs and superstitions are hard to shake; we prefer instant gratification to long-term gain; and what we presume to be rational decisions are often anything but.
-
-
Superficial, but mostly correct
- By Sean on 09-03-11
By: Dean Buonomano
-
White Holes
- By: Carlo Rovelli
- Narrated by: Harry Lloyd
- Length: 2 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Let us journey, with beloved physicist Carlo Rovelli, into the heart of a black hole. We slip beyond its horizon and tumble down this crack in the universe. As we plunge, we see geometry fold. Time and space pull and stretch. And finally, at the black hole’s core, space and time dissolve, and a white hole is born. Rovelli has dedicated his career to uniting the time-warping ideas of general relativity and the perplexing uncertainties of quantum mechanics. In White Holes, he reveals the mind of a scientist at work.
-
-
This guy…
- By Nicholas on 12-13-23
By: Carlo Rovelli
-
Anxious
- Using the Brain to Understand and Treat Fear and Anxiety
- By: Joseph LeDoux
- Narrated by: Jonathan Davis
- Length: 13 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Collectively, anxiety disorders are our most prevalent psychiatric problem, affecting about 40 million adults in the United States. In Anxious, Joseph LeDoux, whose NYU lab has been at the forefront of research efforts to understand and treat fear and anxiety, explains the range of these disorders, their origins, and discoveries that can restore sufferers to normalcy. LeDoux's groundbreaking premise is that we've been thinking about fear and anxiety in the wrong way.
-
-
Not practical and quite boring
- By fathead panda on 03-16-18
By: Joseph LeDoux
-
Reality Is Not What It Seems
- The Journey to Quantum Gravity
- By: Carlo Rovelli, Simon Carnell - translator, Erica Segre - translator
- Narrated by: Roy McMillan
- Length: 6 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From the New York Times best-selling author of Seven Brief Lessons on Physics, The Order of Time, and Helgoland, a closer look at the mind-bending nature of the Universe. What are the elementary ingredients of the world? Do time and space exist? And what exactly is reality? Theoretical physicist Carlo Rovelli has spent his life exploring these questions. He tells us how our understanding of reality has changed over the centuries and how physicists think about the structure of the Universe today.
-
-
Most compelling physics book in at least 10 years!
- By Kyle on 02-03-17
By: Carlo Rovelli, and others
-
The Secret Language of Cells
- What Biological Conversations Tell Us About the Brain-Body Connection, the Future of Medicine, and Life Itself
- By: Jon Lieff MD
- Narrated by: George Newbern
- Length: 9 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
While cells are commonly considered the building block of living things, it is actually the communication between cells that brings us to life, controlling our bodies and brains, determining whether we are healthy or sick, and directly influencing how we think, feel, and behave. In The Secret Language of Cells, doctor and neuroscientist Jon Lieff lets us listen in on these conversations, and reveals their significance for everything from mental health to cancer.
-
-
top notch!
- By Amazon Customer on 10-11-20
By: Jon Lieff MD
-
The Holographic Universe
- The Revolutionary Theory of Reality
- By: Michael Talbot
- Narrated by: Nick Mondelli
- Length: 13 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Nearly everyone is familiar with holograms - three-dimensional images projected into space with the aid of a laser. Two of the world's most eminent thinkers believe that the universe itself may be a giant hologram, quite literally a kind of image or construct created, at least in part, by the human mind. University of London physicist David Bohm, one of the world's most respected quantum physicists, and Stanford neurophysiologist Karl Pribram, an architect of our modern understanding of the brain, have developed a remarkable new way of looking at the universe.
-
-
Fail
- By Vadim Tarnovsky on 05-16-21
By: Michael Talbot
-
The Grand Biocentric Design
- How Life Creates Reality
- By: Robert Lanza, Matej Pavšič
- Narrated by: Peter Ganim
- Length: 8 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
What is consciousness? Why are we here? Where did it all come from - the laws of nature, the stars, the universe? Humans have been asking these questions forever, but science hasn't succeeded in providing many answers - until now. In The Grand Biocentric Design, Robert Lanza, one of Time magazine's "100 Most Influential People", is joined by theoretical physicist Matej Pavšic and astronomer Bob Berman to shed light on the big picture that has long eluded philosophers and scientists alike.
-
-
Should be in the fiction section.
- By Frank on 12-29-20
By: Robert Lanza, and others
-
Brain Energy
- A Revolutionary Breakthrough in Understanding Mental Health—and Improving Treatment for Anxiety, Depression, OCD, PTSD, and More
- By: Christopher M. Palmer MD
- Narrated by: Christopher M. Palmer MD
- Length: 12 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
We are in the midst of a global mental health crisis, and mental illnesses are on the rise. But what causes mental illness? And why are mental health problems so hard to treat? Drawing on decades of research, Harvard psychiatrist Dr. Chris Palmer outlines a revolutionary new understanding that for the first time unites our existing knowledge about mental illness within a single framework: mental disorders are metabolic disorders of the brain. Brain Energy will transform the field of mental health, and the lives of countless people around the world.
-
-
Arguing brain health theory to medical profession
- By Maya H Saric on 03-10-23
-
The Order of Time
- By: Carlo Rovelli
- Narrated by: Benedict Cumberbatch
- Length: 4 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In lyric, accessible prose, Carlo Rovelli invites us to consider questions about the nature of time that continue to puzzle physicists and philosophers alike. For most listeners, this is unfamiliar terrain. We all experience time, but the more scientists learn about it, the more mysterious it appears. We think of it as uniform and universal, moving steadily from past to future, measured by clocks. Rovelli tears down these assumptions one by one, revealing a strange universe where, at the most fundamental level, time disappears.
-
-
Rovelli is a Genius
- By Mike on 05-11-18
By: Carlo Rovelli
-
Seven Brief Lessons on Physics
- By: Carlo Rovelli
- Narrated by: Carlo Rovelli
- Length: 1 hr and 45 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This playful, entertaining, and mind-bending introduction to modern physics briskly explains Einstein's general relativity, quantum mechanics, elementary particles, gravity, black holes, the complex architecture of the Universe, and the role humans play in this weird and wonderful world. Carlo Rovelli, a renowned theoretical physicist, is a delightfully poetic and philosophical scientific guide. He takes us to the frontiers of our knowledge: To the most minute reaches of the fabric of space, back to the origins of the cosmos, and into the workings of our minds.
-
-
We are made of the same stardust...
- By Darwin8u on 03-21-16
By: Carlo Rovelli
-
Feeling & Knowing
- Making Minds Conscious
- By: Antonio Damasio
- Narrated by: Julian Morris
- Length: 3 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In recent decades, many philosophers and cognitive scientists have declared the problem of consciousness unsolvable, but Antonio Damasio is convinced that recent findings across multiple scientific disciplines have given us a way to understand consciousness and its significance for human life. In Feeling & Knowing, Damasio helps us understand why being conscious is not the same as sensing, why nervous systems are essential for the development of feelings, and why feeling opens the way to consciousness writ large.
-
-
That's it??
- By aaron on 11-13-21
By: Antonio Damasio
-
The Simulated Multiverse
- An MIT Computer Scientist Explores Parallel Universes, the Simulation Hypothesis, Quantum Computing and the Mandela Effect
- By: Rizwan Virk
- Narrated by: Rodney Tompkins
- Length: 10 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Do multiple versions of ourselves exist in parallel universes living out their lives in different timelines? In this follow-up to his best seller, The Simulation Hypothesis, MIT computer scientist and Silicon Valley game pioneer Rizwan Virk explores these topics from a new lens: that of simulation theory. Bringing his unique trademark style of combining video games, computer science, quantum physics, and computing with lots of philosophy and science fiction, Virk gives us a new way to think about not just our universe, but all possible timelines in the multiverse!
-
-
Reality Redefined via Simulation Metaphysics!
- By Amazon Customer on 09-23-22
By: Rizwan Virk
-
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
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
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.
-
-
Ouch!
- By Mark on 06-24-16
By: Nick Lane
Great topic with excellent execution.
Time was I knew what time was.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Author drowns in the flow of time
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Comprehensive
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Especially
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
The book begins with a summary of the psychology, philosophy, pharmacology and physiology of time. The author has an excellent grasp of the issues at stake and the importance of doing research on these topics. How do humans measure short and long time intervals? What is the shortest time interval that we can detect? How does our body know when to go to bed and get up again, and how accurate is this circadian clock? How do drugs affect our time perception, and what does that tell us about the brain? How can neurons or neural networks detect measure time? I don’t agree with everything he says about the neuroscience of timing. However, it was a joy to read these chapters and, on their own, these six chapters justified the time and money spent on this book. During my own studies, I have read tons of studies on timing employing a broad spectrum of different techniques. This book helped me connect the dots and get a bird eyes view which is something that can get lost in science.
The book sidetracked a bit in chapter seven where Buonomano takes on the physics of time and the philosophical implications. Does time even exist, or is it (like many other things), a persuasive illusion that the brain construes to give us an advantage in evolution? Is presentism (only the ‘now’ exists) or eternalism (time is another dimension and ‘now’ is to time what ‘here’ is to space) the correct model of the universe? What does our subjective sense of time tell us about time itself? These more philosophically oriented questions are taken on, at depth, and Buonomano even gets into the ‘shooting particles in moving trains’ thought experiments to explain the implications of Einstein's theory of relativity. I, perhaps naively, did not expect to encounter so much of Einstein in this book, but in the author's defense, he does an excellent job of explaining the implications of relativity, and he even manages to link it back to the psychology and neuroscience of timing.
In the last chapter, the author returns to the core issues. He discusses whether animals plan for the future (they clearly do) and whether they reflect on the future in the same way that we do (debatable). We also get to meet the Pirahã tribe who, according to an anthropologist/missionary who lived with them, lives in the here and now. They were, for instance, quite unimpressed with Christianity when they realized that their visitor had never actually met Jesus. In the last chapter, the author also takes on free will. If time is just another dimension that we can, at least in theory, travel across, then that should logically mean that everything that is going to happen has already happened which presumably means there is no free will. Free will, the author suggests may only be the feeling associated with making decisions - just like we feel pain when we get painful stimulation.
All in all, if you are interested in time and its relation to human behavior - then this book is the book is for you.
Great book on an underrated subject
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Another way to interpret thinking
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Well done research, interesting topic, but...
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
amazing book!
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Will Listen Again!
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Time and the Philosophy of Time: Zero
At several points I wondered how long the author could talk without saying anything of significance. You get mountains of twaddle. The author also has no clue as to what time is (a tool for tracking change). He comes close once or twice, but falls back into popular misconceptions (that time is a component of the physical world - it is not, change is).
Cognitive and Neuroscience: Ten
He does present some interesting experiments in cognitive and neuroscience, but again, weaves in the unnecessary mysticism born of not realizing what time is (a tool, and not something 'mysterious' or 'an illusion').
A '10' for Cognitive Science, a '0' for Time
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.