A review by rossbm
The Beginning of Infinity: Explanations That Transform the World by David Deutsch
3.0
(Listened as audiobook)
What's it about?
Principally, it is a book of philosophy, focusing on epistemology. Deutsche talks about how science is the search of "good explanations", and how a good explanation is "hard to vary". He bashes empiricism and induction, drawing upon Popper.
He says that people are "universal explainers". The book is optimistic, making the case that knowledge creation can be unbounded, and that we might be on the path to creating knowledge infinitely. He dismisses pessimistic arguments such as the "spaceship Earth" metaphor as Earth being a well designed ecosystem that humans are mucking up.
He also talks about many world theories.
What did I think?
I liked the epistemological aspects. I liked the optimism. I though that the book was too long (20 hours in audio), and bit unstructured. I didn't care for/got lost when he talked about the many world theories, although I did enjoy his Infinity Hotel metaphor.
He used the word "parochial" a lot; when he uses it, I guess he means small, insignificant, close minded, limited etc.. It is a not a common word, so it stood out that it was used so often. Also, "transmutation".
What's it about?
Principally, it is a book of philosophy, focusing on epistemology. Deutsche talks about how science is the search of "good explanations", and how a good explanation is "hard to vary". He bashes empiricism and induction, drawing upon Popper.
He says that people are "universal explainers". The book is optimistic, making the case that knowledge creation can be unbounded, and that we might be on the path to creating knowledge infinitely. He dismisses pessimistic arguments such as the "spaceship Earth" metaphor as Earth being a well designed ecosystem that humans are mucking up.
He also talks about many world theories.
What did I think?
I liked the epistemological aspects. I liked the optimism. I though that the book was too long (20 hours in audio), and bit unstructured. I didn't care for/got lost when he talked about the many world theories, although I did enjoy his Infinity Hotel metaphor.
He used the word "parochial" a lot; when he uses it, I guess he means small, insignificant, close minded, limited etc.. It is a not a common word, so it stood out that it was used so often. Also, "transmutation".