The Experience Machine

Rare among science books, this one has changed the way I experience the world. I now feel the experience machine doing its work as I pay attention, am surprised, or catch myself having made completely ridiculous predictions. It's a book that will help you understand the way you see, think and act-and it is also a pleasure to read

Susan Blackmore, author of CONSCIOUSNESS: AN INTRODUCTION and THE MEME MACHINE

This is a book that grabs you and literally changes your mind. I perused the preface after my morning coffee and found myself on the last page before nightfall! The Experience Machine is a further testament to Andy Clark's standing as one of the greatest theoreticians and influencers in philosophy of mind. It is a wonderfully lucid and compelling-and occasionally touching-account of our sentient behaviour, and the way we construct our experienced world

Karl Friston, theoretical neuroscientist at University College London

It's tempting to think that our eyes and ears passively record the world like cameras and microphones, but our perceptions are much more interesting than that. Andy Clark is a leading figure in understanding the brain as a prediction machine -- we don't passively take in the world, we're constantly anticipating it and interpreting it accordingly. This thoroughly readable book will convince you that the brain and the world are partners in constructing our understanding

Sean Carroll, author of THE BIGGEST IDEAS IN THE UNIVERSE

In this stunning book, Andy Clark is once again reshaping our understanding of the mind. Clark expertly mobilises the full extent of the predictive Experience Machine, unifying mind, body and the environment. He then reveals the surprising predictive hacks that enable us better grasp our own unfolding experiences

Jakob Hohwy, author of THE PREDICTIVE MIND, Director of the Monash Centre for Consciousness and Contemplative Studies

There are many metaphors for how your brain works: a magician, an architect, a fortune-teller, a scientist. Andy Clark's marvellous book, The Experience Machine, unpacks these metaphors to reveal your brain's mind-bending (and mind-making) predictive powers that construct the reality you see, hear, and feel. Without them, there is only buzzing, blooming confusion. Strap on your seatbelt and prepare to be amazed!

Lisa Feldman Barrett, How Emotions Are Made and Seven and a Half Lessons About the Brain

Is the universe a simulation? Yes! But the simulation takes place in your brain. In this engaging and fascinating book Andy Clark explains how our expectations dominate the input of our senses to construct our individual perceptions of reality. After reading it, you'll look at human experience in a new way

Leonard Mlodinow, author of Emotional

If you would like to read the most promising theory of how your brain works (and who doesn't), told by the clearest and most colourful storyteller, this is the only book you need. Tender yet assertive, Andy takes us by the hand as deep into our mind as anyone can glean

Moshe Bar, author of Mindwandering

The Experience Machine is one of the most fascinating and profound books I have ever read. With incredible clarity, Andy Clark presents a grand unified theory of brain processing and describes its enormous implications for our understanding of ourselves. Clark's writing is elegant and entertaining, with many mind-blowing examples of the ways our expectations can shape our reality. This book sets the highest possible bar for popular science writing and is sure to become an instant classic of the genre

David Robson, author of The Expectation Effect

A predictably groundbreaking exploration of the predictive basis of our extended minds from one of our deepest and clearest thinkers, and a true pioneer of this transformational view of who we are and how we work.The Experience Machine delivers a remarkable combination of profound insight and practical relevance, and it showcases Clark's ability to convey complex ideas with fluent and accessible language

Anil Seth, author of BEING YOU: A NEW SCIENCE OF CONSCIOUSNESS

Enjoyable and surprising

Steven Poole, Guardian

For those who want to know more about an important and growing field of neuroscience, The Experience Machine is an excellent primer

New Scientist

There's a growing body of evidence that suggests we don't receive information from the outside world passively. Instead, our minds act as predictive engines, anticipating what we'll encounter next, filling in blanks and bridling at the unexpected... This mind-bending stuff is at the forefront of science, technology, philosophy and much else. Clark makes it thrillingly understandable.

Prospect Book of the Year 2023