The Experience Machine

How Our Minds Predict and Shape Reality

By: Andy Clark

Narrated by: Andy Clark

A brilliant new theory of the mind that upends our understanding of how the brain interacts with the world

For as long as we’ve studied human cognition, we’ve believed that our senses give us direct access to the world. What we see is what’s really there—or so the thinking goes. But new discoveries in neuroscience and psychology have turned this assumption on its head. What if rather than perceiving reality passively, your mind actively predicts it?

“This thoroughly readable book will convince you that the brain and the world are partners in constructing our understanding.”—Sean Carroll, New York Times bestselling author of The Biggest Ideas in the Universe: Space, Time, and Motion

Widely acclaimed philosopher and cognitive scientist Andy Clark unpacks this provocative new theory that the brain is a powerful, dynamic prediction engine, mediating our experience of both body and world. From the most mundane experiences to the most sublime, reality as we know it is the complex synthesis of sensory information and expectation. Exploring its fascinating mechanics and remarkable implications for our lives, mental health, and society, Clark nimbly illustrates how the predictive brain sculpts all human experience. Chronic pain and mental illness are shown to involve subtle malfunctions of our unconscious predictions, pointing the way towards more effective, targeted treatments. Under renewed scrutiny, the very boundary between ourselves and the outside world dissolves, showing that we are as entangled with our environments as we are with our onboard memories, thoughts, and feelings. And perception itself is revealed to be something of a controlled hallucination.

Unveiling the extraordinary explanatory power of the predictive brain, The Experience Machine is a mesmerizing window onto one of the most significant developments in our understanding of the mind.

* This audiobook edition includes a downloadable PDF of supporting figures with evidence and claims to follow along with.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

©2023 Andy Clark (P)2023 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

“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, New York Times bestselling author of The Biggest Ideas in the Universe: Space, Time, and Motion

“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, bestselling author of Emotional and Subliminal

“There are many metaphors for how your brain works: a magician, an architect, a fortune-teller, a scientist. Andy Clark’s marvelous 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, author of How Emotions Are Made and Seven and a Half Lessons About the Brain

Thought provoking

Excellent, thought provoking book that provides a wholly different way to think about experience. The basic idea of predictions shaping experience is familiar if you've followed modern cognitive science. But the explanation and some of the implications were really well spelled out along with a coherent philosophical framework. Highly recommended!

Some great insights

Insights like perception being attenuated d by down flow of information as much as u flow of perceived information. However, a decent bit of bias regarding human values, regarding differences in faculties, and ignoring there is weight to objective reality, that while brought imperfectly to us through our own imperfect faculties, has objective consequence beyond our subjective imperfect filtration of same. Also dodges question of consciousness u til appendix and has a a bad stab at what it is, pointing out effects of it rather than what it is. For those that never thought about the topic, it’s a fine starting point.

Refreshing. Especially after reading untethered soul.

I’m still bitter I paid money for that other book. I’d pay to listen to this book every single time if I had too.

My 3 stars for Overall is because…

There is some audio playback issues. Maybe recording issues. Who knows. It’ll cut out randomly in the middle of a word or sentence. It doesn’t create a section of silence but instead stitches together. Unless you are paying attention it is hard to notice. Reminds me of a CD skipping “back in the day.”

Great book otherwise.

welcome to the new understanding

this book is written in such a way that complicated concepts are easily grasped. the text is read in a way that is not distracting. come to understand the way our brains not only think, but predict. these predictions shape our thinking and perceptions of the world. it chronicles extensively the way that the processes interact all for the benefit of you. excellent material, well researched, and accompanied by references.

An excellent explanation of the predictive model

This is an excellent explanation of the predictive model of the brain working on sentient beings.
Listening to it will expand your understanding of who we are as a species, how and why we got here.
The most impactful paradigm shift for me was how the model explains mental illness. Highly recommend it.

Highly informative and helpful

I heard Andy Clark speak to Sam Harris on the “ Waking Up” podcast and was intrigued by his thoughts and theories. This book was discussed and I decided to give it a listen. I’m glad I did.

poor narration

hard to follow the narrative. I'd need to buy the book and read it. I can't review the content

great read

really a great read, if your into things like psycho cybernetics it just makes a lot of sense and i love how actionable the information is and how you can really do things to hack your brain and way of thinking.

my only critic is that the sevond part of the book could have been an entire book on its own (and i hope it will be) on the extended brain, so i got thrown off a little bit but it was good none the less.

A nice presentation of a philosophical theory

Predictive brain is fairly well presented in the audiobook. I would have liked it to be more substantial, but I guess that this is just the result of current research.