The Experience Machine

BOOK REVIEW
The Experience Machine: How Our Minds Predict and Shape Reality
by Andy Clark 2023

About the Author
Andy Clark is a Professor of Cognitive Philosophy at the University of Sussex. He is the author of six books including Supersizing the Mind, Natural-Born Cyborgs, and Mindware.

About the Book
“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 and The Meme Machine

“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 colorful 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: How Your Constant Mental Drift Can Improve Your Mood and Boost Your Creativity

“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

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

“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

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?

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.