3/4: The Experience Machine: How Our Minds Predict and Shape Reality Hardcover – May 2, 2023 by Andy Clark (Author)
The John Batchelor Show
John Batchelor
4.5 • 2.8K Ratings
🗓️ 21 October 2023
⏱️ 14 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
https://www.amazon.com/Experience-Machine-Minds-Predict-Reality/dp/1524748455
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.
1910 Carthage Theater
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | At Honda, we've been engineering cars for over 75 years, actually. |
| 0:06.0 | We know that excellence takes time. |
| 0:09.0 | So you can rely on the Honda engineering in the all-new ENY-1, |
| 0:13.0 | with a range of up to 250 miles on a single charge, |
| 0:16.0 | and up to five years warranty servicing and roadside assistance. |
| 0:20.0 | Our first electric SUV, the ENY-1. |
| 0:24.0 | Oh, a hole in one. |
| 0:26.0 | Yes. |
| 0:27.0 | Honda, the power of dreams, range-based and fixed conditions, and they vary. |
| 0:35.0 | This is CBS I In The World. |
| 0:37.0 | I'm John Bachelor. |
| 0:38.0 | I'm visiting with Professor Andy Clark of the University of Sussex. |
| 0:42.0 | He's a professor of cognitive philosophy. |
| 0:44.0 | What is that? |
| 0:45.0 | The book is the experience machine, how our minds predict and shape reality. |
| 0:49.0 | I think, therefore, I am. |
| 0:51.0 | We learn that in grade school almost, but certainly in college. |
| 0:55.0 | And what Andy's work and the work of his colleagues have done these last years, |
| 1:00.0 | this is the frontier of thinking about integration, causal loop, |
| 1:05.0 | for our thoughts, our bodies, our environment, our tools. |
| 1:10.0 | All of this comes together. |
| 1:12.0 | There is a poetic way that Aniston Inn puts it once upon a time. |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from John Batchelor, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of John Batchelor and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.