A Beginner’s Guide to Reality
Exploring Our Everyday Adventures in Wonderland
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Buy for $17.95
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
Victor Bevine
-
By:
-
Jim Baggott
About this listen
A unique fusion of philosophy and metaphysics set against the backdrop of contemporary culture. Have you ever wondered if the world is really there when you're not looking? We tend to take the reality of our world very much for granted. This book will lead you down the rabbit hole in search of something we can point to, hang our hats on, and say this is real.
Along the way Jim Baggott presents the important arguments concerning the nature reality as examined by the world's greatest thinkers from the philosophers of ancient Greece to modern scientists and social theorists and takes on materialism, perception, and progress in a refreshingly new and entertaining way.
©2009 Jim Baggot (P)2010 Audible, Inc.Listeners also enjoyed...
-
The Holographic Universe
- The Revolutionary Theory of Reality
- By: Michael Talbot
- Narrated by: Nick Mondelli
- Length: 13 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Nearly everyone is familiar with holograms - three-dimensional images projected into space with the aid of a laser. Two of the world's most eminent thinkers believe that the universe itself may be a giant hologram, quite literally a kind of image or construct created, at least in part, by the human mind. University of London physicist David Bohm, one of the world's most respected quantum physicists, and Stanford neurophysiologist Karl Pribram, an architect of our modern understanding of the brain, have developed a remarkable new way of looking at the universe.
-
-
Fail
- By Anonymous User on 05-16-21
By: Michael Talbot
-
Existential Physics
- A Scientist's Guide to Life's Biggest Questions
- By: Sabine Hossenfelder
- Narrated by: Gina Daniels
- Length: 8 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Not only can we not currently explain the origin of the universe, it is questionable we will ever be able to explain it. The notion that there are universes within particles, or that particles are conscious, is ascientific, as is the hypothesis that our universe is a computer simulation. On the other hand, the idea that the universe itself is conscious is difficult to rule out entirely.
-
-
Unscientific and unengaging
- By Anonymous User on 03-29-23
-
Reality+
- Virtual Worlds and the Problems of Philosophy
- By: David J. Chalmers
- Narrated by: Grant Cartwright
- Length: 17 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Virtual reality is genuine reality; that’s the central thesis of Reality+. In a highly original work of “technophilosophy,” David J. Chalmers gives a compelling analysis of our technological future. He argues that virtual worlds are not second-class worlds, and that we can live a meaningful life in virtual reality. We may even be in a virtual world already.
-
-
A book that could have been an email
- By Anonymous User on 04-15-22
-
I Am a Strange Loop
- By: Douglas R. Hofstadter
- Narrated by: Greg Baglia
- Length: 16 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
One of our greatest philosophers and scientists of the mind asks where the self comes from - and how our selves can exist in the minds of others. I Am a Strange Loop argues that the key to understanding selves and consciousness is the "strange loop" - a special kind of abstract feedback loop inhabiting our brains. The most central and complex symbol in your brain is the one called "I". The "I" is the nexus in our brain, one of many symbols seeming to have free will and to have gained the paradoxical ability to push particles around, rather than the reverse.
-
-
The Self That Wasn't There
- By Anonymous User on 01-09-19
-
Beyond Biocentrism
- Rethinking Time, Space, Consciousness, and the Illusion of Death
- By: Robert Lanza, Bob Berman
- Narrated by: Peter Ganim
- Length: 7 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In Beyond Biocentrism, acclaimed biologist Robert Lanza and astronomer Bob Berman take the listener on an intellectual thrill ride as they reexamine everything we thought we knew about life, death, the universe, and the nature of reality itself. The first step is acknowledging that our existing model of reality is looking increasingly creaky in the face of recent scientific discoveries.
-
-
Here's the thing
- By Anonymous User on 11-09-18
By: Robert Lanza, and others
-
The Elegant Universe
- Superstrings, Hidden Dimensions, and the Quest for the Ultimate Theory
- By: Brian Greene
- Narrated by: Erik Davies
- Length: 15 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In a rare blend of scientific insight and writing as elegant as the theories it explains, Brian Greene, one of the world's leading string theorists, peels away the layers of mystery surrounding string theory to reveal a universe that consists of 11 dimensions where the fabric of space tears and repairs itself, and all matter-from the smallest quarks to the most gargantuan supernovas-is generated by the vibrations of microscopically tiny loops of energy.
-
-
Well Written, Good Narration
- By Anonymous User on 06-12-09
By: Brian Greene
-
The Holographic Universe
- The Revolutionary Theory of Reality
- By: Michael Talbot
- Narrated by: Nick Mondelli
- Length: 13 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Nearly everyone is familiar with holograms - three-dimensional images projected into space with the aid of a laser. Two of the world's most eminent thinkers believe that the universe itself may be a giant hologram, quite literally a kind of image or construct created, at least in part, by the human mind. University of London physicist David Bohm, one of the world's most respected quantum physicists, and Stanford neurophysiologist Karl Pribram, an architect of our modern understanding of the brain, have developed a remarkable new way of looking at the universe.
-
-
Fail
- By Anonymous User on 05-16-21
By: Michael Talbot
-
Existential Physics
- A Scientist's Guide to Life's Biggest Questions
- By: Sabine Hossenfelder
- Narrated by: Gina Daniels
- Length: 8 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Not only can we not currently explain the origin of the universe, it is questionable we will ever be able to explain it. The notion that there are universes within particles, or that particles are conscious, is ascientific, as is the hypothesis that our universe is a computer simulation. On the other hand, the idea that the universe itself is conscious is difficult to rule out entirely.
-
-
Unscientific and unengaging
- By Anonymous User on 03-29-23
-
Reality+
- Virtual Worlds and the Problems of Philosophy
- By: David J. Chalmers
- Narrated by: Grant Cartwright
- Length: 17 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Virtual reality is genuine reality; that’s the central thesis of Reality+. In a highly original work of “technophilosophy,” David J. Chalmers gives a compelling analysis of our technological future. He argues that virtual worlds are not second-class worlds, and that we can live a meaningful life in virtual reality. We may even be in a virtual world already.
-
-
A book that could have been an email
- By Anonymous User on 04-15-22
-
I Am a Strange Loop
- By: Douglas R. Hofstadter
- Narrated by: Greg Baglia
- Length: 16 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
One of our greatest philosophers and scientists of the mind asks where the self comes from - and how our selves can exist in the minds of others. I Am a Strange Loop argues that the key to understanding selves and consciousness is the "strange loop" - a special kind of abstract feedback loop inhabiting our brains. The most central and complex symbol in your brain is the one called "I". The "I" is the nexus in our brain, one of many symbols seeming to have free will and to have gained the paradoxical ability to push particles around, rather than the reverse.
-
-
The Self That Wasn't There
- By Anonymous User on 01-09-19
-
Beyond Biocentrism
- Rethinking Time, Space, Consciousness, and the Illusion of Death
- By: Robert Lanza, Bob Berman
- Narrated by: Peter Ganim
- Length: 7 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In Beyond Biocentrism, acclaimed biologist Robert Lanza and astronomer Bob Berman take the listener on an intellectual thrill ride as they reexamine everything we thought we knew about life, death, the universe, and the nature of reality itself. The first step is acknowledging that our existing model of reality is looking increasingly creaky in the face of recent scientific discoveries.
-
-
Here's the thing
- By Anonymous User on 11-09-18
By: Robert Lanza, and others
-
The Elegant Universe
- Superstrings, Hidden Dimensions, and the Quest for the Ultimate Theory
- By: Brian Greene
- Narrated by: Erik Davies
- Length: 15 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In a rare blend of scientific insight and writing as elegant as the theories it explains, Brian Greene, one of the world's leading string theorists, peels away the layers of mystery surrounding string theory to reveal a universe that consists of 11 dimensions where the fabric of space tears and repairs itself, and all matter-from the smallest quarks to the most gargantuan supernovas-is generated by the vibrations of microscopically tiny loops of energy.
-
-
Well Written, Good Narration
- By Anonymous User on 06-12-09
By: Brian Greene
-
Reality Is Not What It Seems
- The Journey to Quantum Gravity
- By: Carlo Rovelli, Simon Carnell - translator, Erica Segre - translator
- Narrated by: Roy McMillan
- Length: 6 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From the New York Times best-selling author of Seven Brief Lessons on Physics, The Order of Time, and Helgoland, a closer look at the mind-bending nature of the Universe. What are the elementary ingredients of the world? Do time and space exist? And what exactly is reality? Theoretical physicist Carlo Rovelli has spent his life exploring these questions. He tells us how our understanding of reality has changed over the centuries and how physicists think about the structure of the Universe today.
-
-
Most compelling physics book in at least 10 years!
- By Kyle on 02-03-17
By: Carlo Rovelli, and others
-
The Hidden Reality
- Parallel Universes and the Deep Laws of the Cosmos
- By: Brian Greene
- Narrated by: Brian Greene
- Length: 13 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
There was a time when “universe” meant all there is. Everything. Yet, in recent years discoveries in physics and cosmology have led a number of scientists to conclude that our universe may be one among many. With crystal-clear prose and inspired use of analogy, Brian Greene shows how a range of different “multiverse” proposals emerges from theories developed to explain the most refined observations of both subatomic particles and the dark depths of space.
-
-
This book & Greene's analogies connected Qs to As
- By Anonymous User on 02-02-11
By: Brian Greene
-
The Beginning of Infinity
- Explanations That Transform the World
- By: David Deutsch
- Narrated by: Walter Dixon
- Length: 20 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A bold and all-embracing exploration of the nature and progress of knowledge from one of today's great thinkers. Throughout history, mankind has struggled to understand life's mysteries, from the mundane to the seemingly miraculous. In this important new book, David Deutsch, an award-winning pioneer in the field of quantum computation, argues that explanations have a fundamental place in the universe.
-
-
Worthwhile if you have the patience
- By Anonymous User on 08-12-19
By: David Deutsch
-
Seven Brief Lessons on Physics
- By: Carlo Rovelli
- Narrated by: Carlo Rovelli
- Length: 1 hr and 45 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This playful, entertaining, and mind-bending introduction to modern physics briskly explains Einstein's general relativity, quantum mechanics, elementary particles, gravity, black holes, the complex architecture of the Universe, and the role humans play in this weird and wonderful world. Carlo Rovelli, a renowned theoretical physicist, is a delightfully poetic and philosophical scientific guide. He takes us to the frontiers of our knowledge: To the most minute reaches of the fabric of space, back to the origins of the cosmos, and into the workings of our minds.
-
-
We are made of the same stardust...
- By Anonymous User on 03-21-16
By: Carlo Rovelli
-
Helgoland
- Making Sense of the Quantum Revolution
- By: Carlo Rovelli, Erica Segre - translator, Simon Carnell - translator
- Narrated by: David Rintoul
- Length: 4 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
One of the world's most renowned theoretical physicists, Carlo Rovelli has entranced millions of readers with his singular perspective on the cosmos. In Helgoland, he examines the enduring enigma of quantum theory. The quantum world Rovelli describes is as beautiful as it is unnerving. Helgoland is a treeless island in the North Sea where the 23-year-old Werner Heisenberg made the crucial breakthrough for the creation of quantum mechanics, setting off a century of scientific revolution.
-
-
The cat is not sleeping
- By Anonymous User on 05-30-21
By: Carlo Rovelli, and others
-
When Einstein Walked with Gödel
- Excursions to the Edge of Thought
- By: Jim Holt
- Narrated by: David Stifel
- Length: 15 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Does time exist? What is infinity? Why do mirrors reverse left and right but not up and down? In this scintillating collection, Holt explores the human mind, the cosmos, and the thinkers who’ve tried to encompass the latter with the former. With his trademark clarity and humor, Holt probes the mysteries of quantum mechanics, the quest for the foundations of mathematics, and the nature of logic and truth. Along the way, he offers intimate biographical sketches of celebrated and neglected thinkers, from the physicist Emmy Noether to the computing pioneer Alan Turing and the discoverer of fractals, Benoit Mandelbrot.
-
-
A good overview of scientific theory
- By Anonymous User on 09-11-18
By: Jim Holt
-
Cheating the Ferryman
- The Revolutionary Science of Life After Death. The Sequel to the Bestselling Is There Life After Death?
- By: Anthony Peake
- Narrated by: Anthony Peake
- Length: 8 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this mind-expanding book, Anthony Peake reveals an extraordinary model of life after death—one that brings together ideas from ancient philosophy, neuroscience, quantum physics, and consciousness studies and manages to explain a number of seemingly mysterious experiences such as precognition, déjà vu, synchronicity, near-death experiences, and out-of-body experiences. It is called Cheating the Ferryman. This book is a much-awaited follow-up to Peake's internationally best-selling Is There Life After Death?, which introduced his revolutionary model.
-
-
Not what I expected
- By Anonymous User on 08-23-22
By: Anthony Peake
-
The Quantum Moment
- How Planck, Bohr, Einstein, and Heisenberg Taught Us to Love Uncertainty
- By: Robert P. Crease, Alfred Scharff Goldhaber
- Narrated by: Sean Runnette
- Length: 9 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The discovery of the quantum - the idea, born in the early 1900s in a remote corner of physics, that energy comes in finite packets instead of infinitely divisible quantities - planted a rich set of metaphors in the popular imagination. Quantum imagery and language now bombard us like an endless stream of photons. Phrases such as multiverse, quantum leap, alternate universe, the uncertainty principle, and Schrödinger's cat get reinvented continually in cartoons and movies, coffee mugs and T-shirts, and fiction and philosophy.
-
-
Interesting
- By Anonymous User on 11-02-14
By: Robert P. Crease, and others
-
Spooky Action at a Distance
- The Phenomenon That Reimagines Space and Time-and What It Means for Black Holes, the Big Bang, and Theories of Everything
- By: George Musser
- Narrated by: William Hughes
- Length: 8 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
What is space? It isn't a question that most of us normally stop to ask. Space is the venue of physics; it's where things exist, where they move and take shape. Yet over the past few decades, physicists have discovered a phenomenon that operates outside the confines of space and time. The phenomenon - the ability of one particle to affect another instantly across the vastness of space - appears to be almost magical.
-
-
Rambling but Asks Good Questions
- By Anonymous User on 12-19-15
By: George Musser
-
The Grand Biocentric Design
- How Life Creates Reality
- By: Robert Lanza, Matej Pavšič
- Narrated by: Peter Ganim
- Length: 8 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
What is consciousness? Why are we here? Where did it all come from - the laws of nature, the stars, the universe? Humans have been asking these questions forever, but science hasn't succeeded in providing many answers - until now. In The Grand Biocentric Design, Robert Lanza, one of Time magazine's "100 Most Influential People", is joined by theoretical physicist Matej Pavšic and astronomer Bob Berman to shed light on the big picture that has long eluded philosophers and scientists alike.
-
-
Should be in the fiction section.
- By Anonymous User on 12-29-20
By: Robert Lanza, and others
-
Time Reborn
- From the Crisis in Physics to the Future of the Universe
- By: Lee Smolin
- Narrated by: Sean Pratt
- Length: 10 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Trouble with Physics argues that a limited notion of time is holding physics back. It's time for a major revolution in scientific thought. The reality of time could be the key to the next big breakthrough in theoretical physics. What if the laws of physics themselves were not timeless? What if they could evolve? Time Reborn offers a radical new approach to cosmology that embraces the reality of time and opens up a whole new universe of possibilities.
-
-
False Dichotomies
- By Anonymous User on 07-24-13
By: Lee Smolin
-
Searching for Stars on an Island in Maine
- By: Alan Lightman
- Narrated by: Bronson Pinchot
- Length: 5 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Searching for Stars on an Island in Maine is the result of these seemingly contradictory impulses, written as an extended meditation on an island in Maine, where Lightman and his wife spend their summers. Framing the dialogue between religion and science as a contrast between absolutes and relatives, Lightman explores our human quest for truth and meaning and the different methods of religion and science in that quest. Along the way, he draws from sources ranging from St. Augustine's conception of absolute truth to Einstein's relativity.
-
-
I've been looking for this book all my life.
- By Anonymous User on 07-24-18
By: Alan Lightman
Related to this topic
-
Beyond Biocentrism
- Rethinking Time, Space, Consciousness, and the Illusion of Death
- By: Robert Lanza, Bob Berman
- Narrated by: Peter Ganim
- Length: 7 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In Beyond Biocentrism, acclaimed biologist Robert Lanza and astronomer Bob Berman take the listener on an intellectual thrill ride as they reexamine everything we thought we knew about life, death, the universe, and the nature of reality itself. The first step is acknowledging that our existing model of reality is looking increasingly creaky in the face of recent scientific discoveries.
-
-
Here's the thing
- By Anonymous User on 11-09-18
By: Robert Lanza, and others
-
Spooky Action at a Distance
- The Phenomenon That Reimagines Space and Time-and What It Means for Black Holes, the Big Bang, and Theories of Everything
- By: George Musser
- Narrated by: William Hughes
- Length: 8 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
What is space? It isn't a question that most of us normally stop to ask. Space is the venue of physics; it's where things exist, where they move and take shape. Yet over the past few decades, physicists have discovered a phenomenon that operates outside the confines of space and time. The phenomenon - the ability of one particle to affect another instantly across the vastness of space - appears to be almost magical.
-
-
Rambling but Asks Good Questions
- By Anonymous User on 12-19-15
By: George Musser
-
The Grand Biocentric Design
- How Life Creates Reality
- By: Robert Lanza, Matej Pavšič
- Narrated by: Peter Ganim
- Length: 8 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
What is consciousness? Why are we here? Where did it all come from - the laws of nature, the stars, the universe? Humans have been asking these questions forever, but science hasn't succeeded in providing many answers - until now. In The Grand Biocentric Design, Robert Lanza, one of Time magazine's "100 Most Influential People", is joined by theoretical physicist Matej Pavšic and astronomer Bob Berman to shed light on the big picture that has long eluded philosophers and scientists alike.
-
-
Should be in the fiction section.
- By Anonymous User on 12-29-20
By: Robert Lanza, and others
-
When Einstein Walked with Gödel
- Excursions to the Edge of Thought
- By: Jim Holt
- Narrated by: David Stifel
- Length: 15 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Does time exist? What is infinity? Why do mirrors reverse left and right but not up and down? In this scintillating collection, Holt explores the human mind, the cosmos, and the thinkers who’ve tried to encompass the latter with the former. With his trademark clarity and humor, Holt probes the mysteries of quantum mechanics, the quest for the foundations of mathematics, and the nature of logic and truth. Along the way, he offers intimate biographical sketches of celebrated and neglected thinkers, from the physicist Emmy Noether to the computing pioneer Alan Turing and the discoverer of fractals, Benoit Mandelbrot.
-
-
A good overview of scientific theory
- By Anonymous User on 09-11-18
By: Jim Holt
-
Is God a Mathematician?
- By: Mario Livio
- Narrated by: Tom Parks
- Length: 9 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Nobel Laureate Eugene Wigner once wondered about "the unreasonable effectiveness of mathematics" in the formulation of the laws of nature. Is God a Mathematician? investigates why mathematics is as powerful as it is. From ancient times to the present, scientists and philosophers have marveled at how such a seemingly abstract discipline could so perfectly explain the natural world. More than that - mathematics has often made predictions, for example, about subatomic particles or cosmic phenomena that were unknown at the time, but later were proven to be true.
-
-
Origins of Mathematics
- By Anonymous User on 07-08-21
By: Mario Livio
-
The Equation That Couldn't Be Solved
- How Mathematical Genius Discovered the Language of Symmetry
- By: Mario Livio
- Narrated by: Tom Parks
- Length: 11 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
For thousands of years mathematicians solved progressively more difficult algebraic equations, until they encountered the quintic equation, which resisted solution for three centuries. Working independently, two prodigies ultimately proved that the quintic cannot be solved by a simple formula. The first popular account of the mathematics of symmetry and order, The Equation That Couldn't Be Solved is told not through abstract formulas but in a beautifully written and dramatic account of the lives and work of some of the greatest and most intriguing mathematicians in history.
-
-
Historical Perspective Appreciated
- By Anonymous User on 01-22-20
By: Mario Livio
-
Beyond Biocentrism
- Rethinking Time, Space, Consciousness, and the Illusion of Death
- By: Robert Lanza, Bob Berman
- Narrated by: Peter Ganim
- Length: 7 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In Beyond Biocentrism, acclaimed biologist Robert Lanza and astronomer Bob Berman take the listener on an intellectual thrill ride as they reexamine everything we thought we knew about life, death, the universe, and the nature of reality itself. The first step is acknowledging that our existing model of reality is looking increasingly creaky in the face of recent scientific discoveries.
-
-
Here's the thing
- By Anonymous User on 11-09-18
By: Robert Lanza, and others
-
Spooky Action at a Distance
- The Phenomenon That Reimagines Space and Time-and What It Means for Black Holes, the Big Bang, and Theories of Everything
- By: George Musser
- Narrated by: William Hughes
- Length: 8 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
What is space? It isn't a question that most of us normally stop to ask. Space is the venue of physics; it's where things exist, where they move and take shape. Yet over the past few decades, physicists have discovered a phenomenon that operates outside the confines of space and time. The phenomenon - the ability of one particle to affect another instantly across the vastness of space - appears to be almost magical.
-
-
Rambling but Asks Good Questions
- By Anonymous User on 12-19-15
By: George Musser
-
The Grand Biocentric Design
- How Life Creates Reality
- By: Robert Lanza, Matej Pavšič
- Narrated by: Peter Ganim
- Length: 8 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
What is consciousness? Why are we here? Where did it all come from - the laws of nature, the stars, the universe? Humans have been asking these questions forever, but science hasn't succeeded in providing many answers - until now. In The Grand Biocentric Design, Robert Lanza, one of Time magazine's "100 Most Influential People", is joined by theoretical physicist Matej Pavšic and astronomer Bob Berman to shed light on the big picture that has long eluded philosophers and scientists alike.
-
-
Should be in the fiction section.
- By Anonymous User on 12-29-20
By: Robert Lanza, and others
-
When Einstein Walked with Gödel
- Excursions to the Edge of Thought
- By: Jim Holt
- Narrated by: David Stifel
- Length: 15 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Does time exist? What is infinity? Why do mirrors reverse left and right but not up and down? In this scintillating collection, Holt explores the human mind, the cosmos, and the thinkers who’ve tried to encompass the latter with the former. With his trademark clarity and humor, Holt probes the mysteries of quantum mechanics, the quest for the foundations of mathematics, and the nature of logic and truth. Along the way, he offers intimate biographical sketches of celebrated and neglected thinkers, from the physicist Emmy Noether to the computing pioneer Alan Turing and the discoverer of fractals, Benoit Mandelbrot.
-
-
A good overview of scientific theory
- By Anonymous User on 09-11-18
By: Jim Holt
-
Is God a Mathematician?
- By: Mario Livio
- Narrated by: Tom Parks
- Length: 9 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Nobel Laureate Eugene Wigner once wondered about "the unreasonable effectiveness of mathematics" in the formulation of the laws of nature. Is God a Mathematician? investigates why mathematics is as powerful as it is. From ancient times to the present, scientists and philosophers have marveled at how such a seemingly abstract discipline could so perfectly explain the natural world. More than that - mathematics has often made predictions, for example, about subatomic particles or cosmic phenomena that were unknown at the time, but later were proven to be true.
-
-
Origins of Mathematics
- By Anonymous User on 07-08-21
By: Mario Livio
-
The Equation That Couldn't Be Solved
- How Mathematical Genius Discovered the Language of Symmetry
- By: Mario Livio
- Narrated by: Tom Parks
- Length: 11 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
For thousands of years mathematicians solved progressively more difficult algebraic equations, until they encountered the quintic equation, which resisted solution for three centuries. Working independently, two prodigies ultimately proved that the quintic cannot be solved by a simple formula. The first popular account of the mathematics of symmetry and order, The Equation That Couldn't Be Solved is told not through abstract formulas but in a beautifully written and dramatic account of the lives and work of some of the greatest and most intriguing mathematicians in history.
-
-
Historical Perspective Appreciated
- By Anonymous User on 01-22-20
By: Mario Livio
-
Science and the Akashic Field
- An Integral Theory of Everything
- By: Ervin Laszlo
- Narrated by: Tom Pile
- Length: 6 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Mystics and sages have long maintained that there exists an interconnecting cosmic field at the roots of reality that conserves and conveys information, a field known as the Akashic record. Recent discoveries in vacuum physics show that this Akashic field is real and has its equivalent in science's zero-point field that underlies space itself. This field consists of a subtle sea of fluctuating energies from which all things arise: atoms and galaxies, stars and planets, living beings, and even consciousness.
-
-
A must-read about ultimate nature of reality
- By Anonymous User on 04-15-18
By: Ervin Laszlo
-
The Varieties of Scientific Experience
- A Personal View of the Search for God
- By: Carl Sagan, Ann Druyan - editor
- Narrated by: Adrienne C. Moore, Ann Druyan
- Length: 7 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The late great astronomer and astrophysicist describes his personal search to understand the nature of the sacred in the vastness of the cosmos. Exhibiting a breadth of intellect nothing short of astounding, Sagan presents his views on a wide range of topics, including the likelihood of intelligent life on other planets, creationism and so-called intelligent design.
-
-
Sagan's lectures about the possibility of God
- By Anonymous User on 11-13-17
By: Carl Sagan, and others
-
The Upright Thinkers
- The Human Journey From Living in Trees to Understanding the Cosmos
- By: Leonard Mlodinow
- Narrated by: Leonard Mlodinow
- Length: 12 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this fascinating and illuminating work, Leonard Mlodinow guides us through the critical eras and events in the development of science, all of which, he demonstrates, were propelled forward by humankind's collective struggle to know. From the birth of reasoning and culture to the formation of the studies of physics, chemistry, biology, and modern-day quantum physics, we come to see that much of our progress can be attributed to simple questions - why? how? - bravely asked.
-
-
10/10 Got What I Wanted.
- By Anonymous User on 09-22-15
By: Leonard Mlodinow
-
Uncertainty
- Einstein, Heisenberg, Bohr, and the Struggle for the Soul of Science
- By: David Lindley
- Narrated by: Robert Blumenfeld
- Length: 7 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Werner Heisenberg's "uncertainty principle" challenged centuries of scientific understanding, placed him in direct opposition to Albert Einstein, and put Niels Bohr in the middle of one of the most heated debates in scientific history. Heisenberg's theorem stated that there were physical limits to what we could know about sub-atomic particles; this "uncertainty" would have shocking implications.
-
-
fascinating insight into the real drama of physics
- By Anonymous User on 09-07-10
By: David Lindley
-
The Quantum Story
- A History in 40 Moments
- By: Jim Baggott
- Narrated by: Mike Pollock
- Length: 15 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Utterly beautiful. Profoundly disconcerting. Quantum theory is quite simply the most successful account of the physical universe ever devised. Its concepts underpin much of the 21st-century technology that we now take for granted. But at the same time it has completely undermined our ability to make sense of the world at its most fundamental level.
-
-
who's the target reader?
- By Anonymous User on 09-17-11
By: Jim Baggott
-
Your Brain Is a Time Machine
- The Neuroscience and Physics of Time
- By: Dean Buonomano
- Narrated by: Aaron Abano
- Length: 8 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In Your Brain Is a Time Machine, brain researcher and best-selling author Dean Buonomano draws on evolutionary biology, physics, and philosophy to present his influential theory of how we tell and perceive time. The human brain, he argues, is a complex system that not only tells time but creates it; it constructs our sense of chronological flow and enables "mental time travel" - simulations of future and past events.
-
-
Great book on an underrated subject
- By Anonymous User on 05-09-17
By: Dean Buonomano
-
Freedom Evolves
- By: Daniel C. Dennett
- Narrated by: Robert Blumenfeld
- Length: 11 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Can there be freedom and free will in a deterministic world? Renowned philosopher Daniel Dennett emphatically answers "yes!" Using an array of provocative formulations, Dennett sets out to show how we alone among the animals have evolved minds that give us free will and morality. Weaving a richly detailed narrative, Dennett explains in a series of strikingly original arguments - drawing upon evolutionary biology, cognitive neuroscience, economics, and philosophy - that far from being an enemy of traditional explorations of freedom, morality, and meaning, the evolutionary perspective can be an indispensable ally.
-
-
I knew I was going to like this book
- By Anonymous User on 05-30-14
-
Until the End of Time
- Mind, Matter, and Our Search for Meaning in an Evolving Universe
- By: Brian Greene
- Narrated by: Brian Greene
- Length: 14 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Until the End of Time is Brian Greene's breathtaking new exploration of the cosmos and our quest to find meaning in the face of this vast expanse. Greene takes us on a journey from the big bang to the end of time, exploring how lasting structures formed, how life and mind emerged, and how we grapple with our existence through narrative, myth, religion, creative expression, science, the quest for truth, and a deep longing for the eternal.
-
-
Uneven
- By Anonymous User on 03-03-20
By: Brian Greene
-
Euclid's Window
- The Story of Geometry from Parallel Lines to Hyperspace
- By: Leonard Mlodinow
- Narrated by: Robert Blumenfeld
- Length: 8 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Through Euclid's Window Leonard Mlodinow brilliantly and delightfully leads us on a journey through five revolutions in geometry, from the Greek concept of parallel lines to the latest notions of hyperspace. Here is an altogether new, refreshing, alternative history of math revealing how simple questions anyone might ask about space -- in the living room or in some other galaxy -- have been the hidden engine of the highest achievements in science and technology.
-
-
Wow!
- By Anonymous User on 08-13-10
By: Leonard Mlodinow
-
The Physics of Star Trek
- By: Lawrence M. Krauss
- Narrated by: Larry McKeever
- Length: 6 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
What actually happens when the words, "beam me up, Scottie" are uttered? What "warps" when something travels at warp speed? Internationally renowned theoretical physicist and educator Lawrence M. Krauss provides matter-of-fact scientific explanations of the physics of Star Trek in this highly creative and informative guide for both the devoted Trekkie and the physics novice.
-
-
Interesting Book. Quite Technical
- By Anonymous User on 12-07-04
-
Entangled Minds
- Extrasensory Experiences in a Quantum Reality
- By: Dean Radin PhD
- Narrated by: Al Kessel
- Length: 9 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Is everything connected? Can we sense what's happening to loved ones thousands of miles away? Why are we sometimes certain of a caller's identity the instant the phone rings? Do intuitive hunches contain information about future events? Is it possible to perceive without the use of the ordinary senses? Many people believe that such "psychic phenomena" are rare talents or divine gifts. Others don't believe they exist at all. But the latest scientific research shows that these phenomena are both real and widespread.
-
-
Boring as all get out but…
- By Anonymous User on 01-12-20
By: Dean Radin PhD
-
The Complete (Short) Guide to Absolutely Everything
- Adventures in Math and Science
- By: Adam Rutherford, Hannah Fry
- Narrated by: Hannah Fry, Adam Rutherford
- Length: 7 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Geneticist Adam Rutherford and mathematician Hannah Fry guide listeners through time and space, through our bodies and brains, showing how emotions shape our view of reality, how our minds tell us lies, and why a mostly bald and curious ape decided to begin poking at the fabric of the universe.
-
-
Humour and understandability.
- By Anonymous User on 09-08-24
By: Adam Rutherford, and others