The Beginning Of Infinity (edition 2011)

This is a fun book to read, probably because it is mildly provocative. It is a book about knowledge rather than a book strictly about science. Deutsch sidelines orthodoxy and focuses on what he thinks people get wrong. His overall stance is that all reliable ideas (across all fields) start with a conjecture and their acceptability depends upon surviving constant challenges from new ideas. In this way information (whether genetic or memetic) is self-creatable ex nihilo. He calls us universal explainers and identifies good explanations by their lack of redundant or adjustable detail. His often repeated mantra is that problems are inevitable, but problems are soluble. Indeed all human advancement is made by creating and solving problems.

He weaves these ideas into many issues across science, politics, art and philosophy. For instance he argues that beauty is in part parochially subjective and in part objectively universal. Cultures take two forms. Static cultures oppress all criticism and develop slowly. Dynamic cultures encourage inquiry and novelty and they change rapidly. He sees political elections as a verdict on conjectured solutions.

Many renowned scientists and philosophers cop some criticism for their views: Hawking, Blackmore, Dawkins, Turing, Attenborough and Pinker. As Deutsch explains such critical probing gives power to science. Of course in turn he leaves himself open to criticism, particularly for his interpretations of fallibilism and of a quantum multiverse. ( )

This book is mostly about one simple yet profound idea: good explanations. Good explanations, according to Deutsch, are the epistemological foundations for how we've come so far and how we can keep going infinitely still. In a beautifully poetic metaphor, Deutsch leaves behind notions of utopia, but endorses a meliorism that is an infinite process with no end, and every point in which we find ourselves within that process is always the beginning of the rest of infinite. Deutsch is a true child of the Enlightenment, and a champion of philosopher Karl Popper's ideas of falsifiability and open societies, which he bases much of his philosophical ideas upon.

So what are good explanations? They are the best theories of how we make sense of our experience of the world that stand up to the test of our best attempts at falsifying them. And what do our best explanations tell us about the world? That universality, as in Turing completeness, is a fundamental property of certain finite systems that transform them into being capable of infinite possibilities. And how do these ideas help us? They point the way towards a process of continual discovery and improvement by creating open societies which provide the best environments that allow for good explanations to flourish within a universal reality capable of expanding infinitely in both space and time.

Unlike other books that cover these unabashedly optimistic perspectives, Deutsch actually goes to great lengths to anchor his rational optimism on a bedrock of science and reason. This is not just naive positive thinking, speculative exponential trend fitting, or imaginative science fiction. This is a detailed attempt at showing how and why good explanations are, themselves, a good explanation for us being optimistic about our infinite future. ( )

An important and optimistic view of science and technology. Also covers certain aspects of epistemology. ( )

The Beginning of Infinity is great read. It is supremely ambitious and full of great big ideas on what makes sets humans apart from the rest of the planet.
It is philosophy but it also a great treatise on what makes science work, what makes great art great and what is that makes stories tick. It is about how abstractions are as real as reality itself, how science is not theories but explanations that haven't failed. He talks about how science is about good explanations. He then goes on to talk about how the best stories are the ones that are consistent and that the best fictional worlds have their basis in good explanations. He also talks about how societies prosper, thrive and what causes them to fall by the wayside. There is a chapter in which he explains parallel universes which might get a little weighty for most but the rest of the book should make for some mind bending reading.
That he manages to do this in a style that is clear, concise and lucid, never once talking down to the reader is a feat in itself. Just a brilliant piece of work.
From http://blog.kaipakartik.com/2012/02/beginning-of-infinity-by-david-deutsch.html ( )

This book was a great disappointment. I am unable to comment on the cogency of the explanations contained therein because I found the prose so turgid that I know my eyes would never stay open long enough to reach any explanations. I am afraid this book has completely defeated me. ( )