From Bacteria to Bach and Back cover art

From Bacteria to Bach and Back

The Evolution of Minds

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From Bacteria to Bach and Back

By: Daniel C. Dennett
Narrated by: Tom Perkins
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About this listen

What is human consciousness, and how is it possible? This question fascinates thinking people from poets and painters to physicists, psychologists, and philosophers. From Bacteria to Bach and Back is Daniel C. Dennett's brilliant answer, extending perspectives from his earlier work in surprising directions, exploring the deep interactions of evolution, brains, and human culture.

Part philosophical whodunit, part bold scientific conjecture, this landmark work enlarges themes that have sustained Dennett's legendary career at the forefront of philosophical thought. In his inimitable style - laced with wit and arresting thought experiments - Dennett shows how culture enables reflection by installing a bounty of thinking tools, or memes, in our brains. Language, itself composed of memes, turbocharged this interplay. The result, a mind that can comprehend the questions it poses, emerges from a process of cultural evolution.

An agenda-setting book for a new generation of philosophers and other researchers, From Bacteria to Bach and Back will delight and entertain anyone who hopes to understand human creativity in all its wondrous applications.

©2017 Daniel C. Dennett (P)2017 HighBridge, a division of Recorded Books Atheism Biological Sciences Consciousness & Thought Evolution Evolution & Genetics History & Philosophy Philosophy Science Genetics Data Science Thought-Provoking Artificial Intelligence Machine Learning Human Brain Bacteria

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I have a few Buddhist friends who must read this (they won't). Anyone of any spiritual bent should have a go. It presents a very different view to that of Deepak et al. It's grounded in science and destroys any dualist or monist interpretations. It isn't nihilistic/materialistic nor is it eternalism/essentialism. I think Dennett would agree with Nagarjuna (if he ever posited anything!) and show him a thing or two from the western 21st Century sciences. Long live the memes in this brilliant summation of Dennett's life-long exploration of the what (for), how and why of consciousness.

Stunning vision of how minds evolved

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Wonderful!
I recommend chapters 12 t 14.
I think I will read the paper or Kindle version to allow me to ponder more!

Read!

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parts were familiar from earlier works. the last two chapters were beautiful, though. I did not like the voice of the performer.

a bit dissappointing but still worth listening

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Another first-rate book from Daniel Dennett: about the evolution of mind, but touches on all sorts of fascinating related topics and concepts along the way. Very well narrated.

Excellent thought-provoking book.

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This brilliant exploration through many fields of investigation is another triumph for one of the deepest thinking philosophers of our times. His style, as always, is accessible, clear, jovial, and entertaining, while his conclusions and food for thought are fascinating and convincing. An excellent new book, which invaluably updates, reexplains, and delves deeper into ideas with which listeners may already be familiar through his "Darwin's Dangerous Idea", "Consciousness Explained", "Freedom Evolves", and "Breaking the Spell".

The performance in this version is very strong; Perkins' voice and tone suit Dennett's style well, and he is to be praised for dealing well with Dennett's occasionally idiosyncratic sentence structure and use of grammatical syntax. There are several pronunciation mistakes, but nothing to distract from the text.

An excellent Dennett exploration

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Any additional comments?

This books is not easy to follow, I found myself rewinding several times - but then the subject matter is complex. I think the book would have been better read if it was read by the author. Overall I found it hard work, but enjoyable.

Profound

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I recommend that you skip the first two parts - just boring and sometimes sexist raving

Skip to part 3

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One of the most significant and insightful books I've ever read. Maybe not for novices though..

one of the most significant and insightful books!

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I’ve listened for a while now and heard a lot about these amazing theories that I will be hearing about, but he’s still yet to describe any of them. There is a lot of battling with himself and the voices in his head telling him he’s wrong for the various reasons (described at length), and a fair bit of off-topic discussion such as the ratio of male:female geniuses (spoiler: not the greatest revelation if you’re a woman), but I’m yet to hear anything about the mind. Who knows maybe the third hour is where all the revelations are. Sorry Dan, I’ve chosen ignorance.

A lot of waffle

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I love the topic of consiouseness and evolution, but this was utterlly boaring and uninsightful. Nothing really new to the basic concepts of evolution, memes and mind theories.

Waste of tine

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