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From Amazon
The "user illusion" in computing is the desktop graphical user interface (GUI): the friendly, comprehensible illusion presented to the user to conceal all the bouncing bits and bytes that do the actual work. Tor Nørretranders writes that "our consciousness is a user illusion for ourselves and the world ... one's very own map of oneself and one's possibilities of intervening in the world." Much of Nørretranders' evidence comes from comparing the wide bandwidth of experience to the narrow bandwidth of consciousness, and from examining how much of our brain function is never consciously acknowledged. Although slightly out of date (the book was written in 1991; it was a bestseller in Europe), The User Illusion has been well translated and gives a refreshing, non-Anglophone take on a problem that is not likely to go away anytime soon.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Library Journal
Nirretranders declares: "Consciousness is a fraud." The realm of the subconsciousAthe "Me"Ais infinitely richer and must be cultivated if we are to experience the full sensation of reality. A best seller in the author's native Denmark, this book weaves together concepts from mathematics, computer science, neurology, and psychology.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Inside This Book
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First Sentence
"War es ein Gott, der diese Zeichen schrieb?" ("Was it a god that wrote these signs?") asked the Austrian physicist Ludwig Boltzmann, drawing on Goethe to express the excitement and wonder that four brief mathematical equations could elicit in the mind of a physicist. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
"War es ein Gott, der diese Zeichen schrieb?" ("Was it a god that wrote these signs?") asked the Austrian physicist Ludwig Boltzmann, drawing on Goethe to express the excitement and wonder that four brief mathematical equations could elicit in the mind of a physicist. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
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Most helpful customer reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Mind Boggling,
By
Ce commentaire est de: The User Illusion: Cutting Consciousness Down to Size (Paperback)
A brilliant exploration of aspects of the history of scientific thinking particularly as it relates to consciousness.A real mind stretcher,endlessly thought provoking and amazing.
2.0 out of 5 stars
How scientific is this book ?,
By Brigitte Van Gerven (Antwerp, Belgium) - See all my reviews
Ce commentaire est de: The User Illusion: Cutting Consciousness Down to Size (Paperback)
This book contains some fascinating theories that I didn't know yet, or had never looked at it that way. For instance the part about thermodynamics and the connection with information theory and probability theory I found very interesting,although it has little to do with consciousness.I have one serious problem with the book : Norretranders is not intellectually honest. He attempts too much to force his theory upon his readers, all the while oversimplifying, using suggestive language (the word 'information' is used in different contexts, with different meanings and it doesn't become clear from reading the text), and avoiding problematic questions.
2.0 out of 5 stars
Lacks rigour,
By bourgeml "bourgeml" (Chicago) - See all my reviews
Ce commentaire est de: User Illusion (Hardcover)
Nrretranders is not a scientist or researcher, but rather a science journalist. That isn't necessarliy a bad thing in itself, but his book clearly suffers for his lack of scientific training, and the rigour it would have introduced. User Illusion reads like a series of breezy, vastly oversimplified pop-sci articles. His concepts - ranging from info theory to thermodynamics, are strung together with the loosest of connections. For example, he compares the information intake of our senses with that processed by our consciousness in terms of bits. But, he clearly has no formal definition of a bit in mind, using it to refer to anything from an actual binary bit, all the way up to an entire piece of music. This makes it impossible to take his comparison seriously. Consciousness itself is never even formally defined. His treatment near the end of the earth's energy intake, and even dirty diapers, in terms of information theory is laughable. The only useful take-away here is the reminder that there is a lot more going on inside our heads than we are consciously aware of. A useful reminder, but that should not be news to anyone. User Illusion also makes a good index of current (in 1991) 'sexy' science topics such as complexity.
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