| Description |
xii, 467 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm |
| Contents |
Pt. I. Computation. Ch. 1. Maxwell's Demon. Ch. 2. Throwing Away Information. Ch. 3. Infinite Algorithms. Ch. 4. The Depth of Complexity -- Pt. II. Communication. Ch. 5. The Tree of Talking. Ch. 6. The Bandwidth of Consciousness. Ch. 7. The Bomb of Psychology. Ch. 8. The View from Within -- Pt. III. Consciousness. Ch. 9. The Half-Second Delay. Ch. 10. Maxwell's Me. Ch. 11. The User Illusion. Ch. 12. The Origin of Consciousness -- Pt. IV. Composure. Ch. 13. Inside nothing. Ch. 14. On the Edge of Chaos. Ch. 15. The Nonlinear Line. Ch. 16. The Sublime |
| Summary |
The "user illusion" of this book's title comes from computer design and refers to the simplistic mental image most of us have of our PCs. Our consciousness, says Norretranders, is our user illusion of ourselves. The User Illusion makes the case that humans are designed for a much richer existence than processing a dribble of data from a computer screen, which actually constitutes a form of sensory deprivation. That there is actually far too little information in the so-called Information Age may be responsible for the malaise of modern society, that nagging feeling that there must be more to life. There is - but we have to get outside and live life with all our senses to experience it more fully |
| Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references (pages 445-456) and index |
| Subject |
Consciousness.
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Human information processing.
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Subconsciousness.
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| LC no. |
97039580 |
| ISBN |
0670875791 (alk. paper) |
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