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(A 2011 New York Times Book Review Notable Book of the Year) In The Fabric of Reality, quantum physicist and Paul Dirac Prize winner David Deutsch described the four deepest strands of existing knowledge—the theories of evolution, quantum physics, knowledge, and computation—arguing that they jointly reveal a unified fabric of reality. Here he applies that worldview to a wide range of issues and unsolved problems, from creativity and free will to the origin and future of the human species. Arguing that explanations themselves have a fundamental place in the universe—and that the quest to improve them is the basic regulating principle not only of science but also of all successful human endeavor—Deutsch reaches startling conclusions about human choice, optimism, scientific explanation, and the evolution of culture. "David Deutsch's Beginning of Infinity is a brilliant and exhilarating and profoundly eccentric book. It's about everything: art, science, philosophy, history, politics, evil, death, the future, infinity, bugs, thumbs, what have you.... Deutsch (who is famous, among other reasons, for his pioneering contributions to the field of quantum computation) is so smart, and so strange, and so creative, and so inexhaustibly curious, and so vividly intellectually alive, that it is a distinct privilege, notwithstanding everything, to spend time in his head."—NYTBR
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