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This is the book that challenged basic assumptions about the nature of the physical universe by suggesting that we might all be living in a virtual reality - and that information might prove more fundamental than either matter or energy. At the time of publication (1988) this was still a revolutionary idea, but it is now growing familiar thanks to the success of films such as "Open Your Eyes" and "The Matrix". The ideas in this book have even been given an airing on the pages of New Scientist but, fourteen years on, this remains the most thorough and complete discussion of the virtual model of the universe. While others are beginning to explore the concept, the author had been working with it ever since the 1960s when he was studying mathematics at Cambridge university under Conway, himself a pioneer of artificial life studies. What struck the author was the division in society between those who fully accepted a materialistic view of existence and all phenomena, and those who felt there was 'something more behind it'.This book was an attempt to bridge that division by pointing out how the most extreme materialistic viewpoint would tend eventually to blow open its own walls far more effectively than any spoon-bending exercise. What seemed like two irreconcilable structures of belief would turn out to be just two complementary ways of approaching mystery. This edition contains the original text with new introduction and two further essays plus two stories appended to carry the debate forward into the 21st Century
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In the 1960s a book was published called 'Chariots of the Gods' by Erik von Daniken. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
In the 1960s a book was published called 'Chariots of the Gods' by Erik von Daniken. Read the first page
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I first encountered Ramsey Dukes, or whomever you may like to call him, via his book "SSOTBME", which I reviewed for an alternative technology magazine when it was first published. It was a ground-breaking work that still stands up today.
It was thus with great pleasure that I accepted the offer to design and produce the original edition of "Words Made Flesh" in I think 1988, which is now superseded by the present edition.
The book discusses how our world might look if it was in fact a computer simulation, and part of the way it does so is to intertwine within the first few chapters an engaging little science fiction story. Today, the idea is quite widespread, not least as a result of the Matrix movies and their ilk, but instead of looking at effects, with this book you can look a good deal deeper.
Ramsey Dukes has a wonderful sense of humour, a suitable disregard for convention, and an incredible depth. Every one of his writings has something to tell us, on several different levels, and on paper he comes across as our very own British equivalent of Robert Anton Wilson.
This latest edition of WMF includes additional material that contributes helpfully and meaningfully to our understanding of the material, while adding useful more recent insights into the original text.
Like all Dukes' work, Words Made Flesh is well worth a good read.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
2 reviews
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful
a hole in the wall through which your mind can escape
8 Jun 2006
Format:Paperback
I ABSOLUTELY LOVE THIS BOOK, and constantly recommend it to everybody I know...
Imagine that we had the ability to create a virtual reality universe in a computer, a universe populated by people who have thoughts, dreams, feelings, etc., and produce societies, religions, wars, and inventions. Now, take this a step further and imagine that the people in this virtual reality invent yet another computer universe. If our virtual model can create another virtual model, what's to say that we're the original?
This is one of the philosophical riddles that Ramsey Dukes investigates in Words Made Flesh, which is a mindbender of a book that has the potential to make your view of life infinitely more interesting. Instead of asking questions about what a virtual world would be like, it encounters how our experience of life would change if we realized that we ourselves are in a virtual world. This possibility has exciting similarities to religious perspectives of Buddhism, Hinduism, Gnosticism, Christianity and others, which identify our material world as an illusory place where our souls take temporary residence in physical bodies.
While the philosophical possibilities of virtual reality form the backbone of the book, the main emphasis of the book is Dukes examination of the way different world views affect our experience of the world... how deeply people can saturate themselves with a particular belief system, and how vividly they experience the world in this way. Some people vividly experience the world as a battle between God and the devil, and every thought and action is weighed against this background. Others cannot accept the existence of things which cannot be immediately experienced by the senses, and perhaps view the world as a byproduct of random physical interactions.
The book does not try to provide any concrete answers, Dukes clearly emphasizes that his hope is to encourage readers to expand their perceptions, and imagine new possibilities. The final chapters of the book give some extremely interesting exercises for readers, to make the books theory a vivid part of their life. Amazing!
Imagine that we had the ability to create a virtual reality universe in a computer, a universe populated by people who have thoughts, dreams, feelings, etc., and produce societies, religions, wars, and inventions. Now, take this a step further and imagine that the people in this virtual reality invent yet another computer universe. If our virtual model can create another virtual model, what's to say that we're the original?
This is one of the philosophical riddles that Ramsey Dukes investigates in Words Made Flesh, which is a mindbender of a book that has the potential to make your view of life infinitely more interesting. Instead of asking questions about what a virtual world would be like, it encounters how our experience of life would change if we realized that we ourselves are in a virtual world. This possibility has exciting similarities to religious perspectives of Buddhism, Hinduism, Gnosticism, Christianity and others, which identify our material world as an illusory place where our souls take temporary residence in physical bodies.
While the philosophical possibilities of virtual reality form the backbone of the book, the main emphasis of the book is Dukes examination of the way different world views affect our experience of the world... how deeply people can saturate themselves with a particular belief system, and how vividly they experience the world in this way. Some people vividly experience the world as a battle between God and the devil, and every thought and action is weighed against this background. Others cannot accept the existence of things which cannot be immediately experienced by the senses, and perhaps view the world as a byproduct of random physical interactions.
The book does not try to provide any concrete answers, Dukes clearly emphasizes that his hope is to encourage readers to expand their perceptions, and imagine new possibilities. The final chapters of the book give some extremely interesting exercises for readers, to make the books theory a vivid part of their life. Amazing!
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
words made fresh
8 Aug 2009
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
okay...
dear citizens of the matrix,
... we confess we didn't actually remember this particular book till we read the other reviews. It is our least favorite book by Ramsey Dukes and yet, we still recommend it because like everything else he has written it is original, inventive and more often than not, clever and sometimes hilarious. Ramsey Dukes has an innovative mind, and approaches life and the magic of life in ways that few considered until reading him. He is always worth reading.
kyela,
the silver elves
[...]
dear citizens of the matrix,
... we confess we didn't actually remember this particular book till we read the other reviews. It is our least favorite book by Ramsey Dukes and yet, we still recommend it because like everything else he has written it is original, inventive and more often than not, clever and sometimes hilarious. Ramsey Dukes has an innovative mind, and approaches life and the magic of life in ways that few considered until reading him. He is always worth reading.
kyela,
the silver elves
[...]
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