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The Knowledge Illusion: Why We Never Think Alone

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Collective intelligence shapes perceived personal knowledge.

This book could really resonate with you if you're fascinated by the complexities of human cognition. Sloman and Fernbach delve into how we compensate for our individual cognitive limits by leaning on society's collective understanding. It's a compelling read that will give you a new perspective on how knowledge works and might even change how you think about your own thought processes.

Note: While we do our best to ensure the accuracy of cover images, ISBNs may at times be reused for different editions of the same title which may hence appear as a different cover.
New

The Knowledge Illusion: Why We Never Think Alone

Regular price $39.90
Unit price
per
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ISBN: 9780399184352
Publisher: Riverhead Books
Date of Publication: 2017-03-14
Format: Hardcover
Goodreads rating: 3.84
(rated by 2609 readers)

Description

“The Knowledge Illusion is filled with insights on how we should deal with our individual ignorance and collective wisdom.” —Steven Pinker We all think we know more than we actually do. Humans have built hugely complex societies and technologies, but most of us don’t even know how a pen or a toilet works. How have we achieved so much despite understanding so little? Cognitive scientists Steven Sloman and Philip Fernbach argue that we survive and thrive despite our mental shortcomings because we live in a rich community of knowledge. The key to our intelligence lies in the people and things around us. We’re constantly drawing on information and expertise stored outside our heads: in our bodies, our environment, our possessions, and the community with which we interact—and usually we don’t even realize we’re doing it. The human mind is both brilliant and pathetic. We have mastered fire, created democratic institutions, stood on the moon, and sequenced our genome. And yet each of us is error prone, sometimes irrational, and often ignorant. The fundamentally communal nature of intelligence and knowledge explains why we often assume we know more than we really do, why political opinions and false beliefs are so hard to change, and why individual-oriented approaches to education and management frequently fail. But our collaborative minds also enable us to do amazing things. The Knowledge Illusion contends that true genius can be found in the ways we create intelligence using the community around us.
 

Collective intelligence shapes perceived personal knowledge.

This book could really resonate with you if you're fascinated by the complexities of human cognition. Sloman and Fernbach delve into how we compensate for our individual cognitive limits by leaning on society's collective understanding. It's a compelling read that will give you a new perspective on how knowledge works and might even change how you think about your own thought processes.

Note: While we do our best to ensure the accuracy of cover images, ISBNs may at times be reused for different editions of the same title which may hence appear as a different cover.