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  • Fluke

  • Chance, Chaos, and Why Everything We Do Matters
  • By: Dr Brian Klaas
  • Narrated by: Dr Brian Klaas
  • Length: 8 hrs and 42 mins
  • 5.0 out of 5 stars (3 ratings)

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Fluke

By: Dr Brian Klaas
Narrated by: Dr Brian Klaas
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Publisher's Summary

Why small chance events can divert our lives and change how we think our world works.

If you could rewind your life to the very beginning and then press play, would everything turn out the same?

Or could making an accidental phone call or missing an exit off the highway change not just your life, but history itself?

And would you remain blind to the radically different possible world you unknowingly left behind?

In Fluke, myth-shattering social scientist Brian Klaas dives deeply into the phenomenon of random chance and the chaos it can sow, taking aim at most people's neat and tidy storybook version of reality. The book's argument is that we willfully ignore a bewildering truth: but for a few small changes, our lives - and our societies - could be radically different.

Offering an entirely new lens, Fluke explores how our world really works, driven by strange interactions and apparently random events. How did one couple's vacation cause 100,000 people to die? Does our decision to hit the snooze button in the morning radically alter the trajectory of our lives? And has the evolution of humans been inevitable, or are we simply the product of a series of freak accidents?

Drawing on social science, chaos theory, history, evolutionary biology, and philosophy, Klaas provides a brilliantly fresh look at why things happen - all while providing mind-bending lessons on how we can live smarter, be happier, and lead more fulfilling lives.

©2024 Brian Klaas (P)2024 Hodder & Stoughton Limited

Critic Reviews

Consistently gripping - dazzling in its sweep and thrillingly brain-twisting in its argument (Tom Holland, author of RUBICON and PERSIAN FIRE)
Drawing on many disciplines, this fascinating book explores the combination of chaos and order that governs our lives and probes the deep question of whether we truly have free will (Mervyn King, co-author of RADICAL UNCERTAINTY and former Governor of the Bank of England)
A brilliant meditation on the eternal clash between chaos and order, and determinism and freedom. Klaas grapples with some of the most difficult, mind-bending questions of our time - or any time - [and] makes these heady topics a blast to read (Scott Patterson, New York Times bestselling author of CHAOS KINGS and THE QUANTS)

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best argument I've heard for hard determinism

fantastic listen from start to finish. I've heard the philosophical arguments for determinism but this book brings the science to the argument in an approachable and engaging way.
I hesitate in recommending books to friends as I don't want to be that annoying person that pressures people into buying a book they're not interested in, but I've already recommended this one to many.

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