The user illusion

What Hacker News says

1. JohnLocke4Oct 2025
   It is true: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blank_paper_protest

   More than anything, this is a good lesson in information theory. A blank sheet of paper isn't devoid of information just because it doesn't contain ink - rather, it is the context of the current situation that defines the information being conveyed. This is true in all forms of communication.

   This reminds me of a story I read once about when Victor Hugo had just published Les Miserables. Just after publication, he went to his vacation home due to the controversy he was sure was going to follow the publication of the book. Wanting to know how the reception was going, he mailed his publisher a letter simply containing a question mark. The publisher responded with only an exclamation mark, and Hugo immediately understood - he had written an eternal classic.

   (BTW, I read this in the book The User Illusion - a fantastic read)

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2. krannerNov 2024
   Tor Nørretranders' The User Illusion was a great read, hereby warmly recommended. One of the principal ideas was that our senses take in many orders of magnitude more of data than we are able to be conscious of. I believe he estimated something like 10 Mbps taken in and 80? baud being aware of — something like that, I should read it again sometime.
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3. ftrobroMar 2022
   This book gave me a lot to think about 25 years ago. Made me aware of limitations of my own consciosness. Has perhaps been superseded by some other book since then, I'd love to hear recommendations.

   "The User Illusion: Cutting Consciousness Down to Size" by Tor Norretranders

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4. joe_the_userFeb 2019
   Society Of The Spectacle, Guy Debord

   One can't really summarize the argument. It essentially describes the structure of modern society as it's existed since, say 1960 or early. The text may seem opaque but if you read it closely, you actually need any explanatory texts, though they exist.

   Honorable mention: Game Theory Evolving, Herb Ginitus Biochemical Individuality, Roger J. William The Working Brain, Luria Using Your Brain For A Change, Bandler The User Illusion, Norretrander How The Beattles Destroyed Rock And Roll, Elijah Wald Mathematical Logic, Manin The Ascent Of Man, Bronowski The Book Of Secrets, Osho

   [1] https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/debord/society.ht...

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5. MaysonLFeb 2019
   You don't have a true self. The belief that you do is an illusion. See The User Illusion: Cutting Consciousness Down to Size by Tor Nørretranders.
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6. joe_the_userJun 2017
   "but we can only emit a few bits of information" [per second?]

   I don't think that's true. Physical motion and even sound making in total involves a human being producing a lot more than a few bits of information per second - there are plenty of recordings of people singing, say, that can't compressed to that bitrate.

   The only thing that's true is that we can pretty much only emit and absorb language information at a fairly low bitrate.

   The simple explanation for this is that a language stream is something like a computer program - difficult to either produce or absorb.

   And of course, language with complex structures is fairly unique to humans and provides some amazing things - the ability to help organize society and our own activity on a larger scale, to plan ahead, and etc, and etc, etc....

   Edit: Good general discussion of these issues can be found in Tor Norretranders' book The User Illusion. Highly recommended.

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