The Emperor's New Mind
The Emperor's New Mind by Roger Penroseby Roger Penrose
Shares rank 33 of 50 popular science books by recommenders
People cite it as Roger Penrose's argument that machines cannot be conscious, written by a leading physicist.
People cite it as Roger Penrose's argument that machines cannot be conscious, written by a leading physicist.
4 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 3
- criticize it
- 1
- approval share
- 75%
Recommended in 4 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: not recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 3 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, not met.
- 3 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 4 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Argues against machine consciousness
“There are good arguments for this (in)possibility, like those presented by Roger Penrose”
Comment from 12 Dec 2025 in “Using secondary school maths to demystify AI” Written by a leading physicist
“one of the (if not the ) greatest physicists alive wrote two books on a subject which you consider extremely boring”
Comment from 4 Nov 2025 in “The Case That A.I. Is Thinking”
Other popular science books people recommend
The four most recommended other popular science books, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gödel, Escher, Bachby Douglas R. Hofstadter | 47 | 10 | 82% | 10 | — | Approved |
| Thinking, Fast and Slowby Daniel Kahneman | 17 | 13 | 57% | 9 | — | — |
| Thinking in Systemsby Donella H. Meadows and Diana Wright | 17 | 0 | 100% | 8 | — | Approved |
| The Selfish Geneby Richard Dawkins | 14 | 5 | 74% | 8 | — | Approved |
| The Emperor's New Mindby Roger PenroseThis page | 3 | 1 | 75% | 4 | — | — |
What people said
3 of the 5 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“which has been increasingly proven improbable”
“There are good arguments for this (in)possibility, like those presented by Roger Penrose”
“one of the (if not the ) greatest physicists alive wrote two books on a subject which you consider extremely boring”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.