The Jordan B. Peterson Podcast 387. What You See and Feel is Not Reality | Dr. Donald Hoffman
190 snips
Oct 12, 2023 
Dr. Donald Hoffman, a cognitive neuroscientist and professor at UC Irvine, challenges the traditional understanding of reality and perception. He asserts that our senses are not windows to the truth but rather evolved tools serving fitness payoffs. The discussion dives into how consciousness might transcend space-time, advocating for a revolutionary view where perception acts as a simplified interface to reality. Hoffman also explores the intersection of mathematics and evolution, suggesting that understanding consciousness is key to unraveling greater existential mysteries.
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Probability of Perceiving Reality
- The probability of us perceiving reality as it is, based on Darwinian principles, is essentially zero.
- This insight arose from studying evolutionary game theory and fitness payoffs.
Sensory Systems as UI
- Evolution has shaped our sensory systems to be a user interface, like a computer desktop.
- This interface simplifies reality, hiding its true nature for functionality.
Objects as Symbols
- In a virtual reality game, objects are symbols, not low-resolution versions of reality.
- There's a causal connection, but no structural homology, between virtual objects and underlying computer processes.
