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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insights INSIGHT
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.
insights INSIGHT
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.
insights INSIGHT
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.
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In this book, Donald Hoffman challenges the notion that our senses report back objective reality. He argues that evolution has sculpted our minds for fitness, not to accurately represent reality, leading to a mismatch between our perceptions and the true nature of the world. Hoffman introduces the concept of 'Fitness Beats Truth' and uses analogies like the computer desktop to explain how our consciousness interacts with the world in a way that is useful but not necessarily reflective of underlying reality. He also proposes 'Conscious Realism,' suggesting that conscious agents create the perception of an objective reality, rather than the other way around.
Visual intelligence
Donald Hoffman
Dr. Jordan B Peterson and cognitive neuroscientist Dr. Donald Hoffman discuss what we know as reality, why space time is now being considered a “doomed” framework, and how consciousness can be understood as a vast probability space within which we orient ourselves.
Hoffman received a Bachelor of Arts degree in quantitative psychology from the University of California at Los Angeles, and then his Doctorate of Philosophy in computational psychology at MIT. He briefly worked as a research scientist at the MIT Artificial Intelligence Lab, before taking on the role of assistant professor at the University of California at Irvine. He is now a professor in the department of Cognitive Sciences. He has written four books (below), on the topics of human vision, perception, consciousness, and the effects of/reasons for evolution on each. He is also a key proponent of MUI (Multimodal User Interface) theory, which states that "perceptual experiences do not match or approximate properties of the objective world, but instead provide a simplified, species-specific, user interface to that world." Hoffman argues that conscious beings have not evolved to perceive the world as it actually is but have evolved to perceive the world in a way that maximizes "fitness payoffs.”
- Links -
For Dr. Donald Hoffman:
"The Case Against Reality: Why Evolution Hid the Truth from Our Eyes" (Book) https://www.amazon.com/Case-Against-Reality-Evolution-Truth-ebook/dp/B07JR1FDXH/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1OMOD0ZGPHCT9&keywords=the+case+against+reality&qid=1697060197&s=digital-text&sprefix=the+case+against%2Cdigital-text%2C189&sr=1-1
"Visual Intelligence: How We Create What We See" (Book) https://www.amazon.com/Visual-Intelligence-How-Create-What/dp/0393319679/ref=sr_1_1?crid=QZBIXXULF7VC&keywords=Visual+intelligence+hoffman&qid=1697060273&s=digital-text&sprefix=visual+intelligence+hoffman%2Cdigital-text%2C138&sr=1-1-catcorr
Dr. Hoffman on X https://twitter.com/donalddhoffman?lang=en
Dr. Hoffman's Ted Talk https://www.ted.com/talks/donald_hoffman_do_we_see_reality_as_it_is?language=en
The Jordan B. Peterson Podcast 
