Reality vs. Perception: Trust Your Senses with Caution

1min Snip

00:00

Play full episode

Summary

Comments

Transcript

Episode notes

Human sensory systems provide a simplified understanding of reality, leading us to perceive objects as inherently existing even when not observed. However, this perception can be misleading, as virtual environments can mimic the same sensory cues we rely on in daily life. Consensus recognition and physical sensation in both real and virtual settings blur the lines between actual existence and perceived reality. The arguments we use to affirm the existence of tangible objects equally support the existence of virtual constructs, prompting us to reconsider the nature of reality itself.

In his new book, The Case Against Reality: Why Evolution Hid the Truth From Our Eyes, the U.C. Irvine cognitive scientist Dr. Donald Hoffman challenges the leading scientific theories that claim that our senses report back objective reality. How can it be possible that the world we see is not objective reality? And how can our senses be useful if they are not communicating the truth? Hoffman argues that while we should take our perceptions seriously, we should not take them literally. His evolutionary model contends that natural selection has favored perception that hides the truth and guides us toward useful action, shaping our senses to keep us alive and reproducing. We observe a speeding car and do not walk in front of it; we see mold growing on bread and do not eat it. These impressions, though, are not objective reality. Just like a file icon on a desktop screen is a useful symbol rather than a genuine representation of what a computer file looks like, the objects we see every day are merely icons, allowing us to navigate the world safely and with ease. The real-world implications for this discovery are huge, even dismantling the very notion that spacetime is objective reality. The Case Against Reality dares us to question everything we thought we knew about the world we see.

In this conversation, Hoffman and Shermer get deep into the weeds of:

the nature of reality (ontology)
how we know anything about reality (epistemology)
the possibility that we’re living in a simulation
the possibility that we’re just a brain in a vat
the problem of other minds (that I’m the only sentient conscious being while everyone else is a zombie)
the hard problem of consciousness
what it means to ask “what’s it like to be a bat?”
does the moon exist if there are no conscious sentient beings anywhere in the universe?
is spacetime doomed?
quantum physics and consciousness
the microtubule theory of consciousness
the global workspace theory of consciousness, and
how Hoffman’s Interface Theory of Perception differs from Jordan Peterson’s Archetypal Theory of Truth (Shermer’s label for Peterson’s evolutionary theory of truth).

Listen to Science Salon via iTunes, Spotify, Google Play Music, Stitcher, iHeartRadio, TuneIn, and Soundcloud.

You play a vital part in our commitment to promote science and reason. If you enjoy the Science Salon Podcast, please show your support by making a donation, or by becoming a patron.