Don Hoffman: Reality Does NOT Exist! (#127)

Into the Impossible With Brian Keating

Brian Keating

Physics, Natural Sciences, Science

4.7 • 1.1K Ratings

🗓️ 16 March 2021

⏱️ 73 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Cognitive scientist Donald Hoffman is trying to answer a big question: Do we experience the world as it really is ... or as we need it to be? In this ever so slightly mind-blowing talk, he ponders how our minds construct reality for us. In his research to uncover the underlying secrets of human perception, Donald Hoffman has discovered important clues pointing to the subjective nature of reality. Rather than as a set of absolute physical principles, reality is best understood as a set of phenomena our brain constructs to guide our behavior. To put it simply: we actively create everything we see, and there is no aspect of reality that does not depend on consciousness. Hoffman is a faculty member at UC Irvine and a recipient of the Troland Award of the US National Academy of Sciences. @donalddhoffman http://www.cogsci.uci.edu/~ddhoff/ His Book: The Case Against Reality [ https://www.amazon.com/Case-Against-Reality-Evolution-Truth/dp/0393254690 ] His TED Talk: https://www.ted.com/talks/donald_hoffman_do_we_see_reality_as_it_is?utm_campaign=tedspread&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=tedcomshare 00:00:00 Intro 00:07:57 Science through the senses and impact of Galileo. 00:18:34 The philosophy of George Berkely. Is it all in the mind? 00:21:18 The "grand" questions and theories of consciousness. 00:30:10 What is panpsychism? 00:31:18 Math, physics and consciousness. Do we have a model of reality? 00:39:33 The Interface Theory of Perception 00:44:57 What is the evolutionary purpose of the perception of music? 00:48:21 How do we get along in the real world if our perceptions are flawed? 00:51:21 Galileo's AR HMD circa 1600. 00:52:28 Is consciousness a unique filter into reality? 00:57:29 Can computers be conscious? 01:03:20 What is the role of attention in consciousness? Are certain experiences, like war and drugs, a one-way street? 01:08:43 What advice would you give your younger self? Support the podcast: https://www.patreon.com/drbriankeating And please join my mailing list to get resources and enter giveaways to win a FREE copy of my book (and more) http://briankeating.com/mailing_list.php 📝 🎥 🎥 Watch my most popular videos🎥 🎥 Frank Wilczek https://youtu.be/3z8RqKMQHe0?sub_confirmation=1 Weinstein and Wolfram https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OI0AZ4Y4Ip4?sub_confirmation=1 Sheldon Glashow: https://youtu.be/a0_iaWgxQtA?sub_confirmation=1 Michael Saylor The Physics of Bitcoin https://youtu.be/CaN_CDKqXOg?sub_confirmation=1 Sir Roger Penrose, Nobel Prize winner: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AMuqyAvX7Wo?sub_confirmation=1 Jill Tarter https://youtu.be/O9K9OBd3vHk?sub_confirmation=1 Sara Seager Venus LIfe: https://youtu.be/QPsEDoOTU6k?sub_confirmation=1 Noam Chomsky: https://youtu.be/Iaz6JIxDh6Y?sub_confirmation=1 Sabine Hossenfelder: https://youtu.be/V6dMM2-X6nk?sub_confirmation=1 Sarah Scoles: https://youtu.be/apVKobWigMw Stephen Wolfram: https://youtu.be/nSAemRxzmXM 🏄‍♂️ Find me on Twitter at https://twitter.com/DrBrianKeating 🔥 Find me on Instagram at https://instagram.com/DrBrianKeating 📖 Buy my book LOSING THE NOBEL PRIZE: http://amzn.to/2sa5UpA 🔔 Subscribe for more great content https://www.youtube.com/DrBrianKeating?sub_confirmation=1 ✍️Detailed Blog posts here: https://briankeating.com/blog.php 📧Join my mailing list: http://briankeating.com/mailing_list.php 👪Join my Facebook Group: https://facebook.com/losingthenobelprize 🎙️Please subscribe, rate, and review the INTO THE IMPOSSIBLE Podcast on iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/into-the-impossible/id1169885840?mt=2 🎙️Listen on all other platforms: https://wavve.link/into A production of http://imagination.ucsd.edu/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Any sufficient advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.
0:08.0	This is a great pleasure talking today with Professor Don Hoffman who is an American cognitive psychologist and a popular science
0:15.6	author.
0:16.6	He is a professor up the road at the University of California Irvine.
0:20.4	He has joint appointments in the Department of Philosophy, the Department of
0:23.2	logic, and Philosophy of Science in the School of Computer Science. He's written many
0:28.1	books. Today we're going to be talking about a very prerogative book called
0:31.8	The Case Against Reality.
0:34.3	And you can find some more information about him
0:36.9	on his TED Talk.
0:38.1	This is really where I got introduced to him
0:40.2	called, Do We See Reality as it is?
0:42.4	You can find that wherever Ted Talks are sold.
0:45.6	Don, it's such a great pleasure to meet you videographically and elsewise.
0:52.3	How are you doing today?
0:53.4	Well, thank you so much Brian. It's a great pleasure. I'm doing very, very well and it's a great
0:57.3	pleasure to talk with you. Thanks for this kind invitation.
1:00.3	Ah, the pleasure is truly online and I followed you. We have many friends in common. We have many interest in common and the first thing I love to do because it's a nice way to kind of open up the conversation is by doing what we're always advised
1:16.5	never to do, which is to judge a book by its cover.
1:20.8	And I want to ask you how you came up with this very delightful delicious delirium-inducing cover image for the case against reality.
1:30.0	So if you're at home folks, go to Amazon.com, buy a copy of the book. I can't recommend it highly enough. I just gave it a five-star review. It's got 534 five-star reviews enough. Anyway, Don, how did you come up with the cover image and the title and subtitle?
1:44.3	Because it's very provocative.
	...

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