E106 - Donald Hoffman: The Emerging Science, “We Are ONE Consciousness” - Life, Death & The Simulation
Know Thyself
André Duqum
4.8 • 658 Ratings
🗓️ 23 July 2024
⏱️ 140 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Donald Hoffman is back on Know Thyself today to explore the constraints of time and space, and how they shape our understanding of the world around us. He discusses the "headset analogy" - the idea that our senses act as a kind of cognitive filter, preventing us from directly perceiving the true nature of reality.
Donald delves into the paradoxes found in various mathematical theorems, and his newest research on "conscious agents" and how it relates to the Gaia hypothesis. The significance of mystical experiences and their potential to reveal truths about the nature of reality is also covered.
Hoffman also opens up about his thoughts on reincarnation, the relationship between science and spirituality, and the possibility of artificial intelligence becoming truly conscious.
André's Book Recommendations: https://www.knowthyself.one/books
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Timecodes:
0:00 Intro
1:31 Why We Don't See the Truth of Reality
8:36 Limitations of Time & Space
13:28 The Headset Analogy: Illusion of Reality
17:08 Is This a Simulation?
23:07 Panpsychism vs Idealism
30:14 The Role of Evolution on Consciousness
37:43 Amplituhedron & Challenging the Notion of Space/Time
46:52 Truth About Scientific Theories & Making Assumptions
53:34 The Limits of Language
1:00:20 Seeing the World with an Open Mind
1:15:03 What Exists Beyond our Understanding
1:20:44 Paradoxes Found in Theorems
1:24:00 Donald's New Research on Conscious Agents
1:28:06 Gaia Hypothesis vs Conscious Agents
1:38:34 Enlightened Beings & Embodying this Wisdom
1:44:02 Donald's Meditation Practice
1:47:39 Why We Should Ask These Questions
1:50:24 What Mystical Experiences Reveal
1:55:28 Reality of Reincarnation
1:58:50 This Science Will Change the World
2:02:27 What's Next for the Research
2:04:50 God & Understanding Something Greater
2:12:33 Will AI Become Conscious?
2:17:06 Conclusion
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Donald David Hoffman is an American cognitive psychologist and popular science author. He is a professor in the Department of Cognitive Sciences at the University of California, Irvine, with joint appointments in the Department of Philosophy, the Department of Logic and Philosophy of Science, and the School of Computer Science.
Hoffman studies consciousness, visual perception and evolutionary psychology using mathematical models and psychophysical experiments. His research subjects include facial attractiveness, the recognition of shape, the perception of motion and color, the evolution of perception, and the mind–body problem.
He has co-authored two technical books; Observer Mechanics: A Formal Theory of Perception (1989) offers a theory of consciousness and its relationship to physics; Automotive Lighting and Human Vision (2005) applies vision science to vehicle lighting. His book Visual Intelligence: How We Create What We See (1998) presents the modern science of visual perception to a broad audience. His 2015 TED Talk, "Do we see reality as it is?" argues that our perceptions have evolved to hide reality from us.
Book: https://www.amazon.com/The-Case-Against-Reality/dp/0141983418/ref=sr_1_1?qid=1694112697&refinements=p_27%3ADonald+Hoffman&s=books&sr=1-1&text=Donald+Hoffman
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Know Thyself
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André Duqum
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | We have assumed in science for hundreds of years that space time is fundamental reality. |
| 0:04.0 | In the last 10 years, for the first time, scientists have taken off the space-time headset. What are we going to find? So I should be very, very clear on this point. Now, I'm a cognitive neuroscientist, and when I say that space-time isn't fundamental, and objects in space-time are fundamental, that means neurons don't exist when they're not perceived. What I'm saying is very, very uncomfortable that we don't see reality as it is. |
| 0:23.6 | This theory of conscious agents is really the first layer of software outside of our space-time headset. |
| 0:29.6 | Once you know the software, you can change the game pretty much any way you want to. |
| 0:33.6 | So you believe we're living in a simulation of sorts? |
| 0:37.9 | I think that we just have to bite the bullet and say, no matter how smart, mathematically |
| 0:42.4 | precise you are, it's going to be trivial compared to the reality beyond. |
| 0:45.8 | I think as a scientist, it's critical for me to actually spend time in utter silence. |
| 0:50.4 | That's where the true new creativity comes from. |
| 0:53.1 | What we know is one perspective out of an infinite number of perspectives, but that's who the true new creativity comes from what we know is one perspective out of an infinite |
| 0:55.9 | number of perspectives but that's who you are what you are transcends any description and that's how |
| 1:02.0 | the infinite comes to know itself don so good to have you back. |
| 1:12.7 | Thank you, Andre. |
| 1:13.4 | Thanks for having me back. |
| 1:14.5 | I thought we could start with giving maybe a 10-minute overview, |
| 1:18.2 | kind of a high-level view of both your work, our conversation last time, which I absolutely |
| 1:22.7 | loved, and our audience loved. |
| 1:24.6 | And then we can dive into some new terrain here on this conversation today, |
| 1:28.4 | which I'm very much looking forward to. So starting with how fitness beats truth and how the chance |
| 1:36.5 | that evolution has shaped sensory systems to see objective reality is precisely zero in the work |
| 1:42.1 | that you share. Could you elaborate on that a little bit in terms of how evolution shapes our sensory systems |
| 1:48.1 | to be able to navigate it effectively for survival purposes, but not to see reality as it is |
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