The Case Against Reality | Prof. Donald Hoffman on Conscious Agent Theory

by
Mike Norman
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Physics is getting weirder!

I don't know much about the science in Galileo's time, but he said there was no light, colour, or taste, and that all of these experiences were created in the mind. 

Electromagnetic waves leave the Sun, bounce off objects, and our brains create the images and colours we see. 

If a tree fell down in a forest and there was no one around, would it make a noise?

Our brains produce all these experiences, but what if it also creates space and time as well. The passing of time is an Illusion, said Einstein, and that all time was here at once.

Professor Donald Hoffman thinks that not only do our minds create space and time, but that the images we see are not the real world at all. That what we see is an interface, like a desktop screen, that helps us to get around in the world. He calls it Eye Candy because we see a beautiful world.

Not many scientists accept Donald Hoffman's theories yet, but he went to a scientist friend who studies evolution using mathematics, and he put his theories to the test in his software, and it was true, creatures that only see an interface that helps them get about the universe survive longer. This interface need not represent the real word at all, anymore than a desktop screen shows the workings that produces the images. So, objects may be nothing more than just icons on a screen. The maths used for the research is considered to be scientifically vigorous by most scientists.

Donald Hoffman does get into metaphysics where he believes he can develop the maths to prove whether God exists or not, and although he thinks there probably isn't one, he does believe that some sort of consciousness survives death.

He is one of the few scientists who now believes that the universe has consciousness woven into it - that molecules cannot just suddenly become conscious as they become more complex.

In a another video I saw, the scientists marveled at how finally tuned the universe was to support life, and the theory goes that there are an infinite number of universes, so it's not surprising that one could support life. But they had another theory, if the universe is created by the mind, then it's not surprising it is finally tuned for us.

Donald Hoffman worked in AI for many years where he studied how the brain sees images. To this day, he says, no one has a clue how the brain generates the images that we see.

Our minds seem to create the world around us, which means it may also be creating the physical brain too, but this could be another icon? Donald Hoffman seems to think that the part of the mind which creates the physical world - along with time - is the part that sees it, and it might not be material, it could be the consciousness of the universe, it may even be spiritual.

At a quantum level, we may throw a quantum dice, say, but one person may see a heads while the other see a tails.

Objective reality may not exist, European researchers say

A new experiment shows that two observers can experience divergent realities (if they go subatomic).