PodcastsThe Jordan B. Peterson Podcast387. What You See and Feel is Not Reality | Dr. Donald Hoffman

387. What You See and Feel is Not Reality | Dr. Donald Hoffman
The Jordan B. Peterson PodcastThu Oct 12 2023
Consciousness and Reality:
- Dr. Hoffman's theory suggests that evolution shapes sensory systems to serve as a user interface, similar to the desktop on a computer.
- Our perception of space-time and physical objects is like a virtual reality headset, hiding the true nature of reality.
- According to his theory, consciousness is more fundamental than objective reality, and conscious experiences are the fundamental reality.
- The theory of conscious agents proposes that consciousness is a probability space in which various conscious experiences can occur.
Entropy and Probability Space:
- Entropy plays a role in consciousness, with certain experiences having higher or lower probabilities based on their level of entropy.
- Anxiety can be seen as a response to increased entropy in the probability space, leading to uncertainty and potential danger.
- The dynamics of conscious agents involve Markovian matrices that determine the probabilities of transitioning between different conscious experiences.
Objects and Perception:
- When perceiving objects, we also interact with the probability space around them, estimating probabilities for various outcomes related to those objects.
- Objects themselves are projections within our consciousness and do not necessarily have homomorphism with underlying reality.
- Our perception of objects is influenced by goals and motivations, shaping how we perceive their probability spaces.
Materialism and Scientific Theories:
- Materialist theories rely on assumptions about reality but may not capture the full scope of existence beyond certain scales such as Planck scale.
- Recent advancements in physics suggest alternative frameworks beyond space-time for understanding fundamental reality.