Ep. 7. with Donald Hoffman, Ph.D.: What is the nature of reality?

Todays guest is Dr. Donald Hoffman. He is a cognitivepsychologist and professor at the department of cognitive sciences at University of California, Irvine with joint appointments in the Dept of Philosophy, Logic and Philosophy of science and school of computer science. He is well known for his TED talk entitled do we see reality as it is? And is the Author of the book the case against reality: how evolution hid the truth from our eyes, where he lays out his popular interface theory of perception alongside theory of consciousness bridging together modern day physics, math and psychology. He is an iconoclast, and an inspiration.

 

In todays talk we begin by discussing how perception evolved for fitness, and why this is important to know in our everyday lives, and in psychotherapy. We then dive into the concept of beauty, as we move into why wedo not see the truth of reality at all. After introducing the interface theory of perception, he shares his proposal for what lies beyond our interface. He follows by sharing why space-time is doomed, and provides his thesis of conscious agents, alongside providing examples of how his groups work has been successful in predicting certain ideas in physics. We talk about how his work mayimpact ones life philosophy, how it may impact psychotherapy, and touch on other special topics like meditation, free will, life after death, and ideals; endingwith another series of rapid fire questions to gain a deeper connection with who Don is as a person. Feel free to skip around should you find any of the topics of interest to you.