The Consciousness Podcast
In this episode, I had the honor of speaking with Dr. Donald D. Hoffman, who is a professor of cognitive science at the University of California, Irvine. His writing has appeared in Scientific American and Edge, and his work has been featured in the Atlantic, Wired, and Quanta. He resides in Irvine, California. Be sure to check out his latest book, The Case Against Reality, available just about everywhere.
https://theconsciousnesspodcast.com/episode-40-consciousness-as-fundamental-to-reality-with-dr-donald-d-hoffman/
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Episode 40: Consciousness as Fundamental to Reality with Dr. Donald D. Hoffman
What about consciousness of average people? of people that don't comprehend much of what's going on? why do we let ourselves be manipulated and are not aware of that? is consciousness a bundle independent invisible energy born with each individual on his birth and now has his own identity and makes its own decissions?
People have to get real and use their common-sense.
Thank you for this interview. It was a nice update of DH’s theories and where he and his team are currently. What I struggle to get my head around is the notion that “humans are the authors of space time and not the latecomers to the evolution of life we mostly believe”. So where does that leave dinosaurs that we claim predate humans by millions of years? Plus we have bones and fossils of such creatures in the here and now?
Also, regarding his non-distinction between living and inanimate objects I’m confused. I can accept that a stone, a lake, a table, a kettle etc are just icons in my headset and that like everything are really networks of conscious agents. However, what are the fitness payoffs for a stone or table?? They dont need to eat, reproduce or make decisions in order to survive and thrive. Yet fitness payoffs are central to the theory and the basic structure of conscious agents is universal. May be it’s how the agents are networked?
I think people might get further if we visualize the conscious agent network similar to the internet and we are the computers. Thank you for helping to develop the argument/proposition.
Can consciousness be discussed or perceived by the mind?Will that perception be real?