StarTalk
Did evolution never give us the ability to see reality as it actually is? Neil deGrasse Tyson and co-hosts Chuck Nice and Gary O’Reilly sit down with cognitive scientist Donald Hoffman to explore what neuroscience, evolutionary game theory, and consciousness suggest about the nature of reality itself.
Is evolution the correct tool for tuning our senses to reality? Are our perceptions less like a window and more like a VR headset? We discuss the priorities of our perceptions and how it may not always be truth. We explore how psychedelics impact our perception of reality. Could hallucinogens show us a layer of reality we don’t otherwise see? Does the mind render things only when perceived, the way a video game only generates what’s on screen? The team explores if we are in a simulation and how Donald doesn’t think spacetime itself is fundamental.
Can consciousness be modeled? Donald breaks down how we have struggled to define consciousness and provide a theory for the observer. What is an observer, really? Chuck’s ayahuasca encounters with higher-dimensional beings become surprisingly relevant, as we explore how to test for consistencies across individuals’ trips. Could information passed to one user be received by another in a separate session? Doubtful, says Hoffman, but testable.
We explore the Matrix, both the movie and the mathematical, discussing how you could use math to understand the role of the observer. The episode closes on science, God, and Gödel. Does some of this verge on the spiritual? Have theologians approached Hoffman, hoping he’s providing scientific grounding for a god?
Learn more about Donald Hoffman’s research institute:
https://www.traceinstitute.org/
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Timestamps:
00:00 – Introduction: Donald Hoffman
02:30 – How Evolution Shifts Our Reality
04:50 – Evolutionary Game Theory
11:05 – All We Have Are Tricks and Hacks
14:08 – Do Psychedelics Expose True Reality?
15:45 – Is Reality Just a Simulation Rendering What We Look At?
19:20 – Can We Simulate Consciousness or Is It Simulating Us?
24:58 – The Problem with Spacetime
26:16 – A Theory of Observation
31:02 – Meeting Dimensional Aliens
41:29 – Understanding “The Observer” in Physics
50:46 – Is It Literally The Matrix?
54:48 – Hijacking Evolution
59:57 – Theological Implications
01:03:43 – Predictions
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If reality works more like a video game than a window into the universe, what do you think is 'behind the screen'?
For such a smart dude, Neil's idea of psychedelics is so shortsighted. First of all, your mind couldn't possibly comprehend or imagine what it even is until you try it, and second, it's not like the effect is permanent… 🤦 And he has the assumption that whatever happens in your brain is further away from "objective reality". Based on what? Some presumptions he gained through watching movies and music videos? EVERYTHING you consume, water, food, it all affects your mental state, it all introduces certain chemicals and reactions in your brain. Your mind is flexible, it's fluid. You have the ability to explore depths you haven't imagined before and you just choose not to, because of some presumptions?
29:06 when Dr Neil went into correct, I was hoping he’d be a little harsher on the guy
Please, and many more pleases let me be a volunteer for that experimen. How can I do this? Pick me ! My hand is raised, and I'm jumping out of my seat!
49:25 Thanks that's kinda where my mind was going but I couldn't put it in words…
Can I volunteer for Garfield and Hoffman's experiment? Im in the US and have experience with DMT. To be able to communicate or send a message between two people through a DMT trip?
My personal experience left me with a pround sensation that there is a concious awareness surrounding our reality. It's left me questioning everything. It's as if I was in the center of a spherical information chamber and as I observed what was around me I was also observed in turn and I was not alone.
Id love to help further this science because the rest of my life will be ruled by this curiosity.
This has to be my favorite episode. Great stuff. Searching within and working with what we got is better than colonizing Mars imo.
Consciousness is an act. It is the act of telling yourself a story where you are simultaneously part of and separate from the larger whole that is the universe.
Nobody will believe what I’m about to type out. But when I was a teen, I use to think “what’ if the rooms and everything within my sight was loaded in like a video game? And the rest of the world wasn’t there or exist until I arrived in that area”. But thinking about it now, it seems very narcissistic. As if the world revolved around me. Like some main character in a game. And now he saying…
Love Chuck😂
I think my headset might be broken…
Chuuuuck!! You rock dude! ❤
The experience is real; the stained glass is the story we tell about it.😊
Okay. DEFINE "true reality".🤔
why doesnt someone hook up our sensory organs to a computer and measure the nerve signals from sensory organs and then mimic those signals in a computer program where they generate a human brain with a body that can talk and then ask it when you give its brain those signals what it experiences and then try those same signals on real brains and see if you can generate those things the sensory organs are taking in information from and try to recreate it. then break down why those signals trigger certain things universally in brains
Spectacular idiots the hosts are. Tv scientists are a joke 😂
Does Elons micro dosing help or hurt?God limits your view.Back in Hippie times…people reported visiting God while doin LSD…who being surprised at guests…said to go back…stop doin whatever got them there and he would send them an invitation when ready!
Great episode!
If soneone is in space and not staring at earth i guess it dosnt exsist😂
I have had multiple encounters with dmt entities and most encounters took place intergalacticaly. Star tunnels and crystalline grids overlays.
You are missing out, Neil. 😂
59:25–59:30 The answer is God.
Total waste of time. Im 28 and even my explainations make more sense. Unfortunately tne guest had a bad day and couldnt embody his message….
Meditation is the observation of the observer',Robert Wright who wrote why Buddhism is true had a paradigm shift after attending retreats.We are conditioned from birth that an objective exist outside my body.But Donald Hoffman in his TED talk have shown us we create reality in our mind❤️😊
Traditional Knowledge
16:00 And GTA actually does that! WOW! Mind blown!
When you are standing on the street, wanting to cross the street, and you see a red corvette out of the corner of your eye, 16:20 and you decide it's not real and you step out into the street to walk across, and then the red corvette hits you, is it real when you are in the hospital or dead? The VR headset has limited consequences but stepping in front of a vehicle has more consequences. So, is reality partly defined by the consequences that you experience?
Quote, "Neurons do not exist when they are not perceived." 15:55
Donald Hoffman seems to be heavily leaning on references and associations to Darwin as an attempt to persuade us to accept his concepts based on the authority of Darwin. Making an appeal to believe something based on an authority figure is the logical fallacy of appeal to authority. Scientific proof isn't based on name dropping.
Donald Hoffman seems to be closely associating Charles Darwin's evolution with the mathematical modeling that came out of game theory. Darwin didn't create a mathematical model to evaluate evolution.
Charles Darwin did not create the concept of a payoff function. While Charles Darwin formulated the theory of evolution by natural selection to explain biological adaptation and behavior, the "payoff function" is a mathematical concept that originated much later through the development of game theory.
If you go faster than the speed of light, I wonder how that’s would warp light perception… going faster than the speed of light is possible… there are currently “things” that travel faster than the speed of light… there was a time when people thought going the speed of sound or breaking the sound barrier was impossible…
But see it doesn’t make it less of a feeling or to ignore that this experience on earth we are having is low or is just one fraction. Okay sure earth or our individual of separate self or life as a whole is high entropy for the mere reason of discovering low entropy and back to coherence
I can say My consciousness is my own. But the real question is why or what is it about mine specifically that is trying to become coherent or low entropy