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Lex Fridman PodcastDonald Hoffman: Reality is an Illusion - How Evolution Hid the Truth | Lex Fridman Podcast #293
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Episode Details
EPISODE INFO
- Released
- June 12, 2022
- Duration
- 3h 16m
- Channel
- Lex Fridman Podcast
- Watch on YouTube
- ▶ Open ↗
EPISODE DESCRIPTION
Donald Hoffman is a cognitive scientist at UC Irvine and author of The Case Against Reality. Please support this podcast by checking out our sponsors:
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EPISODE LINKS: Donald's Twitter: https://twitter.com/donalddhoffman Donald's Website: http://cogsci.uci.edu/~ddhoff/ Documents & Articles:
- Could a Neuroscientist Understand a Microprocessor?: https://journals.plos.org/ploscompbiol/article?id=10.1371/journal.pcbi.1005268
- Conscious Agent Networks: https://chrisfieldsresearch.com/CA-circuits-CSR-rev2.pdf
- The Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen Argument in Quantum Theory: https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/qt-epr/
Books:
- The Case Against Reality: https://amzn.to/3MhW4Wt
- Vision: https://amzn.to/3Q4ibTm
PODCAST INFO: Podcast website: https://lexfridman.com/podcast Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2lwqZIr Spotify: https://spoti.fi/2nEwCF8 RSS: https://lexfridman.com/feed/podcast/ Full episodes playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLrAXtmErZgOdP_8GztsuKi9nrraNbKKp4 Clips playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLrAXtmErZgOeciFP3CBCIEElOJeitOr41 OUTLINE: 0:00 - Introduction 1:12 - Case against reality 12:40 - Spacetime 37:04 - Reductionism 57:30 - Evolutionary game theory 1:25:53 - Consciousness 2:21:13 - Visualizing reality 2:33:48 - Immanuel Kant 2:36:30 - Ephemerality of life 2:44:56 - Simulation theory 2:50:37 - Difficult ideas 3:05:39 - Love 3:09:14 - Advice for young people 3:11:33 - Meaning of life SOCIAL:
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SPEAKERS
Donald Hoffman
guestLex Fridman
host
EPISODE SUMMARY
In this episode of Lex Fridman Podcast, featuring Donald Hoffman and Lex Fridman, Donald Hoffman: Reality is an Illusion - How Evolution Hid the Truth | Lex Fridman Podcast #293 explores Donald Hoffman: Evolution, Illusions, and Consciousness Beyond Space and Time Donald Hoffman argues that evolution did not shape our senses to perceive objective reality, but to track fitness—what helps us survive and reproduce—implying what we see is an adaptive user interface, not the truth. Drawing on evolutionary game theory and modern physics, he claims spacetime and physical objects are not fundamental; they are data structures constructed by consciousness. He proposes a mathematical framework of “conscious agents” existing beyond spacetime whose interactions give rise, via projection, to spacetime, brains, and the appearance of matter. The discussion explores implications for science, spirituality, death, meaning, and why this view is both exhilarating and deeply unsettling.
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