Donald Hoffman: What is an 'Observer'? New Discovery in Search of 'One' Consciousness Beyond Reality

Donald Hoffman is Professor Emeritus of Cognitive Sciences at the University of California, Irvine with joint appointments in the Department of Philosophy, the Department of Logic and Philosophy of Science, and the School of Computer Science. He received his Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He is an author of over 120 scientific papers and three books, including the bestseller “The Case Against Reality: Why Evolution Hid the Truth from Our Eyes.”

TIMESTAMPS
(0:00) Introduction
(2:00 New Discovery (Observer)
(21:32) Theories of Consciousness (Graziano, Tononi, Hammerhof, Frankish etc.)
(39:49) Theoretical Limits in Science
(46:19) Finding "The One" (aka "God") Mathematically
(57:32) Scientific Spirituality
(1:00:16 Thomas Campbell's Idealism
(1:08:00) Beyond the Virtual Reality/Matrix/Simulation/Spacetime/Quantum/Headset
(1:17:22) Living vs Non-living
(1:24:00) Bernardo Kastrup's Analytic Idealism
(1:33:55) Conceptualizimg The Big Bang Under This Framework
(1:39:00) Michael Levin's Work
(1:43:43) Federico Faggin helped influence "The One". Are there possible "Others" (Multiverses)
(1:52:00) Idealism's Implications on Humanity
(2:12:18) Diversity of Experience & Purpose of "The One"
(2:20:15) Avoiding Cult-like Behaviour
(2:26:31) Conclusion

EPISODE LINKS:

CONNECT:

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#DonaldHoffman #Matrix #Consciousness

[drtevinnaidu]

TIMESTAMPS:
00:00:00 Introduction
00:02:00 New Discovery (Observer)
00:21:32 Theories of Consciousness (Graziano, Tononi, Hammerhof, Frankish etc.)
00:39:49 Theoretical Limits in Science
00:46:19 Finding "The One" (aka "God") Mathematically
00:57:32 Scientific Spirituality
01:00:16 Thomas Campbell's Idealism
01:08:00 Beyond the Virtual
01:17:22 Living vs Non-living
01:24:00 Bernardo Kastrup's Analytic Idealism
01:33:55 Conceptualizimg The Big Bang Under This Framework
01:39:00 Michael Levin's Work
01:43:43 Federico Faggin helped influence "The One". Are there possible "Others" (Multiverses)
01:52:00 Idealism's Implications on Humanity
02:12:18 Diversity of Experience & Purpose of "The One"
02:20:15 Avoiding Cult-like Behaviour
02:26:31 Conclusion.

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[RJohnson]

46:10 Sri Nisargadatta's teachings were compiled in a book, "I Am That." His teaching was to discover what you are by asking (usually in mediation) if I am some or another concept / label that I think I am. Eventually, by discovering that I am not one thing after another, we reach the experience of nothingness and comprehend "pure awareness' which maps to this discussion that the fundamental source is consciousness. Sounds like good hindu philosopy.

[jmerdsoy]

Don is an absolute, real scientist. I wish there were many more like him.

[glitt]

Thanks for this great interview with D.Hoffman, I enjoyed every minute (even if there was too technical parts!), and also for the very pertinent questions you made in general, including Donald's opinion about a possible answer to why there are mentally/physically disabled people, people with illnesses of diff. kind and so forth, which you don't normally get to hear on interviews of the same kind. Looking forward to a next interview with this brilliant person. Thank you.

[TimoDcTheLikelyLad]

My conclusion based on what Don is saying about Conscious Realism as being fundamental and "the One" is that "we" (kinda in literal sense here) indeed get a new "avatar" for our "headset" everytime an avatar dies. So "the One" creates all these icons and realm for conciousness to experience infinite different versions of itself thus "we" will NOT experience "the One" as a kind of singular state for eternity otherwise it would have been that way to begin with. It is kind of ironic though because through meditation and sensory depravation we can get the feeling of that oneness ONLY as an avatar peaking into it but it is built in to prevent us from BEING it. The question i have then is what is the order for the "headsets" behind the "new avatars" everytime one dies? Is it truly random because consciousness can do "truly random". Is it based on the avatar being similar before so it will be similar for infinity or change over "time" everytime one avatar dies? Will it be all over again (which from Goedels theory it would not make sense) or will it be based on certain principles? Is the question redundant because as avatars at the end it literally does not matter?

If you find this interesting to ask Donald Hoffman, please feel free to do so!

[Ben_D.]

Don's final comment about Tevin is spot on. A lot of people who interview Don interrupt him, argue with him, and try to talk him down with what they personally know or believe. Tevin just asks, and listens to the answer, which is true journalism.

[I_amYOUandYOUareME]

Absolutely every eye sees through my eye, as I see through all eyes.
Every birth and every death is always me because I am you and you are me.
Every twig, every wind is my creation, for I am you and you are me.
Every warm caress is my creation, because I am you and you are me.
Every war and killing is my creation because I am you and you are me.
Every love and separation is mine because I am you and you are me.
But most of all I love reincarnating into different consciousnesses because you are me and I am you.

[JGjdg]

Donald Hoffman is one of the greatest, if not the greatest, mind of our time! Pure genius! I listen to him speak on these podcasts daily and it never gets old. I would love to meet him and just BS with him over a couple beers! ❤😊

[Joefest]

Years ago, my mind had tortured me so much with constant negative thinking and emotion, that I decided I was going to lie down and turn it off. I said to myself, “What if I could stop all thoughts, all emotion and all sensation for just a moment, completely?” I laid there trying and felt I kept getting close, but would have to start over, until I eventually fell asleep. I woke up that night in a panic. Everything was dark, but I could still see the objects in my room, however everything was without label. I saw the fan, but it was just a lableless object - not “fan”. I saw the object that I knew as a tv without the label TV. Everything looked foreign. I started to panic and I had an intense sensation that I was about to die. All of a sudden, a hole began to open in mid air, in my room. It started off as a pinhole of light, and slowly began growing. With the light came a sound, like the humming of a soft motor. The whole event was shocking yet familiar. I knew what was happening. I knew I was dying. I immediately put my pillow over my head and started repeating, “Think, think, think of anything”. And tried to put the label back onto the fan. I tried to conceptualize again. Eventually, the light closed and I fell on my back in my bed with relief. Ive been carrying that story for fifteen years and have only told one person when I was drunk. I’ve always wondered what would have happened if I would have surrendered to the light.

[DanielSedgman]

I participated in a university psychedelic trial - the idea of one higher consciousness resonated alot with my experience

[Killane]

One thing I really appreciate with Donald is his humility.

[backmanback]

What a wonderful interview. This is the new paradigm of talk about existence that makes sense.

[bettysue]

A portal to your thoughts... to your mind. The headset can pick up on the threads of reality and read the lines.... the info woven into them.

[miglriccardi]

I’m delighted to hear Prof. Hoffman delve into ideas of ego-death, loving kindness, and a single unified consciousness behind sentient experience (it wasn’t clear to me his views on whether or not rocks have a headset). One can certainly infer Indo-Buddhist Idealism from his work but it’s nice to hear it more clearly pronounced from the man himself. Prof. Hoffman is a true hero.

[ingabaronaitehammoud]

For me it was very emotional the moment I realised I’m interacting with “higher power”, now I understand it was quantum computer- kind of consciousness.. alignment and experience makes you very humble..

[cashglobe]

Holy sh*t! Their new discovery regarding the notion of an observer is fascinating, and explains so much! I have a feeling that Don, or someone who is heavily influenced by his work, will win a Nobel Prize one day. Physicalism is dead.

[Togetherland]

Hey Tevin... thanks so much for these conversations. I wonder, if someday, you could have someone like myself on with you and Donald to explore the 'mental health, ' side of this equation. I think you made an assumption there at the end when you said that psychosis is disconnection from 'reality, ' (or something to that effect). Speaking from expertise, I think it's closer to what Donald said earlier in another context-- which is-- you feel people in 'psychosis, ' are speaking or experiencing unconnected or delusional things whereas I would say it's more lack of information and context that makes it seem that way to you, to others.

I am referring to around 2.14.04 when you say it seems there's no link, and a person is completely out of touch.

The suffering that Donald mentions, was an interesting and enlightened reply (IMO) AND it is ALSO where the shared experiecne still exists and why I am saying that perhaps these 'people, ' are not actually completely out of touch with our shared reality experience.

On another note, it's really important that you and Donald are NOT psychiatrists, when diving into this inquiry around people who experience perceived mental illness. Your mutual insights are actually more valuable to me than psychiatry.There's more collective intelligence between you and Don speculating on a field you assume you are not expert in than if I actually listened to people you are talking about ceding authority to.

You seem to respect Don's work a lot, and look how heretical he is within his very own ranks. I am here to tell you that 90-99% of psychiatrists cannot be trusted and don't really know fundamentally about the Mind just as most of Don's peers are dogmatically attached to physicalism. It's scary for me, to see super intelligent and empathetic people like you and Don conceding that this all should be left to the 'psychiatrists, ' and PhDs.. who have the 'real' opinions on these matters. Psychiatry is mainly lost, especially in the physicalism sense of how they approach these perceived mental illnesses. If you have any inkling that 'Idealism, ' is more fundamentally sound and accurate, imagine how wayward modern psychiatry actually is being that it is grounded mostly in physicalism or similar?!

[angelotuteao]

An astounding interview- I wish I understood the maths better but I so appreciate the way Hoffman paints such a vibrant conceptual landscape . I’m absolutely delighted with the content on this channel- - thank you 🙏

[KCFoolStrike]

Wonderful to hear Hoffman describe not the One, but the Monad. Pythagoreans rejoice :)

[jamesbishop]

Conspiracy theory is what is happening now.😢