Donald Hoffman - Does Human Consciousness Have Special Purpose?

Scientists say our consciousness is the product of our brains, with purposes set by evolutionary fitness. Theologians believe our consciousness reflects the God who created it, with majestic purpose of eternal life.

[PravacLijevo]

I love both of these guys. It's amazing to see such an intelligent and respectful conversation on YouTube.

[dougg]

This guys work is phenomenal and original.

[sharmitoboylos]

This show and host and guests and their conversations elevate the entire Internet’s consciousness. Thank you, Robert Kuhn and colleagues.

[stevecoley]

We are sparks placed here for a brief moment to accumulate light and warmth (love) so that we can become as bright of a star as we can be...shining in heaven (joy, beauty and harmony).

Good (god) knows every star by name.

This is accomplished by appreciating this paradise planet lifeboat and the miraculous works of fine art called "life" that inhabit it.

If we extinguish our light and warmth (love) with "greed" and it's ignorance (hate)...we become the darkness and e that surrounds the stars.

A very cold, dark, lonely, desolate place to be...for eternity.

[jimbo]

How about consciousness is a universal presence and our brains are filters that accesses and interprets it according to our own experiences.

[bradsmith]

The brain is like a radio receiver.
It allows the soul to experience this universe as we perceive it.

[kevinfisher]

we are the universe experiencing itself. we are a way for the cosmos to know and learn about itself. and all things with conciousness like plants crystals and minerals and animals, humans and aliens, other beings ect. everything is that self. and is that conciousness that the universe produced to learn know and observe itself. well that is us and all the other beings in the universe too. so that means that everything is connected on a quantum level. and dark matter is not nothing. it is quantum particles of matter that do not absorb, reflect or emit light. so they cant be detected by observing electromagnetic radiation. it exists but we cant see it from our human perspective. And the First Law of Thermodynamics states that heat is a form of energy, and thermodynamic processes are therefore subject to the principle of conservation of energy. This means that heat energy cannot be created or destroyed. It can, however, be transferred from one location to another and converted to and from other forms of energy. so i dont believe that conciousness is produced by the brain. i believe that its produced by the universe. and that your conciousness which is universal can exist outside of your physical body. bcuz ive had some near death experiences where my conciousness did exist outside of my physical body. so i believe that time is just a construct from our limited human perspective. and many physicists and philosophers now suspect that time is not fundamental; rather, time emerges out of something more fundamental — something nontemporal, something altogether different (perhaps something discreet, quantumized, not continuous, smooth). so for that reason and all the other reasons that i just stated. i believe that our conciousness will not die. and that it will just continously experience life in many different forms and ways. after all we are made from stardust, the nitrogen in our dna the calcium in our teeth and the iron in our blood, and the carbon and hydrogen in the molecules of our cells. think about that.

[daithiocinnsealach]

I went to Wikipedia to see if I could get his religious views and discovered I share a birthday with him! 29th December.

[milobarkymcbarkface]

What I got out of this video - Daniel Dennett has the fewest friends among the consciousness philosophers.

[chewyjello]

There is a video out there on YouTube of Hoffman having a conversation in which he tries to find some common ground with his fundamentalist parents. For anyone who is not religious but comes from an ultra religious family, you will be able to relate. It's kind of heartwarming and worth a watch.

[despinaarzouman]

From book: THINKING and DESTINY: Being the Science of Man, by Harold Waldwin Percival:

CONSCIOUSNESS: Consciousness is not a being, or a thing, or a state. All beings, things, and states which exist, exist because of the presence of Consciousness in them. It is not space, or time, or matter, or force, or any God. It is independent of all these, but they and everything else depend upon Consciousness. It cannot be changed, qualified, affected, divided, destroyed, improved, weighed, or measured. There are no degrees of Consciousness. It has no attributes, no properties, no qualities, no states. It has no limitations, no beginning, no end. It is present everywhere and in every thing. By its presence everything is conscious and everything changes from the degree in which the being or thing is Conscious to the next higher degree in being Conscious. Consciousness is ever unmanifested. [from: Chapter XIII, The Circle, or Zodiac -- Thinking and Destiny, Being the Science of Man, by Harold Waldwin Percival]

CONSCIOUSNESS: is the Presence in all things -- by which each thing is conscious in the degree in which it is conscious as or of what it is or does. As a word it is the adjective "conscious" developed into a noun by the suffix "ness." It is a word unique in language; it has no synonyms, and its meaning extends beyond human comprehension. Consciousness is beginningless, and endless; it is indivisible, without parts, qualities, states, attributes or limitations. Yet, everything, from the least to the greatest, in and beyond time and space is dependent on it, to be and to do. Its presence in every unit of nature and beyond nature enables all things and beings to be conscious as what or of what they are, and are to do, to be aware and conscious of all other things and beings, and to progress in continuing higher degrees of being conscious towards the only one ultimate Reality -- Consciousness. [Definition -- from: Thinking & Destiny, Being the Science of Man, by HWP]

[jaywillingham]

Whos the pompous interviewer who acts like he has it all figured out? He needs a slice of humble pie.

[stevedv]

The part where he says consciousness would serve no evolutionary benefit I found pretty odd. It would have clear social benefit to feeling that individuals are meaningful, and for individuals to strongly feel their “I” ness. I could see that having major fitness benefits to the group of humans with this strong consciousness.

[charlie-kmet]

Yes, we are the only animal in the history of this planet that has ever gotten off. The only one that landed on the moon and come back. So, as far as fitness points go and we are the only animal that knows about extinction level events so the fitness points we can score is saving our species and maybe other species as well. Done and done.

[the-logic-of-the-rainbow]

What is the purpose of consciousness? Without consciousness there would be no known axiological value and thus zero known purpose. Therefore, consciousness is the fundamental pre-requisite of all known purposes, both special and ordinary.

[danluba]

When the only thing we experience firsthand is consciousness and we know that we can conjure up physical worlds from nothing literally in our sleep, why is suggesting that consciousness is the fundamental reality a giant leap? Why isn’t saying matter is the fundamental reality the giant leap?

[davidwalker]

Quantum effects must be happening in our brains like entanglement and other effects we can not understand. And we know we can change the outcome of certain experiments by observing it. in effect changing reality. Who knows what we are capable of

[elledan]

you invite the guy just to say in the end "I'm skeptichal" why? just keep it to yourself, you are really rude with your guests some times. I hope that changes in the future

[someoneontheinternet]

Isn't he wrong that evolution only selects for things that add to fitness? Isn't it actually that it selects against things that go against fitness? So if consciousness did nothing it wouldn't be selected against or for, it would just be there?

[gsaurabh]

Algorithms?? Are you computer scientist? Which program? 😮