Donald Hoffman - Consciousness, Mysteries Beyond Spacetime, and Waking up from the Dream of Life

Professor Donald Hoffman is a cognitive neuroscientist and the author of more than 90 scientific papers and three books, including Visual Intelligence and The Case Against Reality.

He is best known for his theory of consciousness, which combines evolutionary theory with mathematics to make a compelling case that the reality we see every day is an illusion created by our minds.

In this conversation, we explore:

— The groundbreaking scientific research being conducted by physicists into the “structures” beyond spacetime

— Donald’s theory of conscious agents

— The implications his theory of consciousness has for our understanding of the purpose of life

And more.

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Prof. Donald Hoffman, PhD received his PhD from MIT, and joined the faculty of the University of California, Irvine in 1983, where he is a Professor Emeritus of Cognitive Sciences. He is an author of over 100 scientific papers and three books, including Visual Intelligence, and The Case Against Reality. He received a Distinguished Scientific Award from the American Psychological Association for early career research, the Rustum Roy Award of the Chopra Foundation, and the Troland Research Award of the US National Academy of Sciences. His writing has appeared in Edge, New Scientist, LA Review of Books, and Scientific American and his work has been featured in Wired, Quanta, The Atlantic, and Through the Wormhole with Morgan Freeman. You can watch his TED Talk titled “Do we see reality as it is?” and you can follow him on Twitter @donalddhoffman.

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Timestamps:

00:00 - Intro
01:39 - Perception, Reality, and Consciousness
21:18 - The Cognitive Dissonance of Perception
29:19 - The Limits of Perception
36:30 - Navigating Consciousness
42:48 - Exploring Reality Beyond Space-Time
54:42 - Consciousness and Reality
01:00:16 - Prof Hoffman’s Resources

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Interview Links:

[theoryfish]

The true genius of the Hoff is his empathy. He is acutely aware of when his field of study flies so far above the average viewer, it actually makes him uncomfortable, so he manages to bring at least a part of it back down to earth and delivers a kernel of 'ah hah!'. At least to the people with no scientific background (like me) who are still totally fascinated with how he views 'reality'. Respect Don. Respect.

[brandoncornwell]

Professor Hoffman is taking, and I’m not presuming that there’s no basis for it, the most difficult position on this matter and I applaud his boldness, his creativity and honestly, his optimism. I personally hope that he is proven correct, that there is no physical basis, no substrate. That is a much more exciting and open-ended, and I would argue that the position actually sets the stage of reality as a mind-blowing and perhaps bottomless mystery. The discussion of TOE, left me even more stunned. The ego of the scientific community (human ego universally appears the same) would argue this assertion. After all, the physics community had the nerve to propose ‘a theory of everything’ to begin with, so they will stick with a traditional, physical fundamental foundation for reality. There will be a powerful push-back. I am astounded. Great video. I never imagined that Reason would ever open its eyes and see fundamental reality. At the same time, there is no doorway into the fundamentals of consciousness that doesn’t demand that we use the entryway of reason- otherwise you will lose your mind and adversely harm health. Professor Hoffman is experiencing this right now, but his reason may preserve him. Excellent video

[curtisgrindahl]

Doubtless this appeared on my YouTube feed because of the many videos I've been watching on Dzogchen, the non-dual tradition of Buddhism. It is called the Great Perfection. They have been exploring this question for over a thousand years and from what I've absorbed of that exploration, Professor Hoffman has come to the same conclusion. We are riding a wave of energy and our response to everything is influenced by the human body that carries us and the lifetime of experiences we've had that impact perception. And it all is unfolding within awareness. We live in our skin and carry our karma but really are dancing with the energy of the universe. I've found especially helpful videos by James Low who began his journey hitchhiking from Scotland to India during his summer breaks in the 1960's. He has 800 videos on his YouTube channel.

[InfiniteRadius]

From my experience as a non-mathematically gifted human, I really do feel Prof. Hoffman is totally on the right track. If you can understand his insight, then it should be apparent that we live in a highly personal reality..

~ Know this, you are immortal, deeply loved and revered. We are all One, we give from ourselves to ourselves ~

And once you know this, what does that mean in your current life and your relationships to everything else? This understanding brings on another whole dimension of living in this body and circumstance. Love to you all in your endeavours ❤

[javadhashtroudian]

In1967 I was a radical materialist Atheist until I heard of LSD-25 in a scientific seminar. After ingesting 100mcgm of pure Sandoz I had an experience that I could only verbalize as coming face to face with god. I also thought that reality was a feely from Brave New World (VR in today's technology).
After much more science, software engineering, AI, philosophy, meditation, about 20 psychedelic experiences in that 57 years I'm now an adherent of Advaita Vedanta.
Consciousness is primary.
Your theories are wonderful and give us more clues about the hard problem of matter (how come objects persist in waking lucid dream)
Thank you very much.
Tat Tuam Asi.

[evilo]

Mr. Hoffman, you have absolutely hit the nail directly on the head when explaining what cautiousness is and what it is doing and by extension what we are doing here. I just wanted to let you know that you explain things very well. These are concepts that attempted to convey to others before but when you're up ready to hear them, you don't have the ears to hear them

[chrisjarmain]

Hoffman and his perspective towards the end as to why conciseness exists, it is rather similar to the perspective held by the late Alan Watts. Much in the idea that there is conciseness, each sentient being has its own perspective, but each and every conscious being shares the same conciseness in and of itself.
My own perspective (however true) is that conciseness and everything that is considered as 'other' than myself is also myself. In Alan Watts' own words, you are the universe experiencing itself.

[rodolforesende]

When Donald speaks that space and time are part of our "headset" to "play" with "reality, " I cannot help but think about the importance of the creation and evolution of "concepts." and metaphors. We can discuss conscious and unconscious processes (as Freud, Jung, and others have done), but we can also consider the field of computing, where we talk about processes, memory management, memory allocation, etc etc. Similarly, we can think of our brain as having unconscious processes that manage the "CRUD" (Create, Read, Update, Delete) of all our memories, which are organized in different hierarchies.

[nagodio]

I was meditating and when i came out of it. I came to the realization the interconnectedness of all things in the universe by comparing it to a vast organism. In this analogy, the universe functions akin to a living being, with Earth representing a tiny yet integral cell within its grand body. Just as cells work together to sustain the health of a body, humanity plays a role in maintaining the equilibrium of the universe. This perspective highlights the interdependence of all life forms and emphasizes our responsibility in nurturing the harmony of the cosmic order. It's a captivating way to contemplate our existence within the vastness of the cosmos and our interconnectedness with something greater than ourselves. In this metaphorical framework, the concept of cancer could be likened to destructive forces such as Hitler and wars, which threaten to disrupt the harmony of the cosmic order. Just as cancerous cells endanger the health of an organism, these destructive forces jeopardize the balance and well-being of the universe. Humanity's struggle against such destructive forces mirrors the body's immune response to combat cancer, working diligently to prevent them from overpowering and harming the larger whole. It underscores our collective effort to preserve the integrity and vitality of the cosmic order, ensuring that harmony prevails over discord.

[salmanuel]

I have watched more than a score of Hoffman interviews but this one caught him in a particularly expressive and informative state. Notions of "a mathematical theory of consciousness" would seem tame if you imagined a mere neural-net exercise. From Donald Hoffman, it means to "look outside of spacetime" to a rarefied realm where mathematical objects stand staring at us like silent Obelisks, a realm without substrates where "consciousness is fundamental." He is both challenging and entertaining.

[loriedmundson]

Many thanks to both of you for the interview. Your channel is one of my favorites. Dr. Hoffman is a rock star! ❤❤❤ His theories are so interesting and have helped me heal from past experiences. Also, they have been pivotal in aiding me to construct a "head set" that allows for more enjoyment of love, beauty and laughter in my day. You two are truly needed in our world. Thanks again.

[FlorisV]

Might be one of the clearest expositions of his thoughts I have seen so far. Perhaps even more so than in his book. Thanks for this!

[EvaM]

Don, you are brilliantly building a bridge between science and spirituality! I wish I had a recent PhD in algebraic geometry. It would be awesome to work with you. BTW: mysticism should be recognized as a legitimate tool in science because The Reality is ultimately mystical.

[xge]

Donald is good at getting every angle of the "consciousness is fundamental" with great humility of a true scientist and sensitivity to spiritual aspects.

[jaroslav]

Very much similar to how Buddha is explaining what we are, well actually rather what we are not. Excellent talk

[jeffmcloud]

Professor Hoffman is a brilliant man. His statement that we think of ourselves as tiny little objects in space-time reminds me of an NDE story that was on YouTube a few years ago where a woman was shown that she actually was bigger than the universe. Professor Huffman's belief that space-time is actually a tiny little data structure in our consciousness is intriguing and one that I suspect is true.

[tack-on-titan]

I had an odd visual experience a few years ago that a neurologist friend and my ophthalmologist couldn't explain. I woke around dawn and was somewhat perplexed and alarmed by the fact that where the door to my en-suite should have been, I could see a door-sized oval opening with a sort of sparkly edge. I could see a very brightly lit room beyond, which was not my bathroom. I was scared to move too much, but I could see that everything else in my room was exactly as it should be. Strangest of all, when I closed my right eye, the oval opening disappeared and the doorway was normal. When I opened my right eye again, the oval opening was back. I was too scared to get out of bed to investigate, and eventually just stuck my duvet over my head in the hope it would stop. When I looked again a while later, everything was back to normal. I was definitely fully awake when I saw this and decided it must just have been some weird glitch in one of my eyes.

[justicewillprevail]

Out if all the scientists and research documentations I've seen, dr. Hoffmann explanation is the best one.

[frankr.]

Besides the insights he affords and delivers, what fascinates me most about Donald is his humble crystal-clear devotion. Thank you, Donald!

[project-unifiedfreepeoples]

I am new to this channel, but adept in Dr. Don Hoffman's therum on reality. If anyone else here is also familiar with Dr. Hoffman's therums, and feels those awkward silences while he continues on about his philosophies and theories, i salute you. We are not really here but we are portals brought together by Youtubes odd algorithms.