Entangling Conscious Agents, Donald Hoffman

Science and Nonduality
Science and Nonduality
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Published 2014-12-26
Scientific investigations of consciousness that seek its biological basis typically assume that objects in space-time—such as neurons—exist even if unperceived, and have causal powers. I evaluate this assumption, using evolutionary games and genetic algorithms that study perceptual evolution, and find that it is almost surely false. Our perceptions of space-time and objects are a species-specific adaptation, not an insight into objective reality. In consequence, I propose a formal theory of consciousness—the theory of “conscious agents”—that takes consciousness to be fundamental, rather than derivative from objects in space-time. I use the theory of conscious
agents to solve the combination problem of consciousness, both for the combination of subjects and of experiences. I show that entanglement follows as a consequence of the combination of conscious subjects. I then discuss the relationship of these findings to the account of entanglement given by quantum-Bayesian interpretations of quantum theory.

Donald Hoffman, Ph.D.Cognitive Scientist and Author, Department of CognitiveSciences, U.C. Irvine
Donald Hoffman is a cognitive scientist and author of more than 90 scientific papers and three books, including Visual Intelligence: How We Create What We See (W.W. Norton, 2000). He received his BA from UCLA in Quantitative Psychology and his Ph.D. from MIT in Computational Psychology. He joined the faculty of UC Irvine in 1983, where he is now a full professor in the departments of cognitive science, computer science and philosophy. He received a Distinguished Scientific Award of the American Psychological Association for early career research into visual perception, and the Troland Research Award of the US National Academy of Sciences for his research on the relationship of consciousness and the physical world.
All Comments (21)
  • @vudu8ball
    This guy is a mind blower. As I approach the end of my life i feel we are making real gains in understanding the mystery of existence.
  • @vamsiallavarapu3440
    "We had to give up flat earth, we had to give up geo centric universe. That was just warm up. Now what we have to give up is our very notion of perception, space and time, that physical objects reflect reality " - Donald Hoffman 24:07 Mind- Blown!
  • @julieimperl8825
    The math that he used to change from one consciousness observing the world to two consciousnesses observing each other blew my mind. I don't care how "correct" this is about describing our interactions with the physical world, that is some beautiful fluidity of thought and playfulness with the nature of reality. And his whole reason, that he clearly states at the end. He's making a great point about how science really should be moving forward. And really about how we should be living our own lives. "I'm making a very bold scientific hypothesis. I'm trying to be absolutely precise, so that I can be shown where I am precisely wrong."
  • @VperVendetta1992
    That explanation of the Wave/Particle Duality and of Quantum Entanglement using the 2D cube is one of the best I've ever heard.
  • @sallyrucker8990
    I love the fact that this man has admitted he is sure of nothing, It takes deep thought to come to this conclusion.
  • @0ptimal
    After years of learning, thinking, imagining, I've become largely indifferent to most of the theorys of reality that I read about. Eventually, I got to a point where I took what I've learned, and used it all to come to my own conclusion/decision about how reality really works. Well, what this man is saying is generally the same as that conclusion. Of course he describes it much more thoroughly and eloquently than I can. Cool stuff. Wish I could live for a couple hundred more years to see what humans figure out.
  • @jefffsfff1783
    This is probably the most useful way of interpreting the world that I have ever come across. Thank you.
  • @e-t-y237
    Tremendous material. I wish he instead of saying "Do we see the truth?" would say something like "Do we see fundamental reality?"
  • @daithiocinnsealach1982
    I appreciate Donald's humility. It allows me to listen to him without feeling forced to blindly agree with his views and then dogmatically defend them. None of us know what's really going on on the grand scale. So a little humility in our opinions goes a long way.
  • @michaelt1775
    Dr Hoffman is bringing many changes to how science is perceived. His work on consciousness is thought provoking. Genius
  • @SolveEtCoagula93
    Absolutely brilliant. For the first time ever I see and sane, sensible way forward for the conscious/physical world dynamic. Just wish I wasn't too old to participate in the research that DH is running. Why couldn't this have occured when I was at my PhD stage, 50 years ago? Still, an excellent letcure, well presented and extremely thought provoking. Thank you!
  • @sngscratcher
    “Whatever matter is, it is not made of matter” - physicist Hans Peter Dürr "Just as with color and sound, it turns out that matter as we know it exists only in the mind" - physicist Peter Russell
  • @anialiandr
    "We reify the limits of our perception and call it reality" -- Donald Hoffman, UC Irvine
  • @spiralsun1
    What I have been saying for many years. I said it like this: “There’s no reason to believe that evolution prepared us to see what is really going on when we open up and peer at brains or neurons”. This was the basis for my papers and the book I wrote in 2003... It’s nice to see that someone else gets it and can actually “think beyond Our evolutionarily evolved world view” as I put it. YES! I also thought that existence itself is a binary issue as stated in Shakespeare Lol. To be or not to be, that is the question. Indeed. Why is there something rather than nothing? Best video I have seen in 20 years. Maybe ever... Our species specific way of representing things YES! But there is more to it. All organisms are theories of the universe. We operate according to our theories. There is hope in that we have seen the edges of our theories and can detect that this is so. I think it’s because we have an obstacle to our survival looming in our future that requires us to understand this in order to maintain our existence. TRUTH is life. Even if lower theories are “tricks” of survival they contain elements of truth or reality-even if we are not forming the correct theory or we are generalizing incorrectly from them. This is the first time I have encountered someone who can think around our evolutionarily constructed world view as a direct and basic issue similar to the idea of heliocentric theory becoming central in the past. I use the same example in my book “The Textbook of the Universe: the Genetic Ascent to God” Which sees an overall meta-pattern to the overcoming of our evolutionarily limited world view. I take what he is saying as the basic foundation of everything I say in that book and in all my papers I have presented since then. This is the key issue of the 21st century.
  • @Joshua-dc1bs
    Warning: There are a lot of angry, pseudointellectual, billiard ball type materialists in the comment section who believe that the world exists exactly as they consciously perceive it, but that conscious perception doesn't exist. It's best to stay clear of these walking oxymorons.
  • @terriensberg5487
    I like Dr. Hoffman’s theory very much and appreciate his open-mindedness. A question about the train metaphor: should I take myself seriously but not literally? Is my physical presence an icon representing a deeper reality, possibly a soul?
  • @109ARIANA
    So excited to have finally discovered Donald Hoffman...
  • @joshc7865
    He speaks a lot like Dr Malcolm from Jurassic Park