Donald Hoffman on the fundamental nature of consciousness (MASSIVE technical analysis) [Reposted]

In this episode cognitive psychologist Donald Hoffman argues that consciousness is fundamental and that perception functions as a user interface rather than a direct view of reality. He debates evolutionary implications, quantum realism, free will, and the limits of virtual‑reality metaphors while discussing meditation, truth, and the nature of self.- 0:00 - Introduction- 0:35 - Hoffman's view on the country during COVID and its relevance to his theories- 2:51 - Why he meditates three hours daily and the type of practice- 7:26 - Hoffman's diet and health habits- 9:52 - Computational psychology background- 13:05 - Outline of the conscious agent model and its motivation- 16:41 - Consciousness as primary to being, a challenge to rationalists- 26:50 - Neural correlates as potentially causal and limits of the virtual‑reality metaphor- 38:44 - Nima Armani Hamed's amplituhedron and consciousness- 40:23 - Local hidden variables and loopholes in Bell's theorem- 47:46 - Uniform probability of fitness functions on cyclic groups as a problem for non‑veridical perception- 1:01:44 - Evolution hides truth and reality- 1:05:10 - Over‑simplification of evolutionary models to a one‑dimensional line- 1:09:17 - Intensity of meditation and fear of the unknown- 1:15:25 - “Illusions are failures to guide adaptive behavior.”- 1:16:41 - Philosophical theories of truth (correspondence, pragmatic, deflationary, etc.)- 1:27:20 - Spacetime as data compression for conscious agents- 1:32:39 - Nature of causality- 1:37:50 - Objectivity of reality in a subjectively predicated model- 1:40:00 - Questions of “you,” identity, and self (Eastern vs Western views)- 1:50:15 - Free will in a stochastic framework- 1:58:59 - Hofstadter’s “strange loop” vs Tononi’s IIT and Hoffman’s model- 2:14:37 - Where God fits and Hoffman’s definition of God- 2:21:22 - What happens when you die?- 2:28:38 - Gödel’s incompleteness theorem implications for Hoffman’s model- 2:34:35 - Vervaeke’s non‑propositional forms of knowledge- 2:37:45 - Landauer’s limit critiques- 2:41:29 - The moon’s existence without observation- 2:48:06 - Shared qualia: seeing the same red?- 2:51:31 - Paradox of pursuing truth that is inimical to fitness- 2:56:44 - Deepak Chopra’s excesses and Jesus’s claim “I am the truth / the way / the life”SPONSORS:- Patreon: https://patreon.com/curtjaimungal- Crypto: https://tinyurl.com/cryptoTOE- PayPal: https://tinyurl.com/paypalTOE- Twitter: https://twitter.com/TOEwithCurt- Discord Invite: https://discord.com/invite/kBcnfNVwqs- iTunes: https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/better-left-unsaid-with-curt-jaimungal/id1521758802- Pandora: https://pdora.co/33b9lfP- Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4gL14b92xAErofYQA7bU4e- Reddit: https://reddit.com/r/theoriesofeverything- Merch: https://tinyurl.com/TOEmerchRESOURCES:- YouTube Link: https://youtu.be/CmieNQH7Q4w Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices