#212 Donald Hoffman: The Case Against Reality; Perception, Consciousness, And Reality
Dr. Donald Hoffman is a Professor in the Department of Cognitive Sciences at the University of California, Irvine. Dr. Hoffman studies consciousness, visual perception and evolutionary psychology using mathematical models and psychophysical experiments. His research subjects include facial attractiveness, the recognition of shape, the perception of motion and color, the evolution of perception, and the mind-body problem. He has co-authored two technical books: Observer Mechanics: A Formal Theory of Perception, and Automotive Lighting and Human Vision. He is just about to release a new book, The Case Against Reality: Why Evolution Hid the Truth from Our Eyes.
In this episode, we talk about how perception (particularly visual perception) works, how it has evolved, and the implications that has to how we deal with “objective reality”. First, Dr. Hoffman explains how he studies the architecture of vision. We discuss the evolutionary rationale behind perception, or how it has evolved – the interface theory of perception. In the second part, we go a little bit metaphysical, and discuss what is reality, and the role that consciousness plays in it.
Time Links:
How vision works, and how to study it
Approaching consciousness from a scientific perspective
The architecture of visual perception
Cognitive systems interact with one another
The evolution of perception
There’s individual variation in how people perceive reality
Perception is an interface to reality – the interface theory of perception
What is reality?
Creating virtual worlds
Conscious realism, and a subjective reality
Follow Dr. Hoffman’s work!
Follow Dr. Hoffman’s work:
Website: https://bit.ly/2XnO0Oo
Faculty page: https://bit.ly/2InA3I6
Researchgate profile: https://bit.ly/31AQ7hr
Twitter handle: @donalddhoffman
Books on Amazon: https://amzn.to/2wZiIP4
The Case Against Reality: https://amzn.to/2FgL1xf