#293 – Donald Hoffman: Reality is an Illusion – How Evolution Hid the Truth

Lex Fridman Podcast

Donald Hoffman is a cognitive scientist at UC Irvine and author of The Case Against Reality. Please support this podcast by checking out our sponsors:
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EPISODE LINKS:
Donald’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/donalddhoffman
Donald’s Website: http://cogsci.uci.edu/~ddhoff/
Documents & Articles:
1. Could a Neuroscientist Understand a Microprocessor?: https://journals.plos.org/ploscompbiol/article?id=10.1371/journal.pcbi.1005268
2. Conscious Agent Networks: https://chrisfieldsresearch.com/CA-circuits-CSR-rev2.pdf
3. The Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen Argument in Quantum Theory: https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/qt-epr/
Books:
1. The Case Against Reality: https://amzn.to/3MhW4Wt
2. Vision: https://amzn.to/3Q4ibTm

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OUTLINE:
Here’s the timestamps for the episode. On some podcast players you should be able to click the timestamp to jump to that time.
(00:00) – Introduction
(08:04) – Case against reality
(19:33) – Spacetime
(43:57) – Reductionism
(1:04:23) – Evolutionary game theory
(1:32:46) – Consciousness
(2:28:06) – Visualizing reality
(2:43:23) – Ephemerality of life
(2:51:48) – Simulation theory
(2:57:30) – Difficult ideas
(3:12:32) – Love
(3:16:07) – Advice for young people
(3:18:26) – Meaning of life