The Case Against Reality; Cognitive Science, Consciousness, And Reality w/ Donald Hoffman

Hello, everybody! Starting off this week, I bring you an interview with Dr. Donald Hoffman. He 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. 

https://youtu.be/sD0HuGVZOvQ

Link to podcast version (Anchor): http://bit.ly/2H1A6bJ