Is there an Infinite Mind? | Donald Hoffman | The Case Against Reality
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- čas přidán 4. 03. 2020
- Is consciousness the fundamental nature of reality? Neuroscientist Donald Hoffman discusses his theory of “conscious agents” on the Waking Cosmos podcast.
EPISODE SUMMARY
For all of science’s impressive advancements, one problem has stubbornly eluded us: Why do we have consciousness? How does inert unconscious matter give rise to the light of conscious experience? Neuroscientist Donald Hoffman has been pondering this question throughout his career. His thinking has gradually led him to a surprising possibility - that consciousness itself is fundamental to reality. Donald’s theory, however, differs from that of the growing number of other scientists and philosophers now arriving at this conclusion.
The fundamental nature of reality, Donald theorizes, is comprised of an infinite network of interacting conscious agents. Uniquely, Donald offers a precise mathematical definition of a conscious agent. He believes the theory may be used to reconstruct the universe and existing scientific discoveries purely through the interaction of these units of consciousness.
As Donald has gradually become “a student of the math” his theory has led him to consider fantastic possibilities, including the existence of infinitely great minds which exist beyond our realm of perception. Among other possibilities, Donald believes “conscious realism” leaves the door open to life after death.
In my conversation with Donald we explore the surprising implications of his theory, and what it suggests about our own place in reality.
Please consider supporting Waking Cosmos on Patreon here: / wakingcosmos
Pick up Donald’s book “The Case Against Reality” (also on Audible) here: amzn.to/2T31Kes
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Hi Everyone, I hope you find my conversation with Donald interesting. What do you think about his theory of conscious agents?
Please consider supporting Waking Cosmos on Patreon here~ www.patreon.com/wakingcosmos
@Martin Shepherd haha that's cool :) thanks for putting on notifications!
Lovely conversations.. educating . My proposal is - "conciousness itself is a constract in consciousness " ..
@@nmajhi9555 Are you saying consciousness creates itself? The German idealist Friedrich Schelling would agree with you there :)
We need Daniel Dennett on the show!
@@verfassungspatriot I wouldn't be opposed to that!
Did you ever notice how our ideas of Reality tend to reflect what’s going on with our technology? During the Industrial Revolution where we started to make precise machinery, the idea emerged that the Universe is mechanical and operates on strict, predictable principles. In recent years we have received ideas such as the brain being an information processor like a computer, and speculation about whether the world is a simulation like a virtual reality. Here, Hoffman is talking about something like a social network.
Each new idea tends to undermine previous ones and suggest that Reality is not actually like that. However, all ideas share an intention to account for our experience. As Hoffman points out, this is where materialism fails spectacularly and the ‘hard problem of consciousness’ emerges.
The reason for which it makes sense to start with consciousness is because, as some philosophers have argued for centuries, all we know is experience. Everything else is inference. Calling Idealism an old idea doesn’t change what anyone one can discover if they make a sceptical inquiry into their reality.
The only reality that is... The One Groove. Something we're all instinctually blessed with. The reason for a material world, created by conscious minds ,is to Be able to create physical art. Joy, entrainment, & orgasm that we obtain & enjoy while creating, is the experience that is sought. The ultimate enjoyment will Be unifying humanity with The One. Believed to Be evolutionary!!
Absolutely true, you should read Nikola Tesla's autobiography; he stated that all his inventions have come to be beginning with his own imagination, the latter gave him way to complete every invention from start to finish. He also claims that an invention can serve a certain purpose in several ways, regardless the way it was invented (an example is how jet engines, helicopters and even hot air-balloons can all serve the purpose of aviationl
I saw you comment on another similar topic. I’m trying to remember where. We’ve been viewing discussions.
@spiro I totally agree with your last point. Experience is impersonal. The idea of a ‘me’ to whom it belongs is just that: a thought that is also a part of the experience. I’m not sure I understand the first part. Do you think there is real knowledge about what you experience or is it just inference? I don’t think we really have any idea what all this is even if we think we’ve made sense of it.
A valid observation. I believe the reason for this is intrinsic to mind itself. Einstein, Newton, Galileo and the myriad titans of thought who've advanced mankind through their observations and speculations were always built out of fundamental presuppositions that came before them. If Hoffman's ideas appeared in the time of Galileo they would be so alien that they'd be unrecognizable to the point of making Galileo look like a catholic bishop. All ideas, no matter their complexity, are always emergent out of the strata of social mind. Korzybski's time-binding comes to mind.
Brilliant. As a retired police officer who had an intense spiritual awakening I can say I listen to this type of content all day and YOU do some of the best interviews I have heard. Great work.
Thanks a lot! A lot of preparation goes into these interviews!
@@metaRising really good job
Share it please. Were you on psychedelics?
Honestly mate, you are a perceptive interviewer.
Gta role play officer
I believe I have had experience of a 'greater consciousness'. This happens when you meditate. I also experienced it when cycling with a group of people who I did not know. We were doing a challenge and I ended up with a group cycling along like a peloton. We came to a particularly fast downhill part that had a lot of bends in it and it was quite thrilling at the time. It was after this that I became aware of how the group of individual cyclists suddenly seemed to become one as it went downhill at quite high speed. It seemed like each individual had intrinsically become a part of the whole. It's like a murmuration of starlings or a swarm of bees. The key thing was that nobody orchestrated it - it just emerged from the collective.
A murmuration of starlings! Thanks! Great new phrase!!
Jim , this is a cool thing - I gave birth with a mid wife , and the midwife group would have a party for all moms giving birth in March , so that we could all sort out our order - the midwives explained that when they started doing these gatherings, they never had two women going into labor at the same day . This unity of consciousness or body - like, I actually think that our bodies are MORE likely to unify than our minds are - mirror neurons , I was told once by a dance teacher that to create new moves , one must get in a group of dancers , its done as a group - A collective , brings in new story . Jesse Russel ( Obviously , this is an interesting subject for me , please excuse my enthusiasm ) the inventor of the portable cell phone, he says the BEST group to invent and create with , is a group of all different kinds of people , men women different ages and races . That was his experience . For me , it gets down to SHARED VISION , where all members of the group are "holding" the same dream - I do believe that this is the ONLY job of leadership , which is to hold up a vision that the collective can perceive . In the case of your experience , all the bikers held the safe passage of a fast hill, in their minds , collectively . Curious if you felt that there was leadership inside of that event . - The one who holds the vision the strongest . - om shanti - interestingly , in the three examples that I gave , its all about individuation and novelty inside of the collective - we mothers , we have groups of people , called children , who are individuals born into a group of same similar . For me , its about differentiation , not about unity . That is perhaps why I think its so important to have the feminine referred to as an alternate perspective . Inside of the idea of the individual , collects , unifies , and then, individualizes was something we experienced in our homeschool groups in the 80's and 90's - the group would collect, unify , then split . At first the women were upset , then we had a big collective meeting , and realized that we were grouping and re grouping . That this was a natural and healthy event . I have two fascinations , one is , people whos brains got removed , and people who are cojoined twins . I feel that you can see consciousness scientifically in both of those events . If you want to write further JRA2520@aol.com I am a song writer . I saw the team riding down the hill , from your description , that was nice for me to envision .
It's called endorphins being released during exercise, also know as a runner's high....chemically induced euphoria.
@@tr7938 - right , high , but what state is "high" ? non conflict , one ness , amnesia of recent complications . Oxytocin = amnesia . I follow and insist on my theoretical , as I think it will change the way we look at a lot of healing events .
@fynes leigh It's not waffle or wiseacre! Your comments are just crass and suggesting that people are just opening their mouths and letting their belly rumble is just wrong. I am attempting to describe something that can't really be described in words because it's an experience that only happens when the language centre of your brain is quieted. Like many experiences language is inadequate for describing "greater consciousness". It's also the reason why people say "you had to be there" when they realise people are not appreciating their description of something they experienced. The description of an experience while meditating is always going to be retrospective because you can't describe it while it's happening because it will stop happening. People only try to describe it because they feel it's something other people should know about but every attempt is doomed to inadequacy even before a word is spoken. Rather than suggesting people are just waffling why don't you just accept that they're making a genuine attempt to describe something that is impossible to describe in words?
Reality is the physical form of consciousness. The human body is a flesh and blood vehicle for The Spirit, an avatar for consciousness. We are all one in the same. Love always !
We won't ever have a definitive answer for any of this
@@TheGreatAlan75 Ironically, both his and your statement are probably the truth.
Gord Desm: Yes, this is my view too. For me it is only a belief, i have no way of knowing as yet. i've heard many NDE stories and the people seem genuine. I'm glad to see clever people like Donald Hoffman bringing science in.
The body, flesh and blood, appears IN consciousness and is consciousness. As humans, that is our experience yet we have a deep seated belief that makes us think otherwise.
samely lovord :) k now thing missing of l0vord now on ;) n0w all0o;)
His description of the essential nature of consciousness,comes closest to what I've experienced in moments of "universal consciousness"...infinite,eternal and seamlessly interconnected
I CAN SEE THAT IAM
Donald Hoffman is genius. I'm reading his "The Case Against Reality" and it's so paradigm-shifting! This man is one my best teachers.
Yes he is
Adrian is a thoughtful, open minded interviewer. His interaction here, with D. Hoffman, is well worth following.
Thanks, 2 both of you.
M.
I AM AND THAT IS ALL THERE IS
I love this theory. I really feel like he’s on to something big here. Just my personal opinion.
He has to be onto something because usually when assigned to us speaks about theories like this they are outcasted and destroyed by the dogma of science but they haven't done that to him so he must have a good standing Theory otherwise the scientific Community would have cancelled him by now
And would you anticipate changing your life choices and behavior were this to be true?
aspencrest Nope! A bright reward in heaven isn’t what makes me want to be a good person
Alexander 😂😂😂
I agree.
This is the cutting edge of history, and human enterprise available in the modern world. Thank you for helping to merge so many seemingly disparate areas of inquiry and opening new paths to explore the nature of being.
Thanks Evan!
i love donald hoffman's unorthodox scientific approach to exploring consciousness. He might not be the most creative with his hypothesis as he has borrowed most of the ideas from other frameworks but he is a brilliant scientist and mathematician. He brings an element to consciousness what is seriously lacking within mainstream science. He may be wrong, but the validity of his claim isn't the only subject of importance. The introduction of this non-materialist hypothesis supported by rigorous mathematical data will minimize scrutiny while maintaining respect from his physicalist peers. Perhaps some Buddhists have it right and someone like mr hoffman can provide the experimental data and mathematical structure to support those findings empirically to create a new category within mainstream science.
Donald is absolutely correct- go deep beyond an intellectual level and what he proposes is so obviously true that we don’t see it! Nobody has ever experienced anything outside of consciousness. Our thoughts create our reality- the world is a projection of our minds, and we all come from the same source- we are all one mind having an experience from a perspective that we perceive and believe to be an individual. Physics meets Rupert Spira and spirituality, this is very exciting!
Robert Yates I agree. Rupert meets Donald meets Robert (Lanza)...
No. Lets see how exciting it all is when we start witnessing the radical destabilization of life on earth-massive crop failures, apocalyptic fires, imploding economies, epic flooding, hundreds of millions of refugees fleeing regions made uninhabitable by extreme heat or permanent drought.
@@ili626 Also, philosophers have contemplated this for millenia. But it's easier to skip any actual learning and get epiphanies from short clips. Musk and simulation theory has to be the most obvious and also the dumbest example of this.
Great comment. I questioned for years what is objective reality. This was all triggered after a DMT trip when everything disappeared in front of me. Eventually after years of questioning I finally had an encounter with Reality face to face.
This is what reality is:
It’s the consciousness of God. What I saw in that encounter was one being with one mind that contained all of time and everything in it. It was God, face to face. In his mind (head contained all things) and in his body existed all things.
Objective reality is exactly as we are. As below so above. Ultimately it is 1 being with everything in him. This is why our own bodies contain universes within themselves with billions of bacteria, microorganisms, etc. We are a universe within itself.
At the highest level it’s one body and one mind. Many members but all one source. This is ultimately what The Christ is. That’s objective reality. Beyond that is pure eternal consciousness with no form but awareness.
The pure eternal consciousness is the Father. The Christ is the manifestation of his image into form into creation. His essence displayed.
The Universe itself is his son which is The Word made manifest into form.
@@bodystorm Ultimately only the likes of Tony Parsons and Jim Newman say it how it REALLY is!! The rest is just stories and entertainment for the mind, which projects nothing into what appears to be everything!
Metarising/waking cosmos is the most thought-proving, awe-inspiring content. I’ve been interested in ancient Hindu philosophy of Advaita Vedanta for years. It now seems science is beginning to point towards the same incredible idea.
Advaita Vedanta is not a philosophy a practice or an understanding .
It is what all philosophies, practices and understanding appear inside of as consciousness awake to itself .
Advaita Vedanta is only realized during satsang and or grace , also known as good luck, via the transmission of pure consciousness from here to here .
there is no satsang without transmission , either from within or form a person in moksha that is in the room with you .
Best interview of Hoffman I’ve heard yet.
Hey metaRising brilliant interview. So nice to hear an interviewee who really knows his stuff asking the questions.
Feels like another hour with this guy is necessary!
At least!
check this out if you didn't yet czcams.com/video/CmieNQH7Q4w/video.html&ab_channel=TomBilyeu . it is a bit repetitive but it's still interesting
I've been searching for a conversation with Donald Hoffman where he goes deeper because he's not forced to explain the basics yet again. This is it. Thank you!
I too wanted to comment something to that effect, but you said it very well.
Thank you very much!
Donald Hoffman makes excellent points to consider.
This is awesome! I've a 6th sense (for lack of a better word...I'm not a scientist) & have been researching how I can walk up, for 1 example, to a crime scene & 'see', as if remembering an event...tho it's not a part of my life...& am able to 'recall' what happened, in detail. Even a 'personality' @ 1 time, told me his story of how, who, what happened in his murder, which was proven true. I know our conscious continues. I've experienced, past this life thru out my 74 yrs. I 'see/know' events before they happen too. Time proves that. I believe that's normal (not 'para') but have wondered why some people are & others aren't aware of it. I've theories I'm still exploring. This video was so comforting in allowing me conformation that what I 'know' is true...I just don't have a PhD to explain it in scientific terms. This scientist is definately on the right track!
I love Donald Hoffman so much! I love the way his mind works. Every time I hear him explaining his work, it's always so fascinating. I'm so glad he's on youtube. Bless him! Thank you uploading this podcast, Adrian!
Eastern traditions would say that mathematical epistemology is also derived from consciousness, hence, you cannot define the properties of consciousness, only objects in consciousness and that includes logic and geometry.
Why cant we equate objects of conciousness to properties of conciousness?
Why not say "Indian tradition"? Indian knowledge is the basis of consciousness studies in the west though often misunderstood, and strangely India is never mentioned.
I trained as mathematical physicist but since the early 1970's I've devoted my life to Buddhism and particularly to meditation. Your subscribers may be familiar with the Yogacara school of Buddhism which has a conceptual framework supportive of experiences in meditation - which is, of course, an experiential exploration of individual conscious beyond the realm of the senses. Both I and this tradition resonate perfectly with Dr Hoffmann's views . I wondered if he has any thoughts about the place of archetypes as conscious agents - these would not have any material form but do play and important role in human experience. Also, although meditation cannot be called scientific it could perhaps point to some interesting fields of exploration.
Some fascinating and well put concepts here. He’s not dead, he just stepped out of the interface. Brilliant!
I have been a student of Advaita Vedanta for several years and I find the scientific approach to the nature of Reality most fascinating.
That being said, the adepts within the various schools of Vedānta, (some, not all) would be and are, very well acquainted with the vastness and subtleties of, the nature of Reality.
One would ask, if scientific evidence ever emerged which proves the nature of Reality to be ALL pervasive, would the adepts of these ancient teachings, be then subject to some sort of scientific “authoritarianism”.
This honestly does, leave room for concern.
I remember coming across Donald Hoffman a good many years ago and being fascinated by his ideas on conscious agents. I loved his desktop analogy. He stressed we now have a mathematically precise method of describing conscious agents and we need to run these past current scientific theories to check that it holds water. Two things worry me with this. Firstly, why have we not seen the results of these checks that he was going to do? He's had ample time to demonstrate how these might work but he's still coming out with the same script. Nothing has progressed in the last six years that I can see. Secondly, as someone who is fascinated by mathematics his "precise mathematics of conscious agents" actually give us nothing. I can come up with a "mathematics" of almost anything, my dog's morning stroll around the garden, and it can even be extremely precise but if it can't be used to resolve something we didn't know before then it's quite meaningless. This is exactly where we're at with the formulae he so often puts on the screen during his talks.
The paper regarding the mathematics for his theory that he mentions at the end of the talk was published in 2014, seven years ago. It's actually nothing more than putting constants to the arrows he draws in his diagrams. Yet every second sentence of his talk here has the word mathematics in it. A lot of words, some interesting speculation but little substance in what he says. Adrian comes out with far more valuable material in his own videos on consciousness than does Donald Hoffman here.
Listening to the conversation was a mindblowing experience., moving from one climax to another climbing higher and yet higher . Simple, clear,yet profound.The vision had the profundity of zero and infinity. It is not possible to rate it. Higher than the highest possible rating would be inadequate .Mathematics, music and philosophy singing together under an open sky studded with galaxies and universes .
Thank you! Brilliant Donald and good way of interviewing him.
Thanks Dan! I'm hoping to get Donald back on sometime, so hopefully next time we can go even further down the rabbit hole.
Very good interview. Always love Donald. The question at the end about an essential "you" is straightforward. The answer is too.
No matter your experience of consciousness, "you" are there. It always feels like the same you. Similar to the essential "you", you experience whether you were 5 years old or 95 years old here. That you is unlimited by the appearance of space, time, or matter, birth, or death. That "you" never ends. Be kind. Have fun.😊
John Browne that "you" is an illusion formulated by your brain. Have fun :)
@@LKRaider Hi. Follow what makes sense to you.😊
John Browne I came here to write this same comment but you beat me to it!
The Higher You is the same as the higher me the one truth is us
Law of one stuff compliments this idea
Greetings. I'm a first time watcher. This was an outstanding segment. The topic is so obscure, as we all know. I really appreciate you allowing the length of time you did for explaining and answering. Too often guests are limited in response time, I'm interested in hearing in-depth answers. Great topic, excellent spacial layout, really enjoyed this.
I'll be back frequently. Thank you.
Awesome video, thanks! Modern science is just starting to scratch the surface of what the most ancient philosophies (Advaita Vedanta, or even the Toltecs) have been saying for literally thousands of years. Deep meditation practices like Kriya Yoga can help one reach the true Self (pure awareness behind one's consciousness) and realize that all is One, Brahmin, which is the true nature of reality. The world we perceive (Maya) with the five senses is merely a manifestation of Brahmin projected by consciousness. Hmmm.
@@anahata3478 Great point, thanks! 🙏
@@brianswelding Just as Muslims view and read the NT through an Islamic lens, seeing Mohammed on every page, so Christians see Jesus on every page of the Jewish Tanach. I would say the foundational statement of Torah is that God, the Divine, is Something you cannot put a name to, or visualise or imagine in any way. When you do, you have lost it. At the Sinai encounter, Jews heard the visual and saw the aural. A psychedelic experience, if you like. There is nothing outside of this "Divine Mind" and the physical universe is "Its" garment. All is one. The universe has consciousness and so do trees, planets, streams. It was the 13th century Jewish sage Maimonides, the Rambam, who said, "Even the stone cries out I AM!"
Best interview of him yet, good questions 👍🏻👍🏻
"The thing that calls us human is not human." Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj #matrix
Donald Hoffman is a scientist of extraordinary capacity. His insights have made me want to buy his books to explore his theory for conscious agents.
Just wanted to say how much I LOVE DON HOFFMAN ❤️❤️❤️🥰 OMG I actually teared-up listening to him. The interviewer was SUPERB! Some of the best questions and rhythm ever. In other words they made a great consciousness Dyad... 😜🙏🏻❤️ So exciting because what I have been working on for over 45 years is finally coming to fruition. I feel a oneness with Don. Don is the Don as far as I am concerned. 🤔🤷♀️
Gladiator Man I do.
Thanks for that really excellent interview. I have listened to many interviews with Donald and while all are fascinating, there is no doubt quite a lot of (very forgivable and completely understandable) repetition, where one interview has quite large swathes of material identical to the next. I understand completely why that might happen, of course, but it is refreshing when it's somehow minimised, or carefully avoided altogether.
Personally, I really prefer those interviews that, not only allow the interviewee to fully lay out their point without frequent interruption, but more especially when the interviewer is skilled enough to actually *add* to the discussion. This is one of the best I've listened to, with meaningful contributions from Adrian that 'helpfully challenge' (if that's a fair description?) the proposition Donald presents?
Whilst quite obviously, none of us - least of all, me - can claim to 'know' whether he is dead right or way off the mark, or anywhere in between...I do recognise when something just _resonates_ with me, when something has what I might intuitively feel (rightly or wrongly) as having some basis in 'Truth' to it? Donald's theory just seems to have something more to it than many other, perfectly decent theories. FWIW.
Finally, just a quick word of appreciation for Donald's humility which is, I feel, more a gentle prod in the ribs of the entrenched, dogmatists in the world of materialism. Good on you!
Thanks very much for sharing
I Feel like this world and the dmt community need to interact more in the next decade or so... its such a shame hearing someone explain exactly whats going on, and having known the feelings and concepts finally making sense for a regluar joe on the street like me... I believe this is a revolution we are all due..we could rock the shit out of the 60s TBH
One of the best shows yet imo !
Ah, Thank you!
I had to hit the like button when I heard the intro :) Lovely to know I will like the next hour
Thanks for this interview. I've listened to this and Dr. Shaladrake's quite a few times and each time I learn something new that I missed on the previous run. I love it when that happens and I thank you for putting out this content that stimulates the mind.
I was really intrigued by that bit near the end when Dr. Hoffman suggested that it might be a bad idea to use AI technology to bring forth conscious agents due the possibility of many of them not having us in the best of their interests. It reminded me of the long, turbulent and not necessarily secret, tradition of demonology and demon invocation. The anthropology of ritual and incantation magic, which is nothing else but a means to explore the depths of the mind, is filled with cases of reckless people being driven to insanity due their mishandling of what can, under Dr. Hoffman's model, be perfectly seen as pretty nasty conscious agents out there somewhere in the psychic soup. Those in the know claim that these things can be kept at bay using some clever tricks which probably play with their own incapacity of being fully materialized into the physical realm. However, a physical body can easily step past a magic circle. The last thing we need are ill-intentioned tricksters from the Void encased inside slick robotic bodies.
That said, I am not entirely sure if it is in human capacity to create actual consciousness further down the line. I think, following Dr. Hoffman's model, the most human engineers will be able to do will be to encapsulate already existing conscious agents, which, following his model, are perhaps infinite in number. That, I think, may bring a moral argument into question. Are we snatching a conscious agent to come here when it is not ready to be here?
Anyway, just rambling. Great interview!
Great discussion, Adrian! Good questions. I enjoyed listening. Thank you!
This is awesome! I've listed to most of donalds stuff available on youtube. Some good shed listening while making handmade demascus knives! Can't wait!
I sometime wonder where people are and what they do while listening to the podcast. It's a cool image to think of someone crafting knives in a shed while listening to Waking Cosmos lol
Great job on the interview! Really enjoyed this conversation. Excited to see how this theory is integrated into modern thinking.
Glad you enjoyed it!
I just love listening to Donald Hoffman, he's brilliant 😊
Me too! :)
my favorite theorist and my favorite podcaster, yay. you two are the best!!
Absolutely brilliant podcast. Well done
NEW SUB HERE! I have listened to 2 other vids of yours and I absolutely love the way you put things and you choice of words. You give a sincere and proper presentation while adding an interesting element to the infomation you share. Thank you so much, Adrian. (I hope I spelled your name correctly, sorry if not.)
Brilliant theory and beautiful mind of Dr. Hoffman. Thank you 🙏
A small dose of psylocibin helped me finally understand that "oneness" that people often talk about. I felt a warm and infinite prescence envelop me. I felt a deep gratitude and understanding of the collective universe and it's purpose. I had felt that sensation one other time in my life, when I was reborn and learned about Jesus for the first time. I can't shake or explain that occurence.
Thanks anything pertaining to Donald Hoffman and Conscious Agent Theory is extremely interesting.
Donald is a brilliant and Courageous Scientist. So thankful for his work. One tiny critique though...Now that you are developing a scientific theory of Fundamental Consciousness, How can you not include that same Consciousness as the fundamental driving force of Evolution and begin recognize natural selection as a relevant but secondary factor. Consciousness guides the genetic journey then maybe what we call natural selection is really just a measure of success or failure. Once science accepts that Consciousness is Fundamental and that the Universe is not a random accident...then its only a matter of time till we realize that the exact same principle is true for Evolution. It too is NOT a random process but instead the Change is driven by a undiscovered Conscious process. Donald probably knows this because its so obvious but cant express it yet because of the backlash from the scientific community. He would immediately be discredited so he has to tip toe around that Transformational Truth! Much respect Donald , your work could change the World some day and bring us closer to the truth!
Fabulous interview! I enjoyed every moment. Felt very at home!
Thank you for opening up new vistas of awareness.hoping it will help me facing life better
Outstanding podcast, thank you, much appreciated : )
Ah, thank you very much!
So fascinating!
Fascinating podcast! So much food for thought.
Awesome! Thanks Patrick!
This is the most interesting thing I've heard in a while. Straight away I get these thoughts: All religions gods, prophets, saints have always suggested all minds everywhere are interconnected! In Hinduism for ex. God exists everywhere in everything (counsciousness), and Maya (illusion) is engulfed at every level of existence, that only the supreme being (Brahman) can not be touched/tricked by. The idea of being enlightened means going level beyond this reality and connecting to that fabric of conciousness network! We also know quantum entanglement suggests consciousness is fundamental!
THANK YOU FOR SHARING !!!.
Amazing discussion ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
A very wonderful interview. Thank u very much
Thank you for a wonderful guest and podcast...subscribed
In terms of split-brained patients, Hoffman’s only explanation for what is happening is that the left and right brains have their own consciousnesses that are revealed after severing the connection between the halves (he does this to push the idea of conscious agents combining). However, as a previous comment from Leo Gallagher brought up, for all we know it could be that rather than us being the combination or unification of two distinct consciousnesses like Star Trek’s Borg, we have one singular consciousness only developed from birth in a normal intact brain, but when the important connection between the brain halves is severed, that same consciousness becomes broken into 2 separated ones. 2 lesser consciousnesses with access to different information stored in their respective hemispheres, leading to differences in thoughts and personality, etc. These kinds of experiments actually lend more support to humans just being biological machines, and that “consciousness” is just something brains “do”. Christian ideas like an underlying “soul” become silly, unless one believes the soul is also divided, or can be divided in half, or can exist in 2 different places or minds at the same time. The more “Frankenstein” experiments that are done, the more it will likely show that, sadly, we are just biological machines with nothing magical or extra beyond it.
This is fascinating. Thank you!
Excellent interview. Excellent questions!
I too feel that Don Hoffman is the most clearly 'on to something' that I have heard to date. Great man!
Thanks a lot Afifah!
Fabulous interview!
Superb!
A poem about Panpsychism.
I am the earth or universe, not one of its animals. My human mind is a creation of the mechanical world, its winds and waters. Intellect means to survive using available tools, which are only the winds and waters. If I can refer to myself then I exist briefly in a form. Later I will continually refer to myself and be aware or know from the constraint of continual reference to myself. Yet I remain the winds and waters which I now know do exist, and to which I now refer!
This is better than a video I watched on a bunch of theoretical physicists not explaining anything or providing something that proves them right.
Around 45:00 you really summarize and clarify the issue well.
absolutely fascinating
I don't feel like those of us who are pursuing truth should feel too rough about it. At least speaking for myself and a lot of people I know it's not like we sought truth and everything went south, more like things were inexplicably going south, there was no pop cultural road map to fix it, ergo we sought truth hoping to find better tools.
Very amazing conversation. I like it.
I love Donald Hoffman! I wish he and Tom Campbell we’re working together since they think so much alike...and their theories are enormously overlapping.
I thought this about the split brain thing many years ago and I’ve wittered on about it to anyone who will listen. I’ve also thought that language exchanged between brains is analogous to the communication between the left and right hemispheres, so when people communicate we create new levels of consciousness that is the people in communication.
However whenever the word ‘infinity’ comes up as if it represents something with meaning in reality, the alarm bells start to ring.
And, as for ‘portals’, well let’s not go there.
Hi Adrian, I've got to the first question you ask Donald ("why might the mind hide reality from itself" or thereabouts) and I realised I think your questions might be more interesting than any answers that can be given, and so think I and other viewers would be grateful if you'd put them to us in your description or somewhere, so we can pre-engage with them.
His views are reminiscent of a book that i read a few years ago entitled "biocentrism". I found it to be a life changing book when I read it. I'm pleased that there are other recognised scientists putting forward the same theory.
Excellent!!!
This is fascinating. I wish I understood it.
I think we are forgetting about biology and how much power it has over us. With these realisation the need to evaluate our situation honestly and have the ability to influence as much power over it as possible is important. By killing off nature we are not harassing it , we are killing ourselves from the inside out in ways we are just discovering. Surely with this understanding you see the importance in creating a positive mindset in all.
Keep moving forward Donald I enjoy your work
Excellent interview with Donald Adrian and a great subject! I had a one with nature experience once where I was sitting on my porch in the country and simply vegging with my dog and 2 cats laying on the lawn. I wasn't thinking, at least not in words but rather seemed to begin experiencing the oneness of everything. Of course my words here don't begin to describe the actual sensation but then I suppose that's the actual thing isn't it? Writers and artists often say they don't know or understand exactly where their ideas flow from and attribute this to a higher muse or consciousness.
As much as I appreciate DH, his faith in the "the thinking that's doing the thinking" is... well, a grand faith. I encourage him to expound on that.
Well my my most profound states of consciousness have surfaced as clumsily as i can say apply words to transnational, transpersonal, transexistential experiences., something very simila4....
being is a dream of dreaming, for its own sake nothing more nothing thing less.. perfect, complete time and space are an illusion of one eternal ever-present moment. Forever Created and uncreated in the eye of eternity.. human consciousness is like a mere glimmer, of the ovdrmind if being.. being is eternal because past present and future exist together in one moment.. nothing can be lost or gained except the illusion of the idea... death is an illusion born from the illusion of life..
Great interview
Love , Light , Awareness , IAM is reality and energy is all the forms on infinite levels of virtual reality ... 😍💖🕊️🎶
Thanks man loved it
Super podcast!💗
Thank you!
i love this
Really an exciting theory. Just thinking out loud. The conscious agents seem to suggest the universe consists of bits (in whatever form we want to think of this either as different quantum wave potential). The conscious agents seem to be similar to Plato’s thinking that the universe consists of ideas (the only true reality) then you have the various agents who interact with these ideas. For example, in the universe various bits (conscious agents) which takes on quanta in an agent as an idea for example as a bed. So the brain is a concentrator of bits into form. The next stage is the agent taking the bed idea and decides to make a model of the bed idea by physically making a thing called a bed.
Thank you...
The essence of consciousness is beyond words and thoughts....
This thing is worth implementing in home,day to day life to test what i intellectually understood.as per my present understanding.
Great content, this triggers the mind.
Thanks! Great to hear!
we can and do interact with this infinite mind in our dreams , our imagination and through its intervention directly in our lives, Read the book - The Truth The Illumination of Conscience
This is excellent, I’d love to see Donald and Stephen Wolfram have a discussion, Donald’s network of conscious agents very much seems like it would pair well with Stephen’s Ruliad
Theory is refreshing and makes sense.
Hoffman may be remembered among the likes of Einstein.
I wish Donald Hoffman had his own CZcams channel. I would certainly subscribe.
Very interesting! Thanks! :)
Oh yeah - I'd love to hear this professor talk about consciousness collapsing the wave on the quantum level. I've wondered for a long time if we probe deeper we will always find something because we are observing it? The farther we look out at the universe the more we will see/find? Great stuff!
I've done dmt... trust me...there is definitely an Infinite Mind and it loves you beyond any comprehension imaginable!!! ❤️
Why is dmt needed to experience it?
@@maplenook it's not "needed" per se, but I've heard nothing but positive reviews of DMT in terms of helping one experience consciousness through the lense of infinite mind
It's certainly not needed though, I would argue that many have likely integrated with this experience by sheer discipline and meditation
Having watched and appreciated much of your output, it occurs to me that physicist Tom Campbell, author of My Big TOE, would be a most eminently suitable guest with whom to explore the nature and meaning of consciousness derived reality .
I just literally finished watching one of your videos that featured Donald Hoffman. Weird synchronicity action 😳
It's the algorithm if CZcams.