What If Reality Isn’t Real? With Dr. Donald Hoffman

James Beshara (0:00)

Welcome back to the Magic Minds podcast. Today's episode, and it's been a little while since the last one, but man, this episode is worth the wait. It's a live conversation with Dr. Donald Hoffman, recorded with our community, bunch of Magic Minders, packed room in Los Angeles. And it is a doozy. Dr. Donald Hoffman is a cognitive scientist and neuroscientist based here in Southern California that has been lighting the internet on fire with the work that he's been doing for the last 40 years with he and his team. They're probably going to win a Nobel Prize here in the next few years, by the way. But especially in the last six to seven years, with their discoveries around what we are perceiving, what we see, taste, touch in this universe, and its connection or lack thereof to reality. It is mind-blowing to say the least. I'll give you a little bit of a teaser that their math a few years ago, seems to suggest that the chances that we can perceive reality as it is, that what we see, taste, touch, feel, smell, what we perceive, the chances that it is what's really happening, the base layer of the universe, that it's reality instead of just a representation of something else that seems to be happening beneath the surface. The chances that we can perceive reality according to their math is zero percent, zero percent chance that what we are seeing is reality according to them and their math. Take it or leave it. Certainly is math above my pay grade, but it is a conversation that I think will blow anybody away with just the things that they are proposing, finding and proving out. So without further delay, let's get into it with the one and only Dr. Donald Hoffman, someone that I think is a name that we are going to hear a lot about in the next few years. So let's jump in. Welcome everyone. So fun to see this many faces on a Friday night for a topic that is near and dear to me, but it's my wife is here. She knows that I will bore people like crazy at dinner. When I start just diving into this topic, so it's really fun to see a community of like-minded people that also want to dive into this topic, especially when we get to do it with Dawn. Come on up, Dawn. Feel free to grab a seat. Let's see the preview. And then we are delighted to get to have this conversation with you, Dawn, and I'll give a little bit of an intro and background on Dawn. And then we're going to chat for about 45 minutes, just us, and then open it up for Q&A with you all. And that's one of the most special aspects of a live event like this, is it's not just something to listen to and listen to someone else. Interview Dawn, and also if you have any burning questions on this work, whether it's coming to this talk or on anything that we touch on in the next 45 minutes, feel free to raise your hand, and we've got a microphone for you. Dawn is, Dr. Donald Hoffman is at the forefront of consciousness studies in a way that no scientist has really attacked before, and that is through mathematics, through rigorous scientific study around reality. I could talk about consciousness, but really it's deeper than just consciousness. It's him and his colleagues, which we have a few of them here as well, so if any physics questions come up, you guys might get the microphone and have to answer as well. But this topic, I will go so far as to say, I have a feeling Don and his colleagues are gonna win a Nobel Prize in the next few years, if sometimes it takes 20 But I think one of the things that we have a chance to do tonight is hear from someone that is not only lighting up the internet with his podcast conversations around this topic, but also can explain it so beautifully, simply for a little simple Texas brain like myself, and make this topic not only go to the way deep end of the pool in the science, but also in the shallow end to explain why this work is so fascinating. Not just important, but fascinating for us tonight, and at least I'll speak for myself. For me, we have chatted and known each other for a few years, and every six months or so, you seem to come up with some new piece of information that relights up the internet, and especially in the last year or so, you've been crowd favored on some of my favorite podcasts, and well, some of the top podcasts around the world. So some of the most popular podcasts around this topic. And as a cognitive scientist, I'd love to kick it off by asking you, how do you describe, in your own words, the work that you do?