Conscious Agent Dynamics – SAND18 US

Video with

We explore the idea that perceptual experiences do not approximate properties of an “objective” world, but provide a simplified, species-specific, user interface to the world. Donald Hoffman introduced it as the Interface Theory of Perception. Hoffman also introduced his Conscious Realism thesis: the objective world consists of a social network of ‘conscious agents’ and their experiences. Thus consciousness creates all objects and properties of the physical world, reversing the traditional mind-body problem.

Using evolutionary game theory, we support interface theory with a theorem saying that perceptual strategies reporting the truth will, under natural selection, be driven to extinction by those tuned instead to fitness.

A mathematically precise definition of “conscious agents” is proposed, leading to a non-dualistic, dynamical theory of conscious process in which both observer and observed have the same structure, with many possible interfaces.

In support of conscious realism, we then discuss two theorems showing that a conscious agent can see geometric and probabilistic structures that are not necessarily in the world but properties of the conscious agent itself and different agents may see the world as having different (even incompatible!) structures. We will also discuss a way in which interfaces represent a dramatic compression of information which is functional to the agent.

This suggests that space-time is a description of location and dynamics on the perceptual interface of human conscious agents; that the “objects” of Physics are akin to icons on that interface; and that “phenomena” appear as the interactions those icons seem — to us — to be having.

What motivates a species to evolve its particular interface? Federico Faggin has proposed a mechanism for the evolution of interfaces: that it is the desire for comprehension, or self-knowing, that drives this evolution. What is required next is a theory of the process of self-knowing.

Judaism and Psychedelics

Article by

If you’re Jewish, there’s something about psychedelics that you might find familiar

Songs of Deep Ocean

Article by

Listen to the mysterious sound of the deepest part of the ocean

Notes on Complexity: Neil Theise

Article by ,

A Buddhist Scientist on the Murmuration of Being

Spider Dreams

Article by

Jumping spiders have REM-like twitches when they sleep, suggesting dreams may be much more widespread in the animal kingdom than previously realized

Earth’s Wild Music: Kathleen Dean Moore

Article by

Celebrating and Defending the Songs of the Natural World

Supermassive Black Holes

Video with

This new NASA animation highlights the “super” in supermassive black holes. These monsters lurk in the centers of most big galaxies, including our own Milky Way, and contain between 100,000 and tens of billions of times more mass than our Sun.

Connection to Source via the Cerebrospinal Fluid

Video with

Investigate the cerebrospinal fluid and integrate new research to evolve the hypothesis of The Cerebrospinal fluid and I Am

Metamorphoses

Article by

We are all fascinated by the mystery of metamorphosis

Support SAND with a Donation

Science and Nonduality is a nonprofit organization. Your donation goes directly towards the development of our vision and the growth of our community.
Thank you for your support!