“What Am I — Qualia, Brahman, Neurons, or just Nothing?”
Donald Hoffman's Interface Theory of Perception (ITP) deconstructs our assumption that we perceive reality as it is. It uses evolutionary game theory to prove that perception is a simplified survival tool, not a window onto objective truth.
Hoffman's mathematical simulations prove that organisms that perceive objective reality accurately are consistently out-competed by organisms that perceive fitness payoffs. Natural selection systematically hides reality, shaping perception for survival.
Space-time is like a computer desktop. A file icon is not the physical file itself; it is only a simplified interface. Similarly, a physical object (like a red apple) is an icon we construct to represent fitness payoffs, hiding the complex reality behind it.
Grounded in recent physics (Nima Arkani-Hamed's amplituhedron), Hoffman argues that space-time is not fundamental but emergent. Space-time is a temporary data structure that simplifies the complexity of interacting conscious agents, which he models as the fundamental reality.
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