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Comment by cs1996 | Hacker News Reader

cs1996

the content from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LyJwr4O03Hc is what made me think of this:

"Dr. Donald Hoffman challenges the traditional scientific view that physical matter and spacetime are fundamental. Instead, he argues that consciousness is the foundational reality, while spacetime acts merely as a virtual reality headset that renders objects only when we perceive them. Hoffman introduces recursive trace logic, a mathematical framework suggesting that our physical existence is a low-probability, training wheels version of a much broader, disembodied conscious network."

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> Instead, he argues that consciousness is the foundational reality, while spacetime acts merely as a virtual reality headset that renders objects only when we perceive them

This is called Idealism. It's a very very old idea, and a totally unsatisfying one.

> https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/idealism/

It is, I think, wholly unconvincing. It is at root solipsistic, and far beyond any notion of proof or validation. Saying that "consciousness is the fundamental thing" (and ignoring that there are perfectly mundane explanations for consciousness) reduces all of physics to black-box metaphysics.

You still need to reason and predict physical phenomena. You could run the world on black-box metaphysics if black-box metaphysics has math that works better. How does Platonism help us there?

Not much. That's the problem. If the universe is a projection of the self, that's fine if true, that's valid if true. We want to believe in things that are true even if they violate our sense of phenomenological aesthetics. But if true, I'm gonna need you to manifest me a million dollars or interrogate your soul for the winning powerball numbers tomorrow. I'll wait.

Why did the people die of famine, papa?

They didn't ideate food, dear.

--- Very unsatisifying indeed. I've always thought of it as the human penchant for escapism. In casu trying to interpret the world so that we control it. Which brings us back to Freud and the human condition: We are born trying to control things around us, fighting against our limits and learning to live with them.

I thoroughly enjoyed that. I plan to read it again later while stoned.

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