All of the stuff we take for granted as making up the world we inhabit — objects, dimensions, qualities, time, causality — are, says Hoffman, not objectively real.
I expect these words to be followed by a redefinition of what “objectively real” means.
There’s really just no resemblance between the interface and the underlying reality at all.
Well, maybe no resemblance of… uhm… the substrate, for example we could be simulated on a computer, and the stuff our universe is made of could be completely different from the stuff the computer is made of.
But there is also the resemblance of… form, like if we experience something in our universe, it is probably in some way represented in the simulated computer. Like, the things we perceive as the laws of physics are in some way a consequence of something in the simulating software. Maybe not 1:1 directly; it could be the case that something we perceive as a basic law could be just some statistical average of the true underlying law.
What I am trying to say is that if our perceptions were utterly disconnected from the true reality, then we wouldn’t be able to make any kinds of predictions, and probably couldn’t even live.
So what is reality composed of? Hoffman’s bet is that it’s consciousness all the way down.
That would be a consciousness of someone who is really obsessed by calculating zillions of numbers precisely. Some kind of Divine Autistic Nerd.
I expect these words to be followed by a redefinition of what “objectively real” means.
Well, maybe no resemblance of… uhm… the substrate, for example we could be simulated on a computer, and the stuff our universe is made of could be completely different from the stuff the computer is made of.
But there is also the resemblance of… form, like if we experience something in our universe, it is probably in some way represented in the simulated computer. Like, the things we perceive as the laws of physics are in some way a consequence of something in the simulating software. Maybe not 1:1 directly; it could be the case that something we perceive as a basic law could be just some statistical average of the true underlying law.
What I am trying to say is that if our perceptions were utterly disconnected from the true reality, then we wouldn’t be able to make any kinds of predictions, and probably couldn’t even live.
That would be a consciousness of someone who is really obsessed by calculating zillions of numbers precisely. Some kind of Divine Autistic Nerd.