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Cognitive psychologist Donald Hoffman argues that evolution has cloaked us in a perceptional virtual reality. For our own good.
The idea that we can't perceive objective reality in totality isn't new. We know everyone comes installed with cognitive biases and ego defense mechanisms. Our senses can be tricked by mirages and magicians. And for every person who sees a duck, another sees a rabbit.
But Hoffman's hypothesis, which he wrote about in a recent issue of New Scientist, takes it a step further. He argues our perceptions don't contain the slightest approximation of reality; rather, they evolved to feed us a collective delusion to improve our fitness.
Using evolutionary game theory, Hoffman and his collaborators created computer simulations to observe how "truth strategies" (which see objective reality as is) compared with "pay-off strategies" (which focus on survival value). The simulations put organisms in an environment with a resource necessary to survival but only in Goldilocks proportions.
Consider water. Too much water, the organism drowns. Too little, it dies of thirst. Between these extremes, the organism slakes its thirst and lives on to breed another day.
Truth-strategy organisms who see the water level on a color scale — from red for low to green for high — see the reality of the water level. However, they don't know whether the water level is high enough to kill them. Pay-off-strategy organisms, conversely, simply see red when water levels would kill them and green for levels that won't. They are better equipped to survive.
"Evolution ruthlessly selects against truth strategies and for pay-off strategies," writes Hoffman. "An organism that sees objective reality is always less fit than an organism of equal complexity that sees fitness pay-offs. Seeing objective reality will make you extinct."
Since humans aren't extinct, the simulation suggests we see an approximation of reality that shows us what we need to see, not how things really are.
Meanwhile, European researchers say Objective reality may not exist. At least, on the subatomic scale.
(Score: -1, Offtopic) by zugedneb on Thursday January 30 2020, @11:16AM
These topics are treated the same as modern history in communistic country in basic education, that is, it was not present.
Instead, there was an unrivalled presentation of ancient history, not quite how we left africa, but all ancient migrations and civilisations up to roman empire...
Now, suppose that you are taking the license exam to become an _Ancienct_Alien_ (TM), who is allknowing mostly, and the examinator is not interested in your skills in reading and memorizing things.
Instead, he gives you objects from history, and you have to outline, in general, the evolutionary steps and conditions that formed them...
Please, in the comments below, tell me the evolution of the followng objects, or what level of civilisation can conjure up the objects, in case they do not exist. Also, pls tell me, if the object exists, or the role can be taken by some other entity =)
- ninjas
- darth vader
- wimmin
- jews
- agent smith
- my little pony
hints:
- darth vader: abstract presence of authority, usefule to have in the back of your head, instead of say, virgin mary, in certain situations.
- wimmin: physically weak organism, protected by stronger to raise the offspring. organism in question is batshit insane, since it had to endure evolution with having its partners and offsprings gallivanting off on different missions, and dying.
- jews: higher intellect that, and society that seems to have lost the warrior cast, and generates soft and intelligent offsprings optimal for adapting and socially hacking the civilian part of a stable society. can not survive on their own, since can not deffend territory. they seem to live in the oblivion of the fact that higher level military personnel are able to sense the awareness and intents in others, and seem also unaware of the executive order given by mister Darwin himself to protect the transcendental mind at all costs. and hence they keep lying about being persecuted and executed in mass by higher civilisations. ancient jewish sayng: hardship does not happen others. also old jewish saying: only jewish lives matter...
- agent smith: anthropomorphic personification of the "general agent" aspect of the consciousness, when the "being", that is the emo part, has been attenuated. it is present in most men, but not wimmin.
by and large, u could replace all of soft "siences" with my writings, and u would not even loose a bit =)
also, lot more rageposting potentiol with my writings =)
old saying: "a troll is a window into the soul of humanity" + also: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Ajax