#165 - Donald Hoffman: "Consciousness Within Space-Time Is Doomed"
Show notes
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Donald Hoffman is the cognitive scientist whose own maths told him reality isn't what it seems. Around 1986, after seven years modelling perception, the equations said we render the world on the fly, and he has been recovering ever since. Now Professor Emeritus at UC Irvine, he has founded the Trace Institute to rebuild physics from conscious observers, starting outside spacetime. Its first collaboration, with Andrew Gallimore, asks whether DMT entities are glimpses beyond the headset.
Expect to learn:
- The Trace: the 121-year-old maths behind every observer window
- Zero For Trillions: why no theory of consciousness explains a single experience
- The Nose Test: why seeing your own nose shows how restricted your headset is
- The DMT Experiment: passing information through an entity under controlled conditions
- Mach 40: what UFOs might look like to someone with the headset's source code
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GS EPISODES MENTIONED
Andrew Gallimore - No.1 DMT Neurobiologist: Alien Worlds, DMT Entity Encounters, Attractor States and Consciousness: https://youtu.be/USgWrxEFWDA
Michael Graziano - Is This Greatest Consciousness Theory You’ve Never Heard Of: https://youtu.be/ZnasmLpY5_8
David Luke - Meet the Professor of Paranormal Consciousness - DMT Entities, Telepathy Tapes & OBE's: https://youtu.be/qLKD1gt1X5o
Karl Friston - Meet The Neuroscientist Who Created The Best Universal Theory Of Brain Function: https://youtu.be/R-IZOFs4qmY
GUEST LINKS
Trace Institute Profile: https://traceinstitute.org/people/donald-hoffman/
Trace Institute Website: https://www.traceinstitute.org/
Trace Institute YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TraceInstitute
X: https://x.com/donalddhoffman
UC Irvine: https://sites.socsci.uci.edu/~ddhoff/
The Case Against Reality (2019): https://wwnorton.com/books/9780393254693
Trace × Andrew Gallimore (DMT research): https://traceinstitute.org/collaborations/gallimore/
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TIMESTAMPS
0:00:00 Trailer
0:02:45 The Biggest Unsolved Problem In Science
0:05:38 Physicists Say Spacetime Is Doomed
0:11:03 Dennett, Graziano And The Illusion Of Consciousness
0:14:35 What Is A Trace? Markov Chains Made Simple
0:22:23 The Discovery That Founded The Trace Institute
0:26:10 Recursive Trace Logic: How Observers Become Agents
0:31:27 The CCTV Metaphor For Reality
0:37:01 Why There's Always A Nose In Your Vision
0:41:08 How Big Is Reality Beyond The Interface?
0:43:10 What "Consciousness Is Fundamental" Actually Means
0:52:43 Consciousness Science Has Explained Zero Experiences
0:58:03 Does Your Consciousness Belong To You?
1:01:57 If Consciousness Is One, Why Isn't Telepathy Common?
1:08:16 "I Have No Neurons"
1:11:13 The Maths That Slapped Him In 1986
1:20:04 Andrew Gallimore And The DMT Entity Experiment
1:26:34 The Swami Who Showed Zero Powers
1:32:08 The DMT Mantis And Why Reports Are So Consistent
1:37:28 Are DMT Entities Real, Or Just Icons?
1:46:35 Nine Conjectures To Rebuild All Of Physics
1:49:29 UFOs At Mach 40
1:50:19 Neuroscience As Headset Engineering
1:57:13 Hacking The Source Code Of Reality
2:04:28 AI Is "Dumber Than Cucumbers"
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