Science Time
Science TimeEmbark on a captivating journey with “Donald Hoffman’s Theory on Consciousness – The Greatest Mystery in The Universe.” This thought-provoking video delves into the groundbreaking work of cognitive psychologist Donald Hoffman, challenging our conventional understanding of reality. Have you ever considered that our senses might be deceiving us? That what we perceive as reality could be an intricate illusion crafted by our brains?
Drawing parallels from historical misconceptions about the Earth’s shape and position, we explore the notion that our sensory experiences might be fundamentally misleading. Hoffman’s revolutionary ideas propose that consciousness, not physical matter, is the fundamental essence of the universe. Our video takes you through a fascinating exploration of how billions of neurons and trillions of synapses construct our visual reality, shaping everything we see.
Discover how Hoffman’s theory intersects with quantum mechanics, suggesting that consciousness itself might influence the nature of reality. Is reality a complex network of conscious agents, each shaping others’ experiences? This video invites you to reconsider the relationship between consciousness, the brain, and the universe, opening up new perspectives on life’s greatest mystery.
Join us as we delve into these intriguing theories, sparking debates and discussions in the scientific community. While critics point out the speculative and challenging nature of empirically testing these ideas, there’s no denying their potential to radically transform our understanding of consciousness and reality. Dive into this intellectual adventure and prepare to have your view of the world challenged!
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45 Comments
@henrylow2248
02/21/2025 - 2:41 AM'From out of his infinite superconsciousness, the material universe was created and will be reabsorbed ultimately back into his superconsciousness, one day. This cosmic cycle repeats endlessly'.. Thats what the Vedas said more than 4,000 years ago.
'Universe exists from nothingness to nothingness', say Quantum Physicists. Astronomy shows the presence of supernovas (birth of stars from nothingness) and blackholes (all matter being sucked into nothingness) in the universe.
We are all tiny 'sparks' 'emanated' from out of this superconsciousness and take on many material bodies over many lifetimes, to experience matter, realise its temporariness and thus 'evolve' in our intelligence, as souls, based on the law of action and reaction, on a journey back to our 'source'. or the superconsciousness. Evolution is a therefore a God-ordained phenomenon, necessary for the sake of his souls to seek him..
Nothing exists without this superconsciousness, present in everything and everyone. Our 5 senses are in fact, 'powered' by this spark or 'subtle' body within us, in order to exist in this material world, experience matter and evolve gradually, on the spiritual plane, over many lifetimes and ultimately going back to our 'source'. We are therefore eternal.
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@shred_savage
02/21/2025 - 2:41 AMPseudointellectual word salad.
@saeedsangi9492
02/21/2025 - 2:41 AMWhat about consciousness of a cat?? Although she hav memory, food like dislike, aggression, pleasure, sadness, sex drive n diseases,,, she also see her own fur color she might like the fur color of other cat, a street cat might jealous with a well maintained pet cat.
When she wakeup in morning well known of herself, her area, her friends (other cats), well known of past memory, wel known of dangerous area n enemies..
So my point is, the consciousness is not only limiting to humans its in every living things,, even in atoms,,
Consciousness limiting to humans is superiority complex of humans..
@EntertainingEconomistLLC
02/21/2025 - 2:41 AM"Space-Time is not fundamental, while Consciousness is".
To be honest I thought this while ago, while studying Mādhyamika. Our intentions matter more, in term of the karmic debts, compare to our actions. Actions is a temporary physical habbitts in this lifetime, intention is a mental habbitts through many lifetimes. Both autopilots in a sense, but with a lesser evil. On the level of the Karmic debt, what we think matters more than what we do, really. Intentions become embedded habits, if or when supported by the actions. To put it simply: Reality is what we think and believe in. That's it. My perception of reality and your perception of the same event and at the same time ~ is completely different. Space-Time is not fundamental, while Consciousness is. But… My next question is: Can the Conscious person be Unintelligent?
@kennethdobson-u8k
02/21/2025 - 2:41 AMImagination
@amberforest1969
02/21/2025 - 2:41 AMBut, what if you're blind?
@DavidOwen-g6j
02/21/2025 - 2:41 AMMy profile image is an electrograph of a thought plasma form. This type of image capture is taken in the dark with the finger pads touching the film, surrounded by high voltage electricity. the illumination comes from the subject. Material scientists can never understand the universe, until they learn the true power of Cosmic Mind'
@bruceylwang
02/21/2025 - 2:41 AM“Consciousness is not tied to physical substrates，…” that have been said at least 3000 years already. Donald Hoffman's theory on consciousness is not groundbreaking at all.
Besides, Donald Hoffman did not say what is consciousness agent.
@davidbenfield878
02/21/2025 - 2:41 AMI can and will explain consciousness. It does exist.
@sansabh
02/21/2025 - 2:41 AMI would say that the Field of Consciousness fits in very neatly with what most cultures know as God
@sansabh
02/21/2025 - 2:41 AMThe consciousness field is very real
@isatousarr7044
02/21/2025 - 2:41 AMDonald Hoffman's theory on consciousness represents one of the most intriguing and bold explorations of what he calls the "hard problem of consciousness"—the question of how and why subjective experiences arise. Hoffman, a cognitive scientist and author of The Case Against Reality, proposes that consciousness is not merely a byproduct of physical processes in the brain, as traditionally assumed, but rather the fundamental basis of reality itself. This perspective challenges the conventional scientific paradigm, which treats the physical world as primary and consciousness as secondary.
At the heart of Hoffman's ideas is his Interface Theory of Perception, which suggests that what we perceive as "reality" is not an objective truth but a user interface. Just as the icons on a computer desktop are simplified representations of complex processes, our perceptions are adaptive illusions designed by evolution to aid survival, not to reveal the underlying nature of reality. According to this theory, space, time, and physical objects are not the fundamental structure of existence, but part of the "interface" that consciousness uses to interact with a deeper reality. In this sense, the world we experience is akin to a virtual reality simulation, and consciousness is the observer interacting within it.
Hoffman’s theory flips the traditional materialist view on its head. Instead of matter giving rise to consciousness, he argues that consciousness is the fundamental "substance" of the universe. This idea aligns with philosophical frameworks like idealism, which assert that reality is ultimately mental or experiential in nature. Hoffman suggests that conscious agents—individual units of awareness—interact in a vast, complex network to give rise to the phenomena we perceive as the physical world.
If consciousness is indeed fundamental, it would challenge some of the deepest assumptions in science and philosophy. For instance, the mind-body problem, which has long occupied philosophers, is bypassed in Hoffman’s model. By denying that matter is fundamental, Hoffman proposes that physical processes are not the starting point but are instead interactions between conscious agents. This concept also resonates with interpretations of quantum mechanics, which propose that the observer plays a crucial role in shaping reality, suggesting a deeper relationship between consciousness and the very fabric of spacetime.
Hoffman’s ideas also raise important questions about the nature of artificial intelligence. If consciousness is not tied to physical substrates like the brain, could machines ever possess genuine consciousness, or would they only simulate it? This line of thinking implies that achieving machine consciousness might not depend solely on creating physical systems that mimic the brain, but rather on whether those systems can tap into this network of conscious agents.
Ultimately, Hoffman's work underscores the notion that consciousness is the "greatest mystery" in the universe. While science has made tremendous strides in understanding the brain’s neural processes and correlating them with mental states, it has not explained why or how subjective experience exists. Hoffman’s theory invites us to reconsider the very nature of reality, suggesting that consciousness is not just an epiphenomenon of matter but the very foundation of existence.
His ideas may be controversial, but they push us to explore profound questions: If reality is shaped by consciousness, what does that mean for our understanding of life, death, and the universe? Could we be active participants in constructing the cosmos? And if consciousness is as fundamental as Hoffman suggests, what lies beyond our perception, in the layers of reality we cannot yet access?
In addressing these questions, Hoffman’s theory offers a radical step forward in understanding consciousness, pushing us to rethink the limits of science and philosophy in the process. Whether or not one agrees with his conclusions, his ideas compel us to engage with one of the most profound mysteries of existence.
@jackbailey7037
02/21/2025 - 2:41 AMHopelessly banal stock footage. Rupert Sheldrake and countless mystics have talked about this idea before, in some cases thousands of years before.
@tonymaitland
02/21/2025 - 2:41 AMPlease define consciousness. It is not like gravity (a force of nature) it is the mystery of being aware of awareness (no other animal can do it). Consider: I THINK (in words) THEREFORE I AM (conscious). Consciousness is expressing your awareness in language and sharing with your fellow humans.
@abdidundy3100
02/21/2025 - 2:41 AMSpeculative imagination… building on misinterpretation of quantum theory…. 😁
@WisdomofMindBody
02/21/2025 - 2:41 AM1/3 of neocortex is for our vision. The eye is a fancy camera, and behind that are billions of neurons responsible for creating and constructing "perception" in real time. The neurons are the computer processing chips. The eyes is just giving us Eye candy. 🍭
@billkingston4402
02/21/2025 - 2:41 AMThen we thought Black Friday saved Money
@lakhbinderjitsingh7795
02/21/2025 - 2:41 AMUnified Field , so beautiful but whoever 👁️👀 it actually becomes universe itself by so painful process 🙏🤗🌏
@bonni2267
02/21/2025 - 2:41 AMThe creator set up our environment to give us what we desire.
@FelixTruvere
02/21/2025 - 2:41 AMDr Amit Goswami was onto this over 15 years ago.
@seaside3218
02/21/2025 - 2:41 AMWhat if consciousness is the process of interaction, of one thing imposing its will upon another, of movement, of time.
@concienciafilosofica
02/21/2025 - 2:41 AMIt's a very intriguing theory, but one thing is to claim that the external world as we consciously perceive it is a creation of our brains, and other is to claim that our brains are a creation of our consciousness
@hmdz150
02/21/2025 - 2:41 AMIs consciousness possible without the brain? And even with the brain, is it possible without short term memory (and hippocampus), prefrontal cortex and both hemispheres?
And if consciousness is something beyond our brains, why do we fall unconscious with anesthesia?
Why do people live in vegetative states when they have brain trauma?
So definitely consciousness is there because of our working brains.
@ppmealing
02/21/2025 - 2:41 AMSome of this is not so revolutionary. For example, we create a model of reality in our minds – that's not controversial. What's controversial is that the model in our minds is all that there is, which is what Hoffman used to claim – perhaps he's changed his mind, as he talks here as if all these particles etc do exist outside our minds.
From an evolutionary standpoint, the model allows us to 'interface' with the reality outside our minds, just so we can survive. In other words, if the 'model' inside our heads wasn't a faithful enough rendition of the 'reality' outside our heads, we wouldn't survive long enough to produce the next generation. Which means it's essential to natural selection. That's not controversial either.
But space and time are components of that reality that we do interact with, so the model needs to reflect that, otherwise we wouldn't survive in the world. Just think how important it is to driving a car.
Whether there is something more fundamental than space-time, it might exist outside this universe. The universe has an edge in time (which is why it has an age) and possibly an edge in space, though as far as we can tell, it might well be spatially infinite. As Marcus du Sautoy has pointed out (In his book, What We Cannot Know), if the Universe is infinite (in space) that may remain forever unknowable.
@eshanthasamarasekera5007
02/21/2025 - 2:41 AMIn "Theravada" Buddhism in Sri Lanka, all enlightened "Baghavath Buddhas" appear on earth after eons of life times of purification of the mind, as a fulfilling universal qualification to perfecting qualities of "conscious energies" described in Sri Lankan Buddhist canon/texts "Pali Thripitaka" as "paramitha kamma" (perfectible universal deeds). The Baghvath Buddha has described beings existing in 31 realms. All creations in this universes are "energies" with influence of the "elements" under "causality". The Buddha has described how universal energy called "kamma" manifests in human form through human faculties of seeing, hearing, smelling, taste, touch & mind (past experiences) called aggregates, amalgamating with external world experiences of feelings through the "Human heart " organ as electrical wave signals to develop a "seed" to become "conscious energy" which continues to the brain as a "thought" and this continuation of experience is stored in the "sub conscious" mind in the human brain called "mano" (pali ) (mind) in Buddhism. This" perception " action is called "thought". Thought becomes a conscious energy called "kamma/karma , phenomenon in Buddhism.
@haraldericsson3052
02/21/2025 - 2:41 AMWow, he is so good to.have discovered this without help from the extraterrestrials. In this video you will have the answer what is behind space time and some of the mathematical structure and dynamics behind creation of realities in the headset. Don't miss!
@Jyotijnani
02/21/2025 - 2:41 AMConsciousness is not the content of experience it is the experiencing itself. That power is equivalent to the feeling of existing
@user-if2pt5gc6y
02/21/2025 - 2:41 AMFor those interested, a study of Christ’s Letters from Christ’s Way will yield answers to these questions of consciousness.
@mykrahmaan3408
02/21/2025 - 2:41 AMWe don't need consciousness or atom models, but a PLANT DEVELOPMENT AND GROWTH MODEL.
PLANTS remain the only entity that delivers and sustains 100% of all life in the entire known universe. Hence any description of phenomena that FAILS TO LINK TO IT doesn't deserve to be called KNOWLEDGE.
The only purpose cum the single criterion of proof of all KNOWLEDGE should be:
PRACTICAL SUSTENANCE OF EVIL FREE LIFE ON THIS EARTH.
EVIL, thereby, is defined exhaustively as DISASTERS (earthquakes, volcanos, floods, droughts, storms, accidents), PREDATION (human and animal), DISEASES (including all birth defects, all weapons manufacture, all violence) and DEATH.
Lack of realization of this crucial fact is the reason why the human race, in its entire history, from antiquity to present day, from Thales of Miletus to Stephen Hawking (and still continuing), is yet to derive the mathematical model for the mechanism of even a single natural phenomenon that could PREDICT accurately when it may harm life function, let alone PREVENT such ~ which, in fact, SHOULD be the sole purpose cum the only criterion of proof of all knowledge, yet not found even in the vocabulary of current SCIENCE.
@KraFelgate
02/21/2025 - 2:41 AMIf consciousness didn't exist. The universe doesn't exist.
@suramya03
02/21/2025 - 2:41 AMBefore Galileo, Indians knows many facts, but Westerners hesitate to give credit to them.
@hkk210
02/21/2025 - 2:41 AMSo if our experience of reality is as much a product of evolution as anything else, does that not make us completely unable to gain any sort of fundamental understanding of reality, making the all mighty field of science not much more than a practical tool to solve our basic issues?
@soulbreeda
02/21/2025 - 2:41 AMThe earth is flat.
@philliplalande5752
02/21/2025 - 2:41 AMThis is just panpsychism by another name. Pseudo intellectual nonsense.
@logang6381
02/21/2025 - 2:41 AMAin’t no way u ai generated Donald Hoffmann voice😂👎
@RajagopalRajagopal-s7u
02/21/2025 - 2:41 AMI am an Indian
What is conciousness?
The universe is created by conciousness just as a great artist producing a figure on the wall using his own mind in which the figure is object which We can see with our physical eye and the subject which We can see only by our mind which is formless
That means the material universe has been created by conciousness which is formless and beyond everything which is named as Sidhaakssa or the limitless boundless and eternal space
The space is everything in which every thing, sentient and insentient are created and in which all' created things after modification dissolves. This is cyclic by nature just as death and life. There is no life without death and there is no death' with out life.which our Quantum mechanism proves that every thing comes from one thing and everything goes to the same thing so our space that one thing which is pure conciousness
@DeborahR.Thompson
02/21/2025 - 2:41 AMThe fact that nobody talks about the book whispers of manifestation on borlest speaks volumes about how people are stuck in a trance
@DianeRondana
02/21/2025 - 2:41 AMthere's a book called whispers of manifestation on borlest , and it talks about how using some secret tehniques you can attract almost everything in life it's not some bullshit law of attraction, it's the real deal
@mariadoloresgonzalezalvare2694
02/21/2025 - 2:41 AM😊
@doritataylor2308
02/21/2025 - 2:41 AMDid you ever consider the fact that consciousness its self IS a law of physics on its own? Universe is mind and mind is all.
@darkkrenaissance42
02/21/2025 - 2:41 AMReality isnt "an illusion"… its just the fragments of it we can detect with our limited senses
@jbrink1789
02/21/2025 - 2:41 AMinterconnectedness as a phenomenon. holistic interconnectedness and possibilities
@RomelRivas-m5w
02/21/2025 - 2:41 AMIt never ceases to amaze me how characters, fully trained in the scientific discipline, when they find themselves utterly unable to explain reality at its core helplessly look (helplessly if not cowardly) for a "psychological/mystical sanctuary"???. "God" (or whatever is being searched for) is NOT there. G I VE US A BRAKE!! It disappoints me that a competent academic in science can demote himself by associating w/ the shameless charlatans (who make themselves rich by taking money from the innocent and decent human beings that, for some reason cannot find the courage to say to themselves "hey, wait a minute, let me find out BY MYSELF if this "character" makes L O G I C A L sense or is trying to make themselves rich AT MY expense? Fuck that these C H A R L A T A N S who shield themselves under academic degrees. There are C O U N T L E S S character, specially in religion and mysticism, who are taking advantage of the decent , naive (no disrespect), who are looking for something to believe in, to fill their minds "with a purpose." It is shocking that people w/a perfectly functioning mind do not ASK themselves: STOP AND THINK!!!! "Hey, is he/she or they TAKING ME FOR A SOCCER AND LURING ME TO GIVE THEM MY HARD EARN MONEY!! . . . . just ask yourself. .. . If these "characters" so sincerely care for the well being of their fellow human beings, WHY DO THEY ASK FOR THEIR MONEY (donations or "memberships", if you can believe it) to support their "cause" or "ideology"? I am reminded of a "HEAVEN SENT" who "NEVER IN HIS LIFE ASKED FOR, OF ALL THINGS, EVEN A PENNY for the wonders that he FREELY gave TO ALL. All I'm saying is . . . be ever aware. . . DO NOT let yourselves be their pray($). I wonder how long would they last w/o your $? Here is something to ponder on: It is truly sincere when, and only when, it is freely given.
Please allow me to humbly and respectfully pose the following question for your deep-inside reasoning. . . (this would be God speaking . . to you): IF I AM GOD, CREATOR OF EVERYTHING THERE IS, THE ENTIRE UNIVERSE (including you), WHY (PLEASE THINK), . . WHY WOULD YOU THINK THAT I NEED ANY OF YOUR MONEY????
There is no "DEEPER INTELLIGENCE UNDERNEATH REALITY." There in ONLY . . .. and ONLY, YOUR INTELLIGENCE!
Incidentally, I am ever so respectfully daring to ask of you to ask yourself. . . really deeply inside yourself and YOURSELF ALONE . . . Am I being taken for a ride???? . ….. I would wage you a wager.. .. you are. Like sooo many have through the ages.
Here is a thought. . . . Wouldn't it be more realistic, more genuine, and more sincere (to oneself) if someone makes an honest and sincere effort to find answers to THEIR OWN concerns. . . within?
Also, respectfully, "ignorant" just means "not knowing (in reality) the facts." it does not mean stupid at all, NOT AT ALL.
THERE IS TOOOO MUCH SH#!T ON THE INTERNET NOW. . . WE DO NOT HAVE THE BRAIN CAPACITY TO DEAL WITH IT. BEWARE. PLEASE PROTECT THE YOUNG!
HAVE YOU EVER THOUGHT OF GIVING YOURSELF AND YOUR LOVED ONES A MENTAL/SPIRITUAL AND MORAL BRAKE, AND TURNING IT . . . OFF?
@Ranponist
02/21/2025 - 2:41 AMI think I see what you are saying.
@littlelulu5675
02/21/2025 - 2:41 AMthinking themselves wise they became fools