Philosophical musings on Quanta & Qualia;  Materialism & Spiritualism; Science & Religion; Pragmatism & Idealism, etc.

The Reality Interface

   Post 105.  December 15, 2019

  Interface : Window to Reality

   Reality is not what you see

 In his doctrine of Transcendental Idealism, 18th century philosopher, Immanuel Kant argued that our perception of reality is limited to constructs created in our own minds to represent the invisible and intangible ultimate reality that he mysteriously labeled “ding an sich” [things-in-essence, as opposed to things-as-we-know-them]. In other words, what we think we see, is not absolute reality but our own ideas about reality. Donald Hoffman calls those mental models “Icons”, serving as symbols that merely represent the unseen information processes within the computer system. Likewise, we can’t know Kant’s ultimate reality directly, because it is transcendent : beyond the space-time realm that our senses are tuned to. That semi-super-natural1 worldview was acceptable to those who believed in an eternal deity, but not to the post-enlightenment Atheists holding to the empirical doctrines of Science. Nevertheless, his theory of extra-sensory reality was very influential among philosophers. And later resurfaced among scientists in the semi-empirical era of Quantum Theory.

Now, cognitive scientist Hoffman has produced an updated version of Kant’s controversial Occult Ontology3. He uses the modern metaphor of computers that we “interface”2 (interact) with, as-if the symbolic Icons on the display screen are the actual things we want to act upon. For example, by clicking on a pixelated folder symbol, we emulate the physical act of locating and opening a manilla folder with important documents. For our practical needs, such short-cuts are sufficient to get the job done. It’s not necessary for us to be aware of all the intricate details of internal computer processes. From his studies, he has concluded that our sensory perceptions have “almost surely evolved to hide reality. They just report fitness”. Even so, humans have also evolved another form of “perception” that we call “conception”. And that’s where the philosophical debates divide. Via conception, we can imagine things we can’t see, and we sometimes find those subjective “ideals” to be more important than the objectively real objects of the physical realm. That sometimes leads to Faith, in which we “believe in things unseen”4.  

 Since Darwinian evolution is all about reproduction, it stands to reason that our senses are attuned to relevant features of the opposite sex. But Hoffman gives examples of how easily humans and animals are deceived by decoys. He notes that “evolutionary psychology reveals that our perception of beauty is an estimate of reproduction potential”. But our estimates are often skewed by irrelevant super-stimuli, such as breast implants, that have little bearing on fitness. Thus, he offers a key insight into Darwin’s theory. “If our senses evolved and were shaped by natural selection, then spacetime and physical objects, like beauty, reside in the eye of the beholder. They inform us about fitness — not about truth or objective reality”. Ironically, some men, with goals other than genetic repro-duction, will not be offended by surgical deception, because their minimum standards of beauty are satisfied by the mere appearance of fitness.        

                   Post 105 continued . . . click Next

3. Occult Ontology :
   Literally “Hidden Reality”. Yet, in practice the meaning of “Occult” and its parallel notion “Metaphysical”, have become associated with the illusions and diversions of stage magic. But those labels are too often used to disparage religious or mystical experiences that are antithetical to the labeler.
   Although Kant’s Transcendent Reality is literally extra-sensory, and therefore hidden, his theory made no allowance for Extra-Sensory Perception, or for Gnostic knowledge of Occult truths.
   Some spiritualists and mystics believe that they can access that higher plane of existence via some form of Enlightenment. But, we have to take their word for it, because their subjective experiences transcend the reach of our physical senses.

4. Things unseen :
   “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.”  Hebrews 11:1

1. Semi-supernatural :
   Envisioning two levels of reality, the apparent and the ultimate. IMHO, Kant didn’t mean that the appearances of our senses are deceptive illusions, but merely that they are useful approxi-mations of objects that are otherwise incomprehensible to our senses, which evolved for human scale objects and energies.
   Modern astrologers do something similar, when they create false-color images of stars whose radiation (X-ray, Radio) is in parts of the light spectrum that the human eye can’t see. Those phenomena transcend our unaided perceptions, but are not spookily supernatural.

2, Interface :
  Noun – A physical medium that enables communication between two levels of reality : the normal human sensory range, and the vast range above and below the limits of perception.
   Verb – to interact   with a person or system.

The Case Against Reality

Why Evolution Hid the Truth From Our Eyes

Donald Hoffman

Cognitive Psychologist

“Interface theory of perception”

Which is real, and which is icon?