Hoffman: The Interface Theory of Perception

The Interface Theory of Perception

Abstract

Our perceptual capacities are products of evolution and have been shaped by natural selection. It is often assumed that natural selection favors veridical perceptions, namely, perceptions that accurately describe those aspects of the environment that are crucial to survival and reproductive fitness. However, analysis of perceptual evolution using evolutionary game theory reveals that veridical perceptions are generically driven to extinction by equally complex non-veridical perceptions that are tuned to the relevant fitness functions. Veridical perceptions are not, in general, favored by natural selection. This result requires a comprehensive reframing of perceptual theory, including new accounts of illusions and hallucinations. This is the intent of the interface theory of perception, which proposes that our perceptions have been shaped by natural selection to hide objective reality and instead to give us species-specific symbols that guide adaptive behavior in our niche.

Excerpts:

The results of Monte Carlo simulations are now buttressed by the Fitness-Beats-Truth (FBT)Theorem: For an infinitely large class of generically chosen worlds, for generically chosen probabilities of states on the worlds, and for generically chosen fitness functions, an organism that accurately estimates reality is never, in an infinite class of evolutionary games, more fit than an organism of equal complexity that does not estimate objective reality but is instead tuned to the relevant fitness functions.

But ITP says something far more radical. The Fitness-Beats-Truth Theorem entails that the probability is one that the very predicates of our perceptions — space, time, objects, colors, motions, pitch, tembre, tastes, smells — are simply the wrong predicates to describe reality as it is. None of our perceptions are veridical.

For instance the amplitude of a sound, which is standardly assumed to be an objective property of an observer-independent physical stimulus, and its perceived loudness, which is standardly assumed to be an observer dependent subjective experience, both reside within the interface. The sound wave itself travels in spacetime, and therefore inhabits the spacetime interface of H. sapiens. Its amplitude, therefore, cannot be an observer-independent feature of objective reality. The psychophysical laws relating amplitude and loudness do not relate objective reality and perception, just different levels of the interface. Measurements of the acoustic level require the aid of technology, but this technology itself resides in our spacetime interface and yields reports couched in the predicates of our spacetime interface (Hoffman 2013).

[Laird]

From this link, Sci? http://cogsci.uci.edu/~ddhoff/Hoffman-St...ndbook.pdf

Ah yes, apologies will add the link!

The Origin of Time In Conscious Agents

Studies of the evolution of perception using evolutionary games and genetic algorithms reveal that natural selection routinely drives veridical perceptions (i.e.,perceptions that resemble the truth) to quick extinction when they compete against perceptions that are non-veridical and tuned to fitness. This motivates an interface theory of perception, which proposes that our perceptions are not windows on truth, but are more like the windows interface of a PC. The icons on the desktop of a PC allow us to use the computer without being distracted by irrelevant details about its internal structure and operation. Similarly, our perceptions allow us to act adaptively in the world while being ignorant of its true structure. Space-time is our species-specific desktop and physical objects are icons on that desktop. Space-time and physical objects are not insights into objective reality, but species-specific adaptations that allow us to survive and reproduce. This requires a radical reformulation of our notion of the nature of objective reality, and of our notion of time. In light of the evolutionary results, I propose that consciousness, rather than space-time and physical objects, is fundamental. I propose a formal model of consciousness based on a mathematical structure called conscious agents. I then propose how time and space emerge from the interactions of conscious agents.

[Laird]

I still haven't dug into this theory via the original links, but I came across this discussion in a video posted to Facebook which others might find as interesting as I found it:

https://www.facebook.com/ZDoggMD/videos/...792991723/