Spacetime is just a headset: An interview with Donald Hoffman

This is such blatant nonsense, given the very basics of physics, that I refuse every other idea he then pukes up that is supported by this nonsense.

It is that simple. The basics are wrong, everything else is wrong.

What is force? What is mass?

We Know Exactly What Consciousness Is — Don’t Let Anyone Tell You Otherwise

Casper Wilstrup 

Perhaps you would proceed to define mass in terms of other physical properties, say energy and velocity, or perhaps force and acceleration. But then, what is force? What is energy?

If you continue this game, you will find that you are inevitably led down a never-ending spiral of definitions and questions. It won’t be long until you are back to the starting point — to mass. Try as you might, you will find yourself entrapped in a circular argument, going round and round ad infinitum. That is, of course, until you bring consciousness into the mix. You see, mass is something that is experienced or sensed by us in certain ways under certain conditions. With this reference to our own consciousness, we find a way to end the infinite loop.

This plants a big flagpole in a crucial point that is strangely often overlooked. Physics was not created to describe some external, objective world. Rather, it was created to explain how something that we label as the ‘objective world’ is experienced by conscious beings such as ourselves...

If you continue this game, you will find that you are inevitably led down a never-ending spiral of definitions and questions.

This is called a rabbit hole for a reason, it is a nonsense exercise that proves nothing and changes nothing. It has no intrinsic value, no added value, and does nothing to change anything about life, or to help people discover or develop any Psi skills.

What difference would it make to your actual life or skills to think like this?

Can't you see the mind trap here and how it draws you in with total nonsense and hogwash thinking that waste your time and do nothing for you?

Speculation is an interesting exercise for the brain. Asserting these beliefs are reality without any valid evidence, or any useful application, is a total waste of time and energy.

This is called a rabbit hole for a reason, it is a nonsense exercise that proves nothing and changes nothing. It has no intrinsic value, no added value, and does nothing to change anything about life, or to help people discover or develop any Psi skills.

What difference would it make to your actual life or skills to think like this?

Can't you see the mind trap here and how it draws you in with total nonsense and hogwash thinking that waste your time and do nothing for you?

Speculation is an interesting exercise for the brain. Asserting these beliefs are reality without any valid evidence, or any useful application, is a total waste of time and energy.

Scientists speculate all the time?

I am unsure how much theoretical physics is going to yield a path to Psi powers, or any other immediate utility.

But I think whether some speculation is useful or not is very dependent on the person. In terms of developing Psi powers some [might] find the idea that the universe is fundamentally mental to be more conducive to such practice.

So @Sci , I ask you a simple question. What good does any of this do you?

If people think the world is simply some consciousness soup, or a reflection of the mind interacting with other conscious blobs, and nothing exists without your mind, or if they believe in a quasi-simulated place with conscious place holders that EVERYONE shares in the same way, interactively, with an entire universe, what does that say about the human ego? Hoffman thinks the ego is hiding reality, and only treats 'symbols' as reality. Yet he has nothing to show for whatever he believes in.

To support this nonsense, the human ego actually becomes the center of everything, and nothing exists without you viewing it or interacting with it. Yet all of the universe with all the parts are conscious agents to him. One goal being to move toward a deeper "infinite intelligence" by realizing that the ego is a 'limiting set of concepts'...

You can't even make breakfast without your limited set of concepts, and he shows no way to reach some god-like status of infinite intelligence. So it is again just a bunch of fancy words and speculations with nothing of value.

I would then challenge you to change one simple part of reality, in a lab under controlled conditions, which should be easy since it is all just figments of your mind interacting with figments at large.

So @Sci , I ask you a simple question. What good does any of this do you?

If people think the world is simply some consciousness soup, or a reflection of the mind interacting with other conscious blobs, and nothing exists without your mind, or if they believe in a quasi-simulated place with conscious place holders that EVERYONE shares in the same way, interactively, with an entire universe, what does that say about the human ego? Hoffman thinks the ego is hiding reality, and only treats 'symbols' as reality. Yet he has nothing to show for whatever he believes in.

To support this nonsense, the human ego actually becomes the center of everything, and nothing exists without you viewing it or interacting with it. Yet all of the universe with all the parts are conscious agents to him. One goal being to move toward a deeper "infinite intelligence" by realizing that the ego is a 'limiting set of concepts'...

You can't even make breakfast without your limited set of concepts, and he shows no way to reach some god-like status of infinite intelligence. So it is again just a bunch of fancy words and speculations with nothing of value.

I would then challenge you to change one simple part of reality, in a lab under controlled conditions, which should be easy since it is all just figments of your mind interacting with figments at large.

Most ideas that go into the deeper fundamentals of space-time are not going to help me make breakfast. General Relativity and ideas like the Block Universe also don't have much relevance to my life in the day to day.

As for developing replicable psychic powers...Do you think someone with incredible psychic powers has, by necessity, deep insights into reality?

Last I checked at least one guy involved with the Akashic Records concept was a pedophile?

Last I checked at least one guy involved with the Akashic Records concept was a pedophile?

I'll bite. Who is this? And, what weight does this one person have on a shared experience that many people of great skill and talent have experienced and talked about? Many of these people using this to help people with health issues, mental health issues, and actual helpful life advice? A useful application and a useful talent...

And, what does this have to do with the useless Don Hoffman nonsense views?

The experience of a record of all things can be traced to ancient Egypt and India, likely deeper if I dig hard enough. It is sad that we have to live with the fact that an author hanging out with no-skill cult people made this terminology popular a bit more than a century ago. 

But, what is your point, other than trying desperately to aggravate me with off-topic comments intended to trash other subjects that have more value? Is this just some kind of lashing out?

The very skilled and now deceased Sean Harribance could give you information just by looking at your picture, whether that is gleaned from someone's memory that is alive, or from some storage system, or from wherever, should be the focus of intense study and experimentation, because it supplies accurate results. Perhaps these come from some form of record or storage. That is worth speculating, because it becomes a useful trove of data that we can use for all sorts of things, even solving crimes.

This topic is certainly more interesting and helpful than speculating about whether or not the entire universe can be experienced using some unachievable 'infinite intelligence'...

I'll bite. Who is this? And, what weight does this one person have on a shared experience that many people of great skill and talent have experienced and talked about? Many of these people using this to help people with health issues, mental health issues, and actual helpful life advice? A useful application and a useful talent...

And, what does this have to do with the useless Don Hoffman nonsense views?

The experience of a record of all things can be traced to ancient Egypt and India, likely deeper if I dig hard enough. It is sad that we have to live with the fact that an author hanging out with no-skill cult people made this terminology popular a bit more than a century ago. 

But, what is your point, other than trying desperately to aggravate me with off-topic comments intended to trash other subjects that have more value? Is this just some kind of lashing out?

The very skilled and now deceased Sean Harribance could give you information just by looking at your picture, whether that is gleaned from someone's memory that is alive, or from some storage system, or from wherever, should be the focus of intense study and experimentation, because it supplies accurate results. Perhaps these come from some form of record or storage. That is worth speculating, because it becomes a useful trove of data that we can use for all sorts of things, even solving crimes.

This topic is certainly more interesting and helpful than speculating about whether or not the entire universe can be experienced using some unachievable 'infinite intelligence'...

Oh I thought Leadbeater's scandals are pretty well known? 

My point is that Akashic Records, as an idea, seem more likely to enable harmful cultish behavior than Hoffman's rather complex scientific ideas.

As for ancient Egypt and India, last I checked those people didn't think Akashic Records were a counter-argument to Survival? But this discussion is probably better fit for the NDE-Survival discussion in another thread.

I have no idea who Harribance was, or if he could perform what you claim. 

What still confuses me is this idea that Hoffman, to put forward his theory, must demonstrate some psychic power. Hoffman is working from philosophy and science to put forward a theory about the nature of reality, which would be true whether or not psychic powers exist.

One doesn't have to agree with this theories - for example I don't** - but it's counterproductive to attack his ideas without first familiarizing yourself with them. 

** Just to note I post stuff here that I think people would find of interest. That is not a personal endorsement, and really it wouldn't make sense since some of the stuff I post contradicts the other stuff.

As for developing replicable psychic powers...Do you think someone with incredible psychic powers has, by necessity, deep insights into reality?

And, to answer this question, I think I tend to listen and speculate more when someone who actually has powers says anything about anything. 

You may not be aware of it, but I'm one of those Psi people. Psi certainly doesn't have to supply some extra insight. But my reality is certainly much different than most, because of how I live and what I experience. And even when my world is already different than some standard reality, I am totally fine with known physics and all that entails. This world is what it is, without any input from any of the giant ego's of any human beings.

Sean Harribance didn't have deep insights, he trusted in his religious views. He had no clue how he does what he does, he simply asks for an angel, or 'calls' them down, and they tell him things. But, if he had told me something similar to what Hoffman is claiming, because of his energetic clarity that most of us don't have, I would pay attention and give it more attention because it is Sean Harribance. And, we did have conversations about how his skills might function. Perhaps I will share those some day.

I don't see any problems with my willingness to trust more in people who have skills, or in my eagerness to listen to people who can actually do amazing things. 

Are you saying that people who actually have Psi skills and talents wouldn't have better insights into Psi questions and other important aspects of existence? 
Or are you saying that they don't necessarily stand equal to the ideas of people like Hoffman because Psi isn't a guarantee that they are as smart as him?
People like Hoffman often drop off the deep end of sanity because what they study and think about are nothing but rabbit holes of endless nonsense.
Smart is no protection from mental illness or insanity, obviously...

So, I'm not sure where your comment was going, but I hope I covered it.

To top that off, why would my personal comments or beliefs make any difference to yours? Are you saying your way or the highway?
And why do you feel the need to try and challenge my opinion of Hoffman without giving me something solid you personally get from his rants? This appears to be a one-way street of beating up on anyone by letting them comment and then attacking.
What good will any of Hoffman's statements make to you personally, or in your life? You haven't answered any of my questions.

Many occult and esoteric systems promote altering or abandoning the ego, and now we have brain experiments showing that shutting down the frontal lobe portions (ego related) can improve psychokinesis, at least in that on-screen experiment.

So, Hoffman wouldn't be the first to state that the ego is an issue to overcome. If he had overcome it, he would have Psi skills, I can almost guarantee that. So since he doesn't, he hasn't, and he doesn't even know what it means to bypass the ego and see the future, where someone as argumentative and stubborn as myself has. I'm certainly not as smart, but I'm not going to follow him because it is obviously such a useless endeavor that supplies no skills.

Therefore, he is a nobody to me, and his ideas are not anything of value, and produce no positive results for anyone.

I would rather have gone to church with Sean Harribance than listen to any more Hoffman nonsense, and I don't like church at all, or that religion, and consider it a total waste of time. That never bothered Sean, to each his own.
 

Of course Psi talent doesn't guarantee that anyone is right or wrong, or smarter. But, from any energetic existence standpoint with evidence backing it, I will take the actual evidence and thoughts of the person involved in accurate Psi, and not some scientist that has no clue and has never experienced it. Being one of those people myself, I call Hoffman out on his useless ideas that do nobody any good.

last I checked those people didn't think Akashic Records were a counter-argument to Survival?

Now you totally lost me. What does this have to do with Hoffman again?

I never said anything about Akashic Records being counter to survival. I mentioned them as another source for information that needs to stay on the table while discussing where survival information comes from. We can't just assume that every memory of some past life is 100% always a real memory and from a past life.
We can't assume that anything is just one cause and effect, or one source, or even that all reports are real.

So, please don't try and make it seem like I state things I don't state, or put false data out there like I promote it.

And why are you now so off-topic?

And, to answer this question, I think I tend to listen and speculate more when someone who actually has powers says anything about anything. 

You may not be aware of it, but I'm one of those Psi people. Psi certainly doesn't have to supply some extra insight. But my reality is certainly much different than most, because of how I live and what I experience. And even when my world is already different than some standard reality, I am totally fine with known physics and all that entails. This world is what it is, without any input from any of the giant ego's of any human beings.

Sean Harribance didn't have deep insights, he trusted in his religious views. He had no clue how he does what he does, he simply asks for an angel, or 'calls' them down, and they tell him things. But, if he had told me something similar to what Hoffman is claiming, because of his energetic clarity that most of us don't have, I would pay attention and give it more attention because it is Sean Harribance. And, we did have conversations about how his skills might function. Perhaps I will share those some day.

I don't see any problems with my willingness to trust more in people who have skills, or in my eagerness to listen to people who can actually do amazing things. 

Are you saying that people who actually have Psi skills and talents wouldn't have better insights into Psi questions and other important aspects of existence? 
Or are you saying that they don't necessarily stand equal to the ideas of people like Hoffman because Psi isn't a guarantee that they are as smart as him?
People like Hoffman often drop off the deep end of sanity because what they study and think about are nothing but rabbit holes of endless nonsense.
Smart is no protection from mental illness or insanity, obviously...

So, I'm not sure where your comment was going, but I hope I covered it.

To top that off, why would my personal comments or beliefs make any difference to yours? Are you saying your way or the highway?
And why do you feel the need to try and challenge my opinion of Hoffman without giving me something solid you personally get from his rants? This appears to be a one-way street of beating up on anyone by letting them comment and then attacking.
What good will any of Hoffman's statements make to you personally, or in your life? You haven't answered any of my questions.

Many occult and esoteric systems promote altering or abandoning the ego, and now we have brain experiments showing that shutting down the frontal lobe portions (ego related) can improve psychokinesis, at least in that on-screen experiment.

So, Hoffman wouldn't be the first to state that the ego is an issue to overcome. If he had overcome it, he would have Psi skills, I can almost guarantee that. So since he doesn't, he hasn't, and he doesn't even know what it means to bypass the ego and see the future, where someone as argumentative and stubborn as myself has. I'm certainly not as smart, but I'm not going to follow him because it is obviously such a useless endeavor that supplies no skills.

Therefore, he is a nobody to me, and his ideas are not anything of value, and produce no positive results for anyone.

I would rather have gone to church with Sean Harribance than listen to any more Hoffman nonsense, and I don't like church at all, or that religion, and consider it a total waste of time. That never bothered Sean, to each his own.
 

Of course Psi talent doesn't guarantee that anyone is right or wrong, or smarter. But, from any energetic existence standpoint with evidence backing it, I will take the actual evidence and thoughts of the person involved in accurate Psi, and not some scientist that has no clue and has never experienced it. Being one of those people myself, I call Hoffman out on his useless ideas that do nobody any good.

Can you prove your Psi abilities to me?

I don't think Hoffman's views need to add anything to my life, any more than the Block Universe needs to. You seem to assume Hoffman is trying to start a cult, an accusation that has no evidence.

Hoffman is a scientist who doesn't think "physical" substance can produce conscious, and so he believes it's more fruitful to start with the idea that Mind produces matter. He wants to show this theory can produce physics as well as any of the theoretical ideas out there on the origins of space-time.

AFAIK Hoffman hasn't even said psychic powers are real, and his idea of an Ur-Mind seems quite different from a God who dispenses favors and keeps people from going to a Hell this same God created.

Still waiting for some sign you actually read/watched anything of Hoffman's work...