Donald Hoffman, a cognitive scientist from the University of California, states that our perceptions are not a direct reflection of the objective world but rather a user interface designed by evolution. In his "Interface Theory of Perception"
Hoffman argues that the reality we believe to perceive is not the objective "real" reality but an interface created by our brains to facilitate our existence by simplifying the scope of our perceptions, this is to say, an interface created for practical reasons since, the implication being, pure or total reality - whatever it might be- is impractical and poses in some unknown way a direct threat to our survival. Hoffman compares this interface to a computer desktop, where the icons on the screen represent files and programs but are not the actual files or programs themselves.
It's a bit like Magritte's famous painting "The Treachery of Images" or, to go straight to the point, we are back to Western philosophy being a series of endless footnotes on Plato's "Theory of the Ideas". The nature of reality and how far or how much we should trust our perceptions is an existential conundrum that persists.
For Hoffman, this interface is the fruit of our evolved brains because survival is more important than the attainment of metaphysical certainties. We perceive only what is useful for our survival and reproduction, not what is necessarily true.
Hoffman uses the concept of “fitness payoffs” to elaborate this point. These payoffs are the benefits that an organism gains from certain behaviors and perceptions that increase its evolutionary fitness. Lions don't need to know why the antelopes roam the savannah. They just need to know where to hunt them in order to feed, be strong and reproduce.
The most difficult concept to grasp in Hoffman’s theories is the idea of the
Conscious Agents: reality is created through infinite interactions by what he calls conscious agents: these are not only humans but also Artificial intelligences and any conscious non-human entities, should these exist. Hoffman proposes that Space and Time are therefore not preordained and that it's these endless, infinite interactions between conscious agents what creates Space and Time.
Hoffman’s theories align somewhat with concepts from quantum physics. Quantum physicists have shown that quantum systems do not seem to be definite objects localized in space until they are observed. And if we recall the Double-Slit experiment where observation can cause changes and affect "reality" the implications are quite interesting.
So, like the Gnostics but following a completely different path, Hoffman seems to imply that consciousness is the only reality. But also, that for practical survival reasons, we don't have access to reality, to our consciousness, unless not fully, since we are unprepared to deal with this reality because of our biological, physical limitations. Perhaps we are like the fly who has fallen into a pot of water and ignores what's a pot, who made the pot or even what water is for that matter and merely drinks the water and ends up drowning.
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