Donald hoffman math

A full interview with Donald Hoffman follows this book review

Does the moon still exist when you’re not looking at it?

In a provocative new book titled The Case Against Reality: Why Evolution Hid the Truth from Our Eyes, psychologist Donald Hoffman suggests that the answer is no. Evolution, the argument goes, may have shaped our perceptions to create an interface analogous to a computer desktop interface.

Trains, snakes, and even the moon may be mere icons that guide our behavior, much like the icons on your computer desktop. That doesn’t mean that they don’t represent something real out there—just as dragging a blue email icon to your trash really does delete an email file in your computer, stepping in front of a train really does kill you.

But, Hoffman argues, just as the email file in your computer is not actually a blue pixelated rectangle, the actual threat posed by the train is not actually a large, elongated object occupyin