The Case Against Reality

Why Evolution Hid the Truth from Our Eyes

De: Donald Hoffman

Narrado por: Timothy Andrés Pabon

Duración: 8 h y 43 m

Resumen del Editor

Can we trust our senses to tell us the truth?

Challenging leading scientific theories that claim that our senses report back objective reality, cognitive scientist Donald Hoffman argues that while we should take our perceptions seriously, we should not take them literally. How can it be possible that the world we see is not objective reality? And how can our senses be useful if they are not communicating the truth? Hoffman grapples with these questions and more over the course of this eye-opening work.

Ever since Homo sapiens has walked the earth, natural selection has favored perception that hides the truth and guides us toward useful action, shaping our senses to keep us alive and reproducing. We observe a speeding car and do not walk in front of it; we see mold growing on bread and do not eat it. These impressions, though, are not objective reality. Just like a file icon on a desktop screen is a useful symbol rather than a genuine representation of what a computer file looks like, the objects we see every day are merely icons, allowing us to navigate the world safely and with ease.

The real-world implications for this discovery are huge. From examining why fashion designers create clothes that give the illusion of a more “attractive” body shape to studying how companies use color to elicit specific emotions in consumers, and even dismantling the very notion that spacetime is objective reality, The Case Against Reality dares us to question everything we thought we knew about the world we see.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

©2019 by Donald Hoffman. (P)2019 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved.

not an audiobook

there are so many visual components that you lose a huge, HUGE portion of the book by listening rather than reading. very disappointed.

Intriguing Ideas, Yet Repetitive Execution—Perhaps Better Read than Listened To

“The Case Against Reality” presents a compelling argument that challenges our basic assumptions about the world. However, the audiobook format leaves something to be desired. Repetition is a notable issue; phrases like “which you can see in the accompanying PDF” are overused to the point of distraction. Some of the repetitiveness seems like an oversight in editing rather than a deliberate choice.

Given these drawbacks, potential listeners might find greater value in reading the text version of this book. Alternatively, I recommend listening to the Lex Fridman interview with the author as a primer before diving into the audiobook. While the delivery may have its shortcomings, the thought-provoking content still makes “The Case Against Reality” worth your time.

Very good book

The narration is well done.
The math is above my knowledge level and I disagree with his basic premise, but I would definitely have him over for dinner as a friend. Worth your time

Mind-bending but also lacking

Hoffman creates a compelling argument as to why he believes the world we perceive is almost certainly nothing like "objective reality" at all. Buckle your seatbelts because Kansas, as well as space and time itself, is going bye-bye.

His "fitness beats truth" theorem is interesting and seems to me to be almost certainly true. The first six chapters lay the groundwork for his ideas and can be sort of repetitive – you can get a basic understanding of these chapters from his appearance on the After On Podcast, also titled The Case Against Reality. His repetition of the "Desktop" metaphor to describe Interface Theory of Perception or ITP gets pretty old fast – we get it, you think our perception is like a desktop and what we see are like icons – but that's my biggest gripe.

Even if you're not convinced by his arguments, it's worth reading just to imagine the implications such an understanding of consciousness could have on the future of science, religion and the way we understand what it means to be human. An easy and fascinating afternoon read!

The performance of the book is lacking, however, AND THERE'S NO "accompanying PDF" which is mentioned many times in later chapters!

Missing promissed PDF

The audio repeatedly refers to accompanied PDF but audible does not provide it and its needed to follow the book closely. I am also afraid the author blames the lack of current full understanding of brain consciousness connections as support for his speculations while doing the same error of logic...not this/yet therefore that......

Fascinating hyptothesis, filled with fluff

I heard about this book on Sam Harris's podcast.

This "feels" like a first book. The author posits an incredible hypothesis but the book is laid out somewhat haphazardly and meanders to topics away from the main point. For example, why create a whole chapter on optical illusions when we can all admit our eyes can deceive us?

Here's a brief summary of the book:
"We have a startling hypothesis that was confirmed by an evolutionary simulation, let's repeat that fact for 5 chapters. Also, remember that weird box thing you drew in 3rd grade... that actually proves nothing exists. Congrats for finishing! Your prize is a tomato... one meter away from your face. Can't find it? - look to the accompanying PDF*"

So... yeah, having just finished the book, I admit my annoyance BUT this isn't to say the book is unscientific or without merit.

Are you interested in the subject but don't want to waste time? Listen to chapters 1, 2, 6, and 10. Chapter 6 was my favorite because it directly addresses physics.

If you're scientifically minded and are intrigued by the idea, it's worth your time. If you're on the fence, maybe not.

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* Spoiler alert: Audible does not provide the accompanying PDF

Surely we're on the smooth cusp of something

We seem to be passing through a period of existential crisis in physics and neuroscience in particular, at the moment. Possibly it is the modern paradigm to be in crisis, but it seems particularly poignant right now. In any case, this is one of a small bookshelf of must-reads for comprehending this 'moment'.

Reality Bytes

extraordinary information if you can suffer through the mind numbing redundancies and lullabye voice narrating

Very good deconstruction of our intuitions about reality, but...

The first nine chapters of this were great, but the chapter 10 just gets into complete conjecture (albeit a scientifically rigorous conjecture) without any evidence other than our intuitions. A huge departure from the rest of the book. Overall very good.

Impossible to follow distracting errors

I am sure there is an important concept in this book, but it is lost in huge discussions of eye sex. You get lost in obvious errors like the author saying that dog eyes do not have white in them because of predatorial night adaptations while you dog is looking sidewise at you with white eyes. His basic premise resonates, that our senses are lying to us to keep us alive, but it is not well supported or developed in this book.