Donald Hoffman

So an evolution, and I should say also concretely why it's different, this dynamics of conscious agents does not need to have an arrow of time.

So there's...

Okay.

The entropy, one can write down a Markovian dynamics in which the entropy does not grow.

Straightforward.

But it's a theorem, three-line proof, trivial proof, that any projection of that Markovian dynamics that has no error of time, any projection of it that loses information, say by conditional probability,

It will give you new dynamics.

It'll be a projected dynamics of the original dynamics.

And that new dynamics will have an arrow of time because of the loss of information.

So the arrow of time.

So here's my view.

Our experience right now of an arrow of time and of the universe with the Big Bang and then maybe a big crunch or whatever or entropy death at the end.

That whole arrow of time is not an insight at all into what lies beyond space-time.

It's an artifact of the projection.

And from an evolutionary point of view, right, time is the fundamental limited resource, right?

If I run out of time before I get my next meal, if it takes too much time to get my next meal, it's over.

If it takes too much time to get my next drink of water, it's over for me.

Time is my most fundamental limited resource.

So that limited resource of time is not an insight into reality.

That's an artifact of projection from a timeless conscious agent dynamics.