Donald Hoffman

I don't know.

What is it like to have infrared vision like certain pit vipers?

What is it like to actually experience an electric field, to sense an electric field for some fish or creatures underwater?

I mean, I have no – what is it like to be a bat doing echolocation?

I don't know.

I literally have no idea.

So these are pointers to me that's – I mean, in the headset, we get all these hints of realms of qualia utterly outside anything that I can concretely imagine.

Well, from a physicalist framework, clearly the latter is the case, right?

So from a physicalist framework, space-time is fundamental and consciousness is a product of the brain.

And so any experiences of transcendence of things going beyond the headset have to be just the brain malfunctioning in its final throes of death or something like that.

But if space-time is doomed, as the physicists tell us, and is not fundamental, then that leaves open the possibility.

It doesn't dictate that near-death experiences are genuine insights into some conscious experiences that transcends our space-time interface.

But it certainly is compatible with that point of view.

And so I think it's worth, on that framework, to explore the possibility that there are some insights.

And I would take any of those reports like we take any kind of eyewitness testimony, right?

With a grain of salt.

And you try to get corroboration and discount it.

But on the other hand, you don't want to just ignore the data either, right?

So there's the fine line to be open, to get the insights, but not to –

to jump on anything just because it sort of fits your preconceived conceptions.