Donald Hoffman from the University of California has an idea that’s causing some waves in the biology and evolutionary science communities. He is proposing something along the lines that evolution doesn’t produce creatures who care one way or the other about objective reality, only about fitness, which may be represented very differently in that creature’s biology:
Instead, he claims, it's our interactions as conscious agents that give shape to the reality we experience. "I can take separate observers," he told Quanta Magazine, "put them together and create new observers, and keep doing this ad infinitum. It's conscious agents all the way down."
This is a pretty head spinning stuff. Our perceived reality has nothing to do with the world in-and-of-itself? That's the kind of thing that's bound to piss off a whole lot of people in a whole lot of fields. I asked Hoffman about the reaction to his work. "All over the map," he replied. "I'm either a genius or an absolute stupid idiot. The emotions are pretty strong.”
Distantly related: what might happen if a population of humans were put through bottleneck after bottleneck over several millennia selecting for belief in supernatural beings or a convincing facsimile? You might end up with a population hard-wired for religion, and maybe a subgroup that is very good at faking belief.
- A star designated EPIC 204278916 has been compared to Tabby’s star due to its pronounced variability. But Epic appears to be a stellar infant just fizzing to life with lots and lots of flotsam around it, all of which would help explain the changes in luminosity.
- Plucky little Philae, the lander that bounced instead of sticking to comet Churyumov-Gerasmienko two years ago, has finally been found. It encountered bad luck on its second touchdown, coming to rest sideways wedged into a large crack.
- Transplant surgery has come a long way, but we’re still in the dark ages when it comes to managing rejection.
Federal authorities took most humpback whales off the endangered species list Tuesday, saying their numbers have recovered through international efforts to protect the giant mammals. Known for their acrobatic leaps from the sea and complex singing patterns, humpback whales were nearly hunted to extinction for their oil and meat by industrial-sized whaling ships well through the middle of the 20th century. But the species has been bouncing back since an international ban on commercial whaling took effect in 1966.
Last but not least, this article at Balloon Juice is one of the most interesting posts I’ve read in weeks.