Does evolution favor true perceptions?

Hoffman, Donald D.; Singh, Manish; Mark, Justin T.

doi:10.1117/12.2011609

Cited by 11 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 20 publications

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“…Studies of perceptual evolution using evolutionary games and genetic algorithms render a clear verdict: Natural selection discards veridical perceptions and promotes interface strategies tuned to fitness. This motivates the interface theory of perception, which we now discuss (Fields 2014;Hoffman 1998;Hoffman and Prakash 2014;Hoffman and Singh 2012;Hoffman et al 2013;Koenderink 2011;Mark et al 2010;Mausfeld 2002;Singh and Hoffman 2013;see also von Uexküll (1909;1926;1957) for his related idea of an Umwelt).…”

Section: Interface Theory Of Perceptionmentioning

confidence: 73%

The Interface Theory of Perception

2015

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Perception is a product of evolution. Our perceptual systems, like our limbs and livers, have been shaped by natural selection. The effects of selection on perception can be studied using evolutionary games and genetic algorithms. To this end, we define and classify perceptual strategies and allow them to compete in evolutionary games in a variety of worlds with a variety of fitness functions. We find that veridical perceptions--strategies tuned to the true structure of the world--are routinely dominated by nonveridical strategies tuned to fitness. Veridical perceptions escape extinction only if fitness varies monotonically with truth. Thus, a perceptual strategy favored by selection is best thought of not as a window on truth but as akin to a windows interface of a PC. Just as the color and shape of an icon for a text file do not entail that the text file itself has a color or shape, so also our perceptions of space-time and objects do not entail (by the Invention of Space-Time Theorem) that objective reality has the structure of space-time and objects. An interface serves to guide useful actions, not to resemble truth. Indeed, an interface hides the truth; for someone editing a paper or photo, seeing transistors and firmware is an irrelevant hindrance. For the perceptions of H. sapiens, space-time is the desktop and physical objects are the icons. Our perceptions of space-time and objects have been shaped by natural selection to hide the truth and guide adaptive behaviors. Perception is an adaptive interface.

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Section: Interface Theory Of Perceptionmentioning

confidence: 73%

The Interface Theory of Perception

2015

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“…Instead, it generally favors perceptual strategies that are tuned to fitness (Mark et al, 2010; Hoffman et al, 2013; Marion, 2013; Mark, 2013). …”

Section: Evolution and Perceptionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, when we actually study the evolution of perception using Monte Carlo simulations of evolutionary games and genetic algorithms, we find that natural selection does not, in general, favor perceptions that are true reports of objective properties of the environment. Instead, it generally favors perceptual strategies that are tuned to fitness (Mark et al, 2010 ; Hoffman et al, 2013 ; Marion, 2013 ; Mark, 2013 ).…”

Section: Evolution and Perceptionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Objects of consciousness

Hoffman

Prakash

2014

Front. Psychol.

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Current models of visual perception typically assume that human vision estimates true properties of physical objects, properties that exist even if unperceived. However, recent studies of perceptual evolution, using evolutionary games and genetic algorithms, reveal that natural selection often drives true perceptions to extinction when they compete with perceptions tuned to fitness rather than truth: Perception guides adaptive behavior; it does not estimate a preexisting physical truth. Moreover, shifting from evolutionary biology to quantum physics, there is reason to disbelieve in preexisting physical truths: Certain interpretations of quantum theory deny that dynamical properties of physical objects have definite values when unobserved. In some of these interpretations the observer is fundamental, and wave functions are compendia of subjective probabilities, not preexisting elements of physical reality. These two considerations, from evolutionary biology and quantum physics, suggest that current models of object perception require fundamental reformulation. Here we begin such a reformulation, starting with a formal model of consciousness that we call a “conscious agent.” We develop the dynamics of interacting conscious agents, and study how the perception of objects and space-time can emerge from such dynamics. We show that one particular object, the quantum free particle, has a wave function that is identical in form to the harmonic functions that characterize the asymptotic dynamics of conscious agents; particles are vibrations not of strings but of interacting conscious agents. This allows us to reinterpret physical properties such as position, momentum, and energy as properties of interacting conscious agents, rather than as preexisting physical truths. We sketch how this approach might extend to the perception of relativistic quantum objects, and to classical objects of macroscopic scale.

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“…The latter is normative and concerns the cognitive evaluation of those same strategies. We will accordingly begin by addressing the epistemological issue raised by Donald Hoffman and his collaborators (henceforth, H & C, see, in particular [Hoffman, Singh et al 2015], [Mark, Marion et al 2010], but also [Hoffman, Singh et al 2013] and [Hoffman & Singh 2012]) and then move on to engage closely with the current debate on perceptual strategies in evolutionary theory.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%