Truth vs Reality: How we evolved to survive, not to see what’s really there | Donald Hoffman

Give yourself the gift of knowledge — subscribe to Big Think Edge: http://bit.ly/bigthinkedge Take the circumstances in your life seriously, but not literally. Here's why. - Galileo was quite controversial, in part, because he argued that Earth moved around the sun, despite people's senses deluding them that the world was static. - Evolution may have primed us to see the world in terms of payoffs rather than absolute reality — this has actually helped us survive. Those who win payoffs are more likely to pass on their genes, which encode these strategies to get to the "next level" of life. - It's important to listen to people's objections because they may bring something to your attention outside your ken. Learn from them to make your ideas sharper. Donald Hoffman is professor of cognitive science at the University of California, Irvine. His writing has appeared in Scientific American and Edge, and his work has been featured in the Atlantic, Wired, and Quanta. He resides in Irvine, California. His latest book is "The Case Against Reality: Why Evolution Hid the Truth from Our Eyes" https://amzn.to/2lAuCMS If you're interested in licensing this or any other Big Think clip for commercial or private use, contact our licensing partner Executive Interviews: https://ift.tt/2IQF1gR Read more at BigThink.com: https://ift.tt/2LAGWrk Follow Big Think here: YouTube: http://goo.gl/CPTsV5 Facebook: https://ift.tt/1qJMX5g Twitter: https://twitter.com/bigthink