Vsauce: Perception vs Reality | AI Podcast Clip with Michael Stevens
00:00:00.000 | - What's in your view is the difference
00:00:03.880 | between our perception, like how we think the world is,
00:00:07.120 | and reality?
00:00:08.280 | Do you think there's a huge gap there?
00:00:10.080 | Like we delude ourselves that the whole thing
00:00:11.920 | is an illusion, just everything about human psychology,
00:00:15.280 | the way we see things, and how things actually are.
00:00:18.520 | In all the things you've studied, what's your sense?
00:00:20.680 | How big is the gap between reality and perception?
00:00:22.880 | - Well, again, purely speculative.
00:00:24.840 | I think that we will never know the answer.
00:00:26.880 | We cannot know the answer.
00:00:28.540 | There is no experiment to find an answer to that question.
00:00:32.920 | Everything we experience is an event in our brain.
00:00:36.200 | When I look at a cat, I'm not even,
00:00:38.820 | I can't prove that there's a cat there.
00:00:42.640 | All I am experiencing is the perception of a cat
00:00:46.880 | inside my own brain.
00:00:49.080 | I am only a witness to the events of my mind.
00:00:52.280 | I think it is very useful to infer that
00:00:56.040 | if I witness the event of cat in my head,
00:01:00.040 | it's because I'm looking at a cat that is literally there
00:01:03.140 | and has its own feelings and motivations
00:01:05.980 | and should be pet and given food and water and love.
00:01:09.020 | I think that's the way you should live your life.
00:01:11.860 | But whether or not we live in a simulation
00:01:15.440 | on the brain in a vat, I don't know.
00:01:18.960 | - And do you care?
00:01:19.860 | - I don't really, well, I care
00:01:23.420 | because it's a fascinating question.
00:01:25.500 | And it's a fantastic way to get people excited about
00:01:28.540 | all kinds of topics, physics, psychology,
00:01:32.180 | consciousness, philosophy.
00:01:34.020 | But at the end of the day, what would the difference be?
00:01:36.980 | If you--
00:01:37.820 | - The cat needs to be fed at the end of the day.
00:01:39.740 | Otherwise, it'll be a dead cat.
00:01:41.620 | - Right, but if it's not even a real cat,
00:01:44.380 | then it's just like a video game cat.
00:01:46.300 | And right, so what's the difference
00:01:48.400 | between killing a digital cat in a video game
00:01:51.740 | because of neglect versus a real cat?
00:01:54.300 | It seems very different to us psychologically.
00:01:56.520 | Like I don't really feel bad about,
00:01:57.860 | oh my gosh, I forgot to feed my Tamagotchi, right?
00:02:00.360 | But I would feel terrible if I forgot to feed my actual cats.
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