SHORTLISTED FOR THE PHYSICS WORLD BOOK OF THE YEAR 2019'One of the deepest and most original
thinkers of his generation of cognitive scientists. His startling argument has implications for
philosophy science and how we understand the world around us' Steven Pinker 'Is reality
virtual? It's a question made even more interesting by this book' Barbara Kiser Nature Do we
see the world as it truly is? In The Case Against Reality pioneering cognitive scientist
Donald Hoffman says no? we see what we need in order to survive. Our visual perceptions are not
a window onto reality Hoffman shows us but instead are interfaces constructed by natural
selection. The objects we see around us are not unlike the file icons on our computer desktops:
while shaped like a small folder on our screens the files themselves are made of a series of
ones and zeros - too complex for most of us to understand. In a similar way Hoffman argues
evolution has shaped our perceptions into simplistic illusions to help us navigate the world
around us. Yet now these illusions can be manipulated by advertising and design. Drawing on
thirty years of Hoffman's own influential research as well as evolutionary biology game
theory neuroscience and philosophy The Case Against Reality makes the mind-bending yet
utterly convincing case that the world is nothing like what we see through our eyes.
