Donald D. Hoffman and Chetan Prakash explore the idea that our perception of
reality is not a direct reflection of an objective world but rather a construct
of our consciousness i.e. the physical world is an emergent property of
underlying interactions of conscious agents. Our sensory systems evolved not to
perceive the truth of the world but to provide a useful interface to guide
behavior. According to this theory, what we perceive as objects in our
environment are not accurate representations of objective reality but are
instead symbols or icons that help us navigate our surroundings
efficiently. They argue that fitness, rather than truth, is the driving force
behind how perception evolved through natural selection. They claim that the
structures and properties we perceive in the world, including space and time,
are not fundamental aspects of reality but are constructs shaped by the need for
survival.

Many idealist spiritual traditions have similar claims. For example, in many
schools of Vedic philosophy,particularly in Advaita Vedanta, consciousness
(often referred to as Brahman) is considered the fundamental reality. The
physical world is seen as Maya, an illusion or a relative reality, which emerges
from the interplay of consciousness.
Plato in his Theory of Forms proposed that the material world we perceive is
not the ultimate reality. Instead, it is a shadow or imperfect reflection of a
higher realm of perfect, immutable Forms or Ideas. Forms are the true reality,
while the material world is a mere imitation.
Kant in his Transcendental Idealist strand of philosophical inquiry argued
that space and time are forms of human intuition, structuring our experiences
but not existing independently of them. Our knowledge is limited to phenomena
(the world as it appears to us), while the noumena (things in themselves) remain
unknowable.
Hegel in his Absolute Idealist school of thought, claimed that that reality is
the manifestation of an absolute consciousness or Spirit (Geist), which unfolds
dialectically through history and individual consciousness. Hegel posits that
the development of self-awareness and the realization of the unity of
consciousness and reality are key aspects of understanding the world.

They introduce a mathematical model to represent conscious agents.
A conscious agent is defined by a mathematical structure involving a set of
experiences, actions, and a dynamic process that describes how experiences
evolve over time. The model includes the following key components:

• Experiences (X): A measurable space that represents the possible experiences
  of the agent.
  
• Actions (G): A measurable space that represents the possible actions the
  agent can take.
  
• Perception Mapping (P): A function that maps the current state of the world
  and the action taken by the agent to a new experience.
  
• Decision Mapping (D): A function that maps the current experience to a
  probability distribution over possible actions.
  
• World (W): The state of the external world, which is also modeled
  mathematically.
  

The dynamics of a conscious agent are described by how its experiences and
actions evolve over time, influenced by its perception and decision functions.
The state of the agent evolves based on its current experience and the actions
it decides to take. The evolution of the world state is influenced by the
agent’s actions. They propose that agents interact by sharing experiences and
actions, forming a network of interacting conscious entities. The interactions
and evolution of experiences and actions are captured using a Markovian
framework, where the state transitions are probabilistic and depend on the
current state and actions.

• They further claim that mathematical structures underlying conscious agents
  could be related to scattering amplitudes in physics, particularly in the
  context of quantum field theory. It is not clear shown how this can be done.
  
• Eperiences are inherently subjective, and cannot be easily quantified. How
  then would we construct a formal measurable space of experiences?
  
• ….
  

In order to explain conscious experiences they introduce this model, are they
commiting grave philosophical mistakes by unintenstionally hiding behind the facade
of a seemingly solid toy mathematical model?

• Hoffman Donald D. , Prakash Chetan , Objects of consciousness, Frontiers in
  Psychology, 2014
  
• Donald D. Hoffman, Chetan Prakash, and Robert Prentner, Fusions of Consciousness
  , Entropy 2023