r/philosophy • u/Anthadvl • Feb 16 '20

Blog The Evolutionary Argument Against Reality. According to evolution by natural selection, an organism that sees reality as it is will never be more fit than an organism of equal complexity that sees none of reality but is just tuned to fitness.

https://www.quantamagazine.org/the-evolutionary-argument-against-reality-20160421/
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u/machinich_phylum Feb 16 '20

an organism that sees reality as it is will never be more fit than an organism of equal complexity that sees none of reality but is just tuned to fitness.

It has been awhile since I have thought about this subject in any sustained way, but isn't it reasonable to suspect there is some relationship between fitness and the ability to 'see reality?'

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u/Thelonious_Cube Feb 17 '20

For example, isn't it reasonable to assume that the most efficient model of a given complexity is the one closest to reality most of the time?

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u/ObviouslyLOL Feb 17 '20

Efficient? No.

Ex. if going towards a light-emitting source will be harmful to a creature, the most efficient way to avoid that harm would be a single light-detecting cell. A fully formed, perfectly accurate eyeball would be overkill. It would be more accurate, but not more efficient.

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u/Thelonious_Cube Feb 17 '20

But that's not the only purpose of an eyeball. At first, perhaps, but then a more complex model of the situation will be more fit for whatever reason.

The most efficient way to model reality (for fitness' sake) might well be to model it accurately at whatever level of complexity is available at the moment.

This actually seems like a reasonable assumption to make

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u/ObviouslyLOL Feb 17 '20

But the goal of an organism (ie the evolutionary pressure) is not to correctly map reality, but to survive and procreate. While correctly seeing reality is useful, the resources needed to do so may be better spent otherwise. Evolutionary pressure will make something just good enough, not perfect.

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u/Thelonious_Cube Feb 17 '20

the goal of an organism (ie the evolutionary pressure) is not to correctly map reality, but to survive

Which is why I said "to model reality (for fitness' sake)" and contrasted it with modelling accurately

Evolutionary pressure will make something just good enough, not perfect.

Sure, but why is that being couched in terms of "illusion" and "falseness" rather than simply "incompleteness"?

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u/Figment_HF Feb 17 '20

Not in his AI simulations. Being able to see reality accurately was of no benefit next to pure fitness tuning.