The papers that ground the program, further work that extends it, books, and selected public writing.
A comprehensive overview of the Institute's scientific program: the philosophical and mathematical foundations of the trace logic and our roadmap to progress in physics, neuroscience, spirituality, and technology.
Ask a question or search by topic, author, or concept across the Institute's papers.
Why Evolution Hid the Truth from Our Eyes
Hoffman dismantles our most basic assumptions about perception. Drawing on evolutionary game theory and the Interface Theory of Perception, he argues that the world we experience is a useful fiction, not the truth. The book sets the stage for the research program now pursued at the Institute.
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How We Create What We See
An exploration of the constructive nature of visual perception. Hoffman argues that the visual system does not passively record reality but actively builds it, following formal rules of inference that the book lays out in detail.
Find the bookSeven papers form the canonical scaffolding of the Institute's research, from the introduction of conscious realism in 2008 to the Trace Chain Theorem in 2025.
Citations drafted from public records and to be verified against the published references before public launch.
Peer-reviewed work by Trace Institute researchers, including Fields, Prakash, Prentner, and Hoffman, that develops, defends, and extends the conscious-agents program.
Long-form pieces written for general audiences, where the science is laid out in its own language.
Hoffman's long-form essay arguing that spacetime is a headset, not fundamental, and that physics, evolution, and the trace logic on conscious agents all point past it.
Hoffman's essay for the LARB Quarterly Journal on natural selection, fitness payoffs, and why veridical perception goes extinct. The Interface Theory of Perception laid out for a general audience.
Amanda Gefter interviews Donald Hoffman on the formal argument that perception is not veridical, and on the mathematics behind it.
The seven papers above scaffold the Trace Institute's program. The complete record of Donald Hoffman's published work lives at:
