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Conscious agents form the fundamental ontology
Reality, at its base, is composed of interacting conscious agents, not particles, fields, or spacetime points.
UpcomingJune 12, 2026Donald Hoffman + Andrew Gallimore at The Lighthouse Campus, Los AngelesJune 12, 2026 · Donald Hoffman + Andrew Gallimore
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The Trace Institute
What if reality is not what we think it is?
A research initiative investigating whether consciousness is fundamental, and how spacetime, matter, and physical law might emerge from it.
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The thesis
Modern physics treats spacetime and matter as fundamental. The Trace Institute investigates the opposite hypothesis: consciousness is fundamental, and what we experience as the physical world is the interface through which conscious agents perceive and interact with each other.
Our work is mathematical and grounded in the peer-reviewed literature. The Institute brings together scientists, mathematicians, and philosophers of science developing a formal framework, Trace Logic, in which quantum mechanics and general relativity are conjectured to be recoverable as emergent features of conscious-agent dynamics.
The Eight Conjectures
A framework for the foundations of physics.
Eight formal conjectures direct the Institute's work. Together they describe a path from conscious agents to the standard models of physics and biology.
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Spacetime emerges from agent dynamics
Space and time are not the stage on which physics unfolds. They are projections of the dynamics between conscious agents.
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Quantum formalism derives from agent interactions
The mathematics of quantum mechanics is recoverable as a limit of the formal dynamics of conscious agent networks.
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General relativity emerges from Trace Logic
Gravity and the curvature of spacetime arise as large-scale features of the same underlying logic governing agent dynamics.
The team
Working scientists, mathematicians, and philosophers.
Donald Hoffman
Research teamCognitive Scientist · UC Irvine
Chetan Prakash
Research teamMathematician · Cal State San Bernardino
Robert Prentner
Research teamPhilosopher of Science · Cognitive Sciences
Gaspard Giroud des Montagnes
Co-founderInstitute architect
Andrew Gallimore
Affiliated researcherNeurobiologist · Pharmacologist
Michael Levin
Affiliated researcherBiologist · Tufts University
Media
Conversations and lectures.
Donald Hoffman's appearances across podcasts, conferences, and lectures, alongside an expanding library of original work from the Institute.
Get involved
A research program at the intersection of physics, mathematics, and the study of consciousness.
The Institute is privately supported. Help fund the work, follow the research, or join us as a collaborator.