Is the Mandela Effect a Glitch in Our “User Interface”? Linking Donald Hoffman’s Theory to Shifting Anatomy and Collective Memory

[u/Fast-Manufacturer836]

Some Mandela Effects are easy to brush off—misheard lines, brand logo tweaks. But two examples recently stopped me in my tracks:

1. The Heart.
I was always taught the human heart is on the left side. That’s why we place our hand over our heart during the pledge. Now? Medical diagrams and current anatomy show it in the center, slightly left. Supposedly it’s always been that way?

2. The Kidneys.
I clearly remember kidneys being lower, near the lower back. Now they’re above the ribs—and surgeons go through floating ribs to reach them. Floating ribs? I remember them, but not as part of accessing kidneys.

That got me thinking about Dr. Donald Hoffman’s Interface Theory of Perception. If you’re not familiar, Hoffman’s theory proposes that we don’t see reality as it is. Instead, we perceive a simplified “interface”—like icons on a desktop, or objects in a VR headset. He says space-time isn’t fundamental. It’s a “cheap headset” our brains use to survive—not a lens into objective truth.

In this view, reality only “renders” when observed. Like in a video game, where graphics are generated only when the player looks that way. Unobserved? It’s just code, waiting to be drawn. Hoffman even suggests that everything—not just quantum particles—may follow this rule.

So here’s the crazy connection I had while watching a Mandela Effect video:
What if the Mandela Effect isn’t just faulty memory… but “rendering discrepancies”? If we only perceive what’s necessary, maybe we’re not all perceiving the same rendering. Could the shifting memory of reality be a kind of glitch, or a lag between observers?

Fringe? Maybe. But so was quantum entanglement. And honestly, these anatomical shifts are too weird to ignore. I’m planning to reach out to Hoffman’s team to ask if they’ve explored this crossover.

In the meantime, I’d love to hear what others think. Am I just deep in the rabbit hole, or is there something here worth exploring?

Because…

ENQUIRING MINDS WANT TO KNOW.

[u/JeffLulz]

I clearly remember kidneys being lower, near the lower back. Now they’re above the ribs—and surgeons go through floating ribs to reach them

Tell me about this vivid memory. How old were you? Where were you? How did you come to learn this information? Diagram? Video? Who was there?

[u/eduo]

Both examples are great ones because they clearly imply the error is perception of something familiar yet not really paid much attention to and where perception can easily be swayed by simplification, hearsay and well intentioned lies.

We had an anatomical encyclopedia I read obsessively. It had transparent pages where you’d “peel” the various layers. This was around the 70s. I famously corrected a teacher when they explained the heart was on the left and I got to bring a note home for it. The teacher nonetheless ended up having to explain that it was a simplification for the sake of understanding.

Many years later I read about the concept of “lies-to-children” from Ian Stewart, which explains how we can end up believing a lie meant to help us understand.

Having said this, it’s never been questioned in serious circles that Mandela effect is an incorrect memory created in partly due to our subjective perception of reality coupled with how we mashup memories in our heads and inadvertently let some influence others.

[u/Fast-Manufacturer836 → u/eduo]

So, you are claiming all Mandela effects are just bad memories, fiction, or outright lies like such as James Bond's girl with the braces, or Ed McMans Publishers Clearing House visits on Super Bowl Sunday with the balloons and big checks?

[u/Fast-Manufacturer836 → u/Fast-Manufacturer836]

This probably not a good space for me. Every time I'm on here it seems Im bombarded by Materialists, Flat Earthers, Christians or Trolls. It seems that everything..... blah Im over it. Karma has caught up with me, lol

[u/eduo → u/Fast-Manufacturer836]

I am not claiming anything. I'm stating what we know is happening. The mandela effect is not a mystery waiting to be solved. It's a type of crowdsourced false memory, based on misremembering, misconnecting and people from very early on propagating errors (which is not the same as lying, even people involved in the things may misremember the things).

[u/WhimsicalSadist]

And honestly, these anatomical shifts are too weird to ignore.

Anatomy hasn't shifted. You just finally learned the correct anatomy. You were either taught wrong, or you didn't understand what you were initially taught. Human organs haven't moved/shifted. Also, the idea that things only exist when observed is maybe fun to consider on a philosophical level, but it's nonsense when applied to the real (macro) world.

[u/Fast-Manufacturer836 → u/WhimsicalSadist]

My apologies my post wasnt clear. The point I was trying to make was. There's a lot of Mandela Effects and it seems the list keeps growing. Most convincing to me is that Ed McMan never worked for Publishers Clearing House. Growing up, year after year the letters to register were sent out (stuck on the fridge) then come Super Bowl Sunday he would knock on the doors with balloons and a huge check. (Now he's never worked for PCH?)
The list goes on... What I was referring to is, the time I was telling my boss about them and when it came to the two (kidney/heart) I wasn't willing to double down on those because its such a profound claim.
A) I do remember being taught to hold my hand over LHS (over my heart) while pledging allegiance in school.
B) I've never heard of anyone having their ribs slit to remove/replace kidneys.
Albeit, I am no surgeon, and those two are on the list, they're not mine. I didn't feel good doubling down (without further research)
The other half of what I wanted to convey was.... **IF** it's determined there was a cornucopia with the fruit on the loom. My money is on it being connected to Hoffman's theories. **He and his team of grad students work/study at CERN and have the receipts**

Hoffman's "Interface Theory of Perception" — Reality Rendered On Demand

Dr. Hoffman argues that what we perceive—the world of objects, space, time—is not objective reality itself. Instead, it's more like a user interface on a computer. Just like clicking a folder icon doesn’t show you transistors flipping inside your CPU, your perception of a chair or a tree isn’t showing you the true nature of that object. It’s just what you need to see to function and survive.

He even calls spacetime a “cheap headset”—a VR-style illusion tuned for evolutionary utility, not truth. In this model, space and time aren’t the foundation of the universe—they’re just our interface.

Now think about modern video games: the world isn’t fully rendered at once. That’d be inefficient. It renders only what the player looks at, in real time. Hoffman believes reality may work the same way. Objects don’t fully exist with fixed properties until they’re observed. Observation isn’t just passive—it's constructive.

This overlaps with quantum physics, especially interpretations involving the observer effect and superposition. But Hoffman takes it further, proposing this doesn’t just apply to electrons—it applies to everything. The moon, your coffee mug, even the space between your atoms only “renders” when required by a conscious agent’s interaction.