The nature of consciousness

[Siúil a Rúin]

These are interesting videos. Feel free to share resources that examine the nature of consciousness from a philosophical, neurological, theoretical physics based exploration.

 

[Siúil a Rúin]

Some more interesting videos from "Closer to Truth" on YouTube. This is fascinating research, and I often wish I had the knowledge, intelligence, and investment to understand it better.

 

[Siúil a Rúin]

 

[yeghor]

A Dream within a Dream

 

[yeghor]

Ted Talk by Anil Seth: Your brain hallucinates your conscious reality

 

[yeghor]

The Brain: "A Receiver Of Consciousness"

 

[yeghor]

Origin of Consciousness

 

[Julius_Van_Der_Beak]

These are interesting videos. Feel free to share resources that examine the nature of consciousness from a philosophical, neurological, theoretical physics based exploration.

Do you agree that you cannot explain everything in a mechanical way? To me I'm surprised he says this with such certainty. For me it's just hard to imagine possessing that level of certainty about the nature of the universe to say either way.

 

[Siúil a Rúin]

Do you agree that you cannot explain everything in a mechanical way? To me I'm surprised he says this with such certainty. For me it's just hard to imagine possessing that level of certainty about the nature of the universe to say either way.

What I wonder about is the presumption the human brain can comprehend the whole of the universe explained mechanically or otherwise. It seems safe to say human cognition is a subset of the universe. No other species appears to have a chance at comprehending the whole of it, we can even point at a human with learning disability who can't learn theoretical physics. Why would the most brilliant minds be as vast as the universe in its comprehension when no other mind appears to be?

 

[Julius_Van_Der_Beak]

What I wonder about is the presumption the human brain can comprehend the whole of the universe explained mechanically or otherwise. It seems safe to say human cognition is a subset of the universe. No other species appears to have a chance at comprehending the whole of it, we can even point at a human with learning disability who can't learn theoretical physics. Why would the most brilliant minds be as vast as the universe in its comprehension when no other mind appears to be?

You mention it in terms of quantity. That is... in terms of the amount of information the human brain can hold. When you phrase it that way, it becomes easier for me to grasp the certainty of someone saying that we can't understand consciousness. Now I am getting closer to that level of certainty in saying that we can't understand consciousness.

Consciousness is a hard subject to even talk about or build a vocabulary for. Perhaps then there is something about it that does make it impossible for us to understand.

 

[yeghor]

What I wonder about is the presumption the human brain can comprehend the whole of the universe explained mechanically or otherwise. It seems safe to say human cognition is a subset of the universe. No other species appears to have a chance at comprehending the whole of it, we can even point at a human with learning disability who can't learn theoretical physics. Why would the most brilliant minds be as vast as the universe in its comprehension when no other mind appears to be?

They aren't as vast as the universe, they just have higher intuitive skills, which can be likened to a stronger then average sense of smell, guiding them towards solutions to undiscovered mysteries of the universe one piece at a time.

Maybe in time, our brains will evolve to capture the universe at a higher resolution than that we do today. Or we will discover technologies that render the entirety of the universe perceivable to our existing cognitive capabilities.

 

[Siúil a Rúin]

https://youtu.be/NcCDlxFkAcY

 

[yeghor]

https://youtu.be/NcCDlxFkAcY

This gent doesn't explain much.

He says there have been instances where people in cardiac arrest were able to recall details from the time during which their brain was shut down and then whether consciousness can exist independent of the brain.

A person becomes unconscious quickly during cardiac arrest. This usually happens within 20 seconds after the heart stops beating. Without the oxygen and sugars it needs to function, the brain is unable to deliver the electrical signals needed to maintain breathing and organ function.

It may be possible that for a time, brain or a core part of it might be able to record external data even when there's no oxygen and sugar delivered to it due to interrupted blood flow, running on last stores of energy left in the cells before completely fading away.

I think consciousness would cease to exist without a functioning brain. It is a state of being aware of our surroundings enabled by the brain activity.

 

[ygolo]

I really love the book Being You, by Anil Seth. (Maybe not already mentioned?) There are too many deep and penetrating ideas (making use of classic ideas and known knowledge in a pattern that is hard to describe but palpable). He does not "solve" the problem of consciousness, but certainly framed it in a way of thinking about it (the real problem) that has become my default. Sorry if that was too ad/book-review-y. But it has been too long, I may need to re-read it.

As much as I was fascinated in the past by the connection between quantum mechanics and consciousness, I think there's a lot of "here are two hard to interpret things, maybe they are connected" from that camp of thinking (and general wooish language). Though, I think making use of parallels in the mathematics of Hilbert spaces is interesting in more useful ways.

edit: I should mention that the Real Problem as Seth describes it is a program to explain how and why the neural correlates of conscious (NCC) lead to the specific subjective phenomenon.