Giulio Tononi - What’s the Meaning of Consciousness?
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- čas přidán 25. 06. 2024
- Only about consciousness can we be 100 percent sure. That consciousness exists almost everyone agrees. What consciousness means-that's where arguments and disputations arise. Must consciousness have 'meaning'? Or can consciousness be a random accident, selected by evolution, the 'foam on the waves' of brain activity. But consciousness seems so radically vital.
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Giulio Tononi is a neuroscientist and psychiatrist who holds the David P. White Chair in Sleep Medicine, as well as a Distinguished Chair in Consciousness Science, at the University of Wisconsin.
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Closer to Truth presents the world’s greatest thinkers exploring humanity’s deepest questions. Discover fundamental issues of existence. Engage new and diverse ways of thinking. Appreciate intense debates. Share your own opinions. Seek your own answers.
I love the outdoors setting.
Ikr
This makes complete sense. Certain psychedelics create new connections between various parts of the brain which results in altered state of consciousness. People reported that in this state their perception of the reality expanded and they were able to see or feel things that they would not be able in ordinary state. This means more connections in brain, more information is integrated and vice versa.
Yeah, I tried to begin explaining a psychedelic experience to someone, and I knew that the content was more than their container. Now imagine, if that could be our baseline.
I've had two OBE's during my lifetime. Once as a toddler in my crib, and after a car accident when I was 24. I still remember them both so vividly, like they happened yesterday. After those experiences, I'm convinced that our brain/mind doesn't cause, or produce consciousness.
My conclusion is, that consciousness is some type of an "awareness field" that is interfaced into a fully developed body's nervous system or brain (while it's alive), but can easily depart, or exist independently of a physical body.
I think I had one OBE once, although I'm not quite sure. However, one thing strikes me, with a similarity to the given theory in this video. The experience was still ONE. Meaning that I didn't experience my own body anymore, only the other body, which was a raindrop for that matter. Was it the same for you?
You simply can't remember when you were a toddler.......
@@kuroryudairyu4567 Lol… Why, because you say so?
@@humlakullen honest
@@kuroryudairyu4567 It depends on what you experienced. No, your normal day to day activities of eating, sleeping and crawling around the floor chasing your cat is usually never remembered.
But unusual, highly emotional or traumatic events, not only gets seared into your memory, but leaves an in print that can affect your personality for the rest of your life. Physical trauma, sexual abuse, neglect, death of a parent, etc etc.
Don’t take my word for it, just ask a child psychologist.
Giulio is incredibly knowledgable and offers quite a profound and creative approach to understanding consciousness. For some reason, he reminds me of someone who could conduct those crazy brain experiment in 1895.
4:10 Exactly !!! 🙏👏👏👏 I've been thinking that for months, sleep is a key to understanding consciousness. That is one of your best video and guest ever.
Tononi has the best theory on consciousness i’ve seen yet
8th best
@@PetraKann oh? What are the other 7?
Absolutely.
You haven’t seen much then.
@@kafiruddinmulhiddeen2386 i rolled my eyes so hard I almost went blind. Whats your best running theory on consciousness? Some mystical religion? Barf
Another fantastic interview Dr. Kuhn! And a beautiful outdoor setting.
What a fantastic, concise explication of the biological mechanisms which may be behind the phenomenon of consciousness. My neurons are now firing rapidly! 🧠
SCiEnccceeeeee!!! 11111
Chalmers would ask “why should integrated information have anything to do with consciousness at all?”
Very interesting, but the tag line is misleading, because even if he's right that the brain is only conscious when it's operating with this concept of integrated information, that would only imply that integrated information seems to be a necessary condition for consciousness, not that it is the actual meaning of consciousness.
Are you saying that integrated information (or interactions between different parts of the cortex) could not be the actual meaning (or the defining characteristic) of consciousness?
Yes a very good point.
You raise a Good point.
In fact the notion of integrated information may not be a “necessary condition” at all. Could be a superficial layer of apparent complexity and localised coupling or even an emergent phenomenon.
What a challenge consciousness has become in both science and philosophy……did I just say that?
Some ways of thinking about a complex topic
do not give one the feeling that one understands
whereas
other ways of thinking about that same complex topic
do give one that understanding feeling.
I think all readers must have noticed that it is your self that is conscious.
If one imagines that when the neurons are connecting in that integrated way
what is happening can be conceived of as the self returning to being.
Once the self has returned to being it's easy to imagine that what we mean by the contents of conscious are simply the patterns of modulation imposed on the self by the information riding on the neurons that are connected to the self.
Some of those information patterns arise in the sense organs, others patterns in the memory systems, etc.
I have noticed that it is my self that is conscious and nothing else, except
I assume you are conscious based on what you send across the bridge of language to me.
Do you have that feeling of enhanced understanding now that your self has been modulated by my writing?
Yeah I agree, I would consider this to be the physical requirements for consciousness, and the meaning to instead be something of a semantic or metaphysical debate about what counts as consciousness and what it means for something to be conscious
Wow! An other great mind. :) thanks
Very promising approach to study consciousness.
Love this!
Very informative and interesting video. I thought consciousness may be because of parallel working neuron sets. One set takes sensory and historical information, processes it with its imaginative, predictive and emotional computing which may result in action. The other set of neurons just observes it and reflects upon it. This set of neurons around the main engine understand the experience received by main engine and the way it processes in adherence but then keeps on checking it, reflecting upon it, storing it as a memory. This is the ultimate engine of the neurons which generates the experience of consciousness. - Parag Tamhane
Fascinating! And very well explained.
great stuff. love the setting. nothing goes with trees like graffii.
Thank you
Who is this neurological genius of nowhere??? iv never seen him on ur episodes this guy here is on right path to connecting this paradox .
How to expand consciousness rather than define it, i.e. attempt to put it in a mental box? Sing *HU* daily. Search how to sing *HU* .-A tuning fork safely to "align" with different frequencies. "If you want to find the secrets of the universe, think in terms of energy, frequency and vibration." -Nikola Tesla.
Very intriguing
I could listen to him speak about anything
Consciousness is the source of the universe, and is that which we are recovering as we evolve on earth.
i like this
I wonder if the integration of information is more about establishing causal links. Think about the instruction set for a computer, essentially useless unless theres a machine that will react in a predictable way in response to the instructions. The information by itself is useless. Also think about the output, also useless information unless there is some kind of predictable causation in some other system.
There are so many possibilities but it does appear to be in relation to connection (physical, semi-physical and otherwise) that consciousness arises. This can be seen as a connection of neurons, a connection of electrical signals or even how particles are interacting within this network on the quantum level.
Such a creation. Very complex we really do things to are bodies that is so destructive.
Consciousness is always associated with physically existing life and is a function of that.
Its not what consciousness is, it is how it manifests itself.
3:41 is that a squirrel running down the tree trunk on the right???
Nice
Sitting here thinking of the camera guy half crouched and slowly walking around in an arc left to right for an hour while holding heavy equipment and zooming in and out just for visual effect.
That's likely a camera on a dolly/rails and zoom controlled remotely. The equipment is controlled by a remote consciousness, not the other way around.
Some sort of complex adaptive system, quantum clocking. We need to pull apart the physical data, size, count, electrical properties, connection dynamics, system dynamics!
I am " a consciousness" like an ocean, and my body is like a fish swimming in it. Water is all around me, the medium through which I pass. The water flows in the gills of the fish, all the gills of my fish go through... and the ocean is one. I experienced and felt what I went through from a different perspective. As evidence to erase all memories in our bodies, leave only the consciousness, then connect our consciousness, and feel who we are??.
No no
What you described is a dream. In a dream you are there. There's you and everything else. Yet, you are you and everything; the ground, sky, wind, laws of nature,... You are the dream and you in it
OK krishnamurti
@@Anonymous-yh4ol Methinks you smoked something too much.
Makes you wonder when you think about siphonophores. Maybe all cells are aware to certain degrees like we may be a part of something bigger that we are unaware of.
Aatmiya DIVINITY
Be Blessed
HARE KRSNA
Consciousness is
'I am'
Consciousness is
'self luminous'
Very respectfully Loving ❤️ ING You One and All DIVINE NOW and HERE and FAR MORE in this Light and Moment and Vibrations Experiencing Happiness, Satisfaction and Freedom from desire, fear, anger, greed keeping 🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬
A fact that I have never seen Tononi et al mention, but which Mark Solms points out,
is that some children can show affect (hence, are conscious, because they are feeling)
even though they have been born with no cerebral cortex at all. Feelings arise
(according to Solms and others) in the brain stem, but I see no research into the brain stem
comparable to that of Tononi et al, on the cortex. Please interview Mark Solms!
Are the electromagnetic waves in the cerebral cortex the same as in the cerebellum and other parts of brain during sleep and wake time? Can the cerebral cortex create electromagnetic waves of higher frequency for consciousness?
Could our brains be like hardware connected to a cloud of information, different tipes, different access to experience or consciousness, sleeping is the rest mode.
Closer the true videos is by product
I like the graffiti on the back wall. Papito 🤣👍🏼❤️
Can the neurons in cerebral cortex do something extra when conscious, or something stops functioning in neurons of cerebral cortex when not conscious?
I wonder if during non-REM sleep there still is consciousness but it's very rudimentary, almost like an ego death but without any fireworks or excitement, like a quiet ego death with blips of noise and experience, mostly surroudned by sheer calm. And thus we can't remember it.
Do the neurons in cerebral cortex have a specialized capacity for consciousness not found in neurons of cerebellum or other areas of brain?
For consciousness, is something off when asleep, or something comes on when awake?
Is there a full interview? Im tired searching and clicking these fragments, please just upload the whole damn interview
They should do these tests on people who are under going a DMT trip. People who use DMT report being transported to a whole new place while being entirely self aware and speak to beings that remain consistent across cultures. Generally people see a tunnel and travel through it to find themselves in a room where they interact with 3 dominant beings one who is generally geometric and stoic another who is male energy and another as female energy. Both male and female energies are reported as very active and lively. There are smaller beings which seem to move about the area doing various tasks who are seemly just about their day but can be semi aggressive. Many believe it is a death of the ego and essentially contact with the archetypes each of us embodies in one way or another.
Either way it would be extremely interesting to see what exactly the brain is doing during these "trips" if anything at all given the people appear unconscious during the trip.
Taking out the cerebral cortex doesn't fully remove "you" though. It depends on what part. Take out some of the motor cortex, you're paralyzed, but you can still tell something is "missing," that is, you're conscious of your disability. Take out parts of the somatosensory cortex, and your consciousness doesn't change, but you fell numb in the part of your body that the brain covered. Take out the occipital lobe, you go blind, but you're still almost entirely there, and in most cases you can tell you're blind, but in other cases you're blind but can't tell you are...
However, the one thing you can't take out in the brain is the thalamus. Your consciousness can survive very broad damage to your cerebral cortex, but comparatively little damage to your thalamus.
If I had to pick a part of the brain where the "soul" resided, or where the qualia of experience actually "occur," it'd be the thalamus.
Strong evidence for this comes from the drug ketamine. Recreational users who have taken ketamine sometimes report falling into what they popularly call a "k-hole," which is a state of consciousness in which they report being paradoxically conscious of "nothing." They have no memory, no senses, no nothing, yet are somehow still able to sense "not existing." Looking at experiments with sheep, there's a clue why: Sheep under ketamine were found to have their cerebral cortices completely "shut off," but one part of the brain was still very much active: the thalamus.
Similarly, in coma patients, EEGs show the cortex to be in a sort of "waiting state" sending standby messages to the thalamus, which is inactive.
Somewhat gruesome animal studies also bear this out. They removed the cortex from animals to see what would happen, and found that the animals still exhibited a basic "rage" response. The response only disappeared once they removed the thalamus itself.
So it seems that the thalamus is sending data to the cortex, and the cortex tells the thalamus what to "feel" based on the processed data.
Sorry to bother you with another question but primitive animals with no cerebral cortex, the animals still act against stimulation in a certain way. I wonder, having an ability to 'feel', or a higher cognitive (thalamus), make the difference in behavior?
Closer the true is
Suppose you lose all of your sensory perceptions for a moment will your consciousness disappear? Do you go unconscious in very deep meditation? Can consciousness reside in the magnetic field outside of the brain that is produced from the electrical activity of the brain ? If brain transplant is possible, will it be the same consciousness being replaced?
It wouldnt
If you loose your eyesight for a moment you can still walk the road ahead of you if you have seen it right before. It's in your memory, in your thoughts. Your thoughts are now the producer of outputs leading to you walking down the road. You still have thoughts if you would lose all inputs.
I would imagine that over long periods of times without input you would slowly lose those thoughts, and at the end of it, you would after all be unconscious.
What is Intellect?
What is the meaning of a paint brush.
Perhaps the meaning isn't in consciousness rather the experience.
The stroke of a brush by intellect leaves the imprinted meaning in consciousness.
What's the intellect in consciousness making it self aware, having a will and imagination.
When individual consciousness develops there occurs a union.
Science is great however the method doesn't teach what it means to be man, what it means to live, or the beauty of Wisdom and it's in the behold of the paint brush that draws forth meaning.
so integrated information theory means how a person integrates information in to their own sensory systems using the mechanisms in the brain, i believe
1) we are still conscious, when we are dreaming. conscious and being awake are not the same thing. consciousness is about having a subjective feeling. we are very conscious about our internal world, when we are sleeping or dreaming. 2) there is a somewhat famous example of a girl who had a high level of consciousness and just a brain stem. now i cant personally verify this, but i do not have any significant reason to doubt it.
Consciousness “IS”, it does not “MEAN”anything
Picasso: “people that try to understand my paintings, are barking up the wrong tree”
Well, Merriam-Webster defines "consciousness" as awareness and/or mind. Thus it "means" the ability to think.
Not covered is the "value" of consciousness, although I suspect most people would be able to tell you what that is, the ability to function.
I used to ponder what was the "meaning of life", then one day looked up "life" in the dictionary, and it defines it as the ability to adapt. An excellent definition. Thus, anyone looking for the "meaning of life" could start by looking up the word. Personally, I correlate that "meaning" to mean, that if one is not busy "adapting" to anything, one's life is relatively meaningless. Or as Dylan put it, "he who's not busy being born, is busy dying."
Was Picasso responsible for the conscientious? İf not then what relevance has what a particular contingent thing makes as noise. What he said is no more comprehensible than a grunt.
What you think about consciousness is irrelevant…it is whether you think about it or not
@@Williamb612 it's pretty clear there is a God and God made us conscious beings. Consciousness doesn't otherwise exist in our physical properties. Done. Simple.
@@HappyBloke81 We are conscious of consciousness oh rational one…simple, but not uni-dimensional like your example
Whether we exist or not, whether we are conscious or not, consciousness is quite independent of that
Didn’t know Vigo Mortensen knows so much about consciousness!
Integrated information of IIT sounds curiously like ignition/global broadcast of GWT. Tononi says when you lose consciousness integrate information goes down. Similarly GWT implies when you lose consciousness global broadcasting diminishes. And vice versa for both. IIT and GNWT seem to be on the same wavelength so what’s the conflict in the theories? Is is that IIT says that in humans this is happening in the back of the cortex while GNWT looks more to the front?
My guess is the integrated information is the “content of consciousness” that appears in the “spotlight” on the GWT “stage.”
Neither gwt nor II would suggest there is a specific neural area. Rather there is an ever shifting long-range interconnected network of synchronized firing that combines the mental representations held in various brain regions into a single experience.
Hawkins thousand brains theory suggest cortical columns are constantly voting on the representation of the world. Perhaps the winning vote, at a sufficient level of abstraction is the current content of consciousness.
Looking forward to the new episode on art in the mind body problem.
How do I know he's right about the cerebellum as I've never had mine removed
What is the meaning of blue? Why is five? How can concept?
Id volunteer for his tests. My sleep is broken. I don't think I go through the stages of sleep in order. As soon as I am dozing off, I am already dreaming. I don't have dreamless sleep nor mind resting sleep.
You are a complex bundel of nerosensors and hormons given to emtional, environmental and social inputs via the 'Spark of Life'....any injury to these neurosensors has the capacity of changing/ altering both your conscious and subconscious being.
perhaps we were created to be witnesses to the incredible universe around us...
It just is. It doesn't need a meaning.
I dont know why we act like human consciousness is so special. It took us hundreds of thousands of years to figure out basic things like math. Were like worker ants. On their own nothing special...working together its more than the sum of the individual parts.
Excellent vid! I'll wager the cerebellum has few if any dendritic spines...? Dendritic spines provide a mechanism for extracellular electrotonic coupling and would display a characteristic frequency bandwidth which ought correspond to the frequencies characteristic of lucid awarenrss.
I see these old interviews are being reposted as if new.
Why is that?
@@amir3515 🤦🏻♂️
Because it's easier for the audience to follow the algorithm instead of doing all that work digging into the back files.
@@projectmalus doubt that’s the case. It’s easy to organise playlist so the are easy to watch in an ordered fashion.
I think his theory is probably right. There is some indirect evidence for it, as he described in the video. And it seems like common sense in terms of what people know about consciousness from their own introspection and experience.
But to prove it beyond reasonable doubt, it would be need to be created in a computer as artificial consciousness and intelligence. Because with computers and computer programming you can experiment all you want. But there is a limit to what you can do with people in terms of experimentation.
Right now, there are lots of trained algorithms in artificial intelligence to do various narrow tasks. So, to make an artificial consciousness, these narrow task algorithms would need to be put together into one system and integrated in some way, the way the human brain does it.
With this kind of set up, you can make educated guesses about how it's supposed to work and then do experiments to see if these guesses are right or not. That's how scientific research normally works. And this theory is definitely very conducive to this kind of research.
It seems to me he is talking of "awareness" more than "consciousness" .
What's consciousness according to Christianity ( assuming you're a Christian)?
🐟 06. CONSCIOUSNESS/AWARENESS:
Consciousness means “that which knows” or “the state of being aware”, from the Latin prefix “con” (with), the stem “scire” (to know) and the suffix “osus” (characterized by). There is BOTH a localized knowing and a Universal Awareness, as explicated in the following paragraphs.
Higher species of animal life have sufficient cognitive ability to KNOW themselves and their environment, at least to a measurable degree. Just where consciousness objectively begins in the animal kingdom is a matter of contention but, judging purely by ethological means, it probably starts with vertebrates (at least the higher-order birds and fishes). Those metazoans which are evolutionarily lower than vertebrates do not possess much, if any, semblance of intellect, necessary for true knowledge, but operate purely by reflexive instincts. For instance, an insect or amphibian does not consciously decide to seek food but does so according to its base instincts, directed by its idiosyncratic genetic code. Even when a cockroach flees from danger, it is not experiencing the same kind of thoughts or feelings a human or other mammal would experience.
The brain is merely a conduit or TRANSDUCER of consciousness, explaining why the more intelligent the animal, the more it can understand its own existence (or at least be aware of more of its environment - just see how amazingly-complex dolphin and whale behaviour can be, compared with other aquatic species), and the reason why it is asserted that a truly enlightened human must possess a far higher level of intelligence than the average person (See Chapter 17 to understand the distinction between enlightenment and mere awakening). The processing unit of a supercomputer must be far larger, more complex and more powerful than the processor in a pocket calculator.
Therefore, it seems logical to conclude that the scale of discrete (localized) consciousness is dependent on the animal's brain capacity.
Three STATES of awareness are experienced by humans and possibly all other species of mammals:
the waking state (“jāgrata”, in Sanskrit), dreaming (“svapna”, in Sanskrit), and deep-sleep (“suṣupti”, in Sanskrit). Beyond these three temporal states is the fourth “state” (“turīya” or “caturīya”, in Sanskrit). That is the unconditioned, eternal “state”, which underlies the other three.
The waking state is the LEAST real (that is to say the least permanent, or to put it another way, the farthest from the Necessary Ground of Existence, as explained towards the end of this chapter). The dream state is closer to our eternal nature, whilst dreamless deep-sleep is much more analogous to The Universal Self (“brahman”), as it is imbued with peace. Rather than being an absence of awareness, deep-sleep is an awareness of absence (that is, the absence of phenomenal, sensual experiences). So, in actual fact, the fourth state is not a state, but the Unconditioned Ground of Being, or to put it simply, YOU, the real self/Self, or Existence-Awareness-Peace (“sacchidānanda”, in Sanskrit).
Perhaps the main purpose of dreams is so that we can understand that the waking-state is practically indistinguishable to the dream-state, and thereby come to see the ILLUSION of this ephemeral world. Both our waking-state experiences and our dream-state experiences occur solely within the mental faculties (refer to Chapter 04 for an elucidation of this phenomenon). If somebody in one of your dreams were to ask your dream-state character if the dream was real, you (playing the part of that character) would most likely say, “yes, of course this is real!” Similarly, if someone were to ask your waking-state character if this world is real, you would almost undoubtedly respond in kind.
An apt analogy for Universal Consciousness is the manner in which electricity powers a variety of appliances and gadgets, according to the use and COMPLEXITY of the said device. Electricity powers a washing machine in a very simple manner, to drive a large spindle for laundering clothes. However, the very same electrical power may be used to operate a computer to manifest an astonishing range of outputs, such as playing audiovisual tracks, communication tasks and performing extremely advanced mathematical computations, depending on the computer's software and hardware. The more advanced/complex the device, the more complex its manifestation of the same electricity.
Using the aforementioned computer analogy: the brain is COMPARATIVELY equivalent to the computer hardware, deoxyribonucleic acid akin to the operating system working in conjunction with the memory, the intellect is equivalent to the processing unit, individuated consciousness is analogous to the software programme, whilst Universal Awareness is likened to the electricity which enlivens the entire computer system.
A person who is comatosed has lost any semblance of local consciousness, yet is being kept alive by the presence of Universal Consciousness.
So, then, one could complain: “That's not fair - why can only a genius be enlightened?” (as defined in Chapter 17).
The answer is: first of all, as stated above, every species of animal has its own level of intelligence on a wide-ranging scale. Therefore, a pig or a dog could (if possible) ask: “That's unfair - why can only a human being be enlightened?”
Secondly, it is INDEED a fact that life is unfair, because there is no “tit for tat” law of action and reaction, even if many supposedly-great religious preceptors have stated so. They said so because they were preaching to wicked miscreants who refused to quit their evil ways, and needed to be chastized in a forceful manner. It is not possible to speak gentle words to a rabid dog to prevent it from biting you.
There is evidence of Consciousness being a universal field, in SAVANT SYNDROME, a condition in which someone with significant mental disabilities demonstrate certain abilities far in excess of the norm, such as superhuman rapid mathematical calculation, mind-reading, blind-seeing, or astounding musical aptitude. Such behaviour suggests that there is a universal field (possibly in holographic form) from which one can access information. Even simple artistic inspiration could be attributed to this phenomenon. The great British singer-songwriter, Sir James Paul McCartney, one day woke with the complete tune of the song, “Yesterday”, in his mind, after hearing it in a dream. American composer, Paul Simon, had a similar experience when the chorus of his sublime masterpiece, “Bridge Over Troubled Water”, simply popped into his head.
In recent years, the term “CONSCIOUSNESS” has been used in esoteric spiritual circles (usually capitalized) to refer to a far more Homogeneous Consciousness (“puruṣa”, in Sanskrit), due to the fact that the English language doesn’t include a single word denoting the Universal Ground of Being (for instance “Brahman”, “Tao”, in other tongues). The word “Awareness” (capitalized) is arguably a more apposite term for this concept.
The typical person believes that the apparatus which knows the external world is his mind (via the five senses), but more perceptive individuals understand that the mind itself is cognizable by the intellect. Wise souls recognize that the sense of self (the pseudo-ego) is the perceiver of their intellects, whereas awakened persons have realized that the true self/Self is the witness of ALL these temporal phenomena.
The true self is synonymous with Meta-Consciousness, or with Infinite Awareness, or the Undifferentiated Unified Field (“Brahman”, in Sanskrit).
The dialectic exercise in the following three paragraphs should help one to understand the nature of the fundamental conscious observer, that is, the ULTIMATE observer of all phenomena (i.e. the subject/Subject, which is the authentic self, as opposed to material objects):
If one were to ask you whether you are the same person or individual you were at birth (or even at conception), you would probably respond in the affirmative. So, then, what PRECISELY is it about you which has remained constant since conception? In other words, what is the self-identity you had as an infant, which is the present “you”? It cannot be any part of your body or mind, since none of the atoms or molecules in your zygote body are extant, and “you” certainly did not possess a mind at conception. If you are reasonably intelligent, you may claim that your genome is the same now as it was then. However, it has recently been scientifically demonstrated that genetic code can (and usually does) mutate throughout an individual’s lifetime. Furthermore, nobody actively conceives of their essential nature being a bunch of genes!
More intelligent souls would probably counter thus: “The thing which stays the same from my birth to the present time is my sense of self.” This too, is fallacious, since the sense of self does not emerge until at least a couple of years after birth. An infant has no ideation of itself as an individual actor. You may then say “I was a (male/female) human being” but that doesn’t specify any PARTICULAR human (you, yourself).
So, then, what precisely is it which remains “you” from conception till death? That is life ITSELF, which precedes any artificial sense of self. In other words, rather than asserting “I am a man/woman/human/king/pilot/etc.”, simply the impersonal sense of “I am”. That is the true self, which is the Universal Self. Therefore, your essential nature is Cosmic Consciousness, usually called “God” by theists (see also Chapter 10).
Cont...
The Tao (The Reality [lit. The Way, The Path, or The Road]) which can be expressed in language is not the REAL Tao. All concepts are, by nature, relative, and at most, can merely point to the Absolute. That explains why some branches of theology use the apophatic method of discerning The Infinite (“neti neti”, [not this, not that], in Sanskrit). Also known in Latin as “via negativa” or “via negationis” theology, this philosophical approach to discovering the essential nature of Reality, gradually negates each description about Ultimate Reality, but not Reality Itself.
Ultimate Reality (“Brahman”, in Sanskrit [from “bṛh” - lit. “Expansion”, in English]) alone is real - “real” in the sense that it is the never-mutable substratum of ALL existence. The wisest of the philosophers of ancient India distinguished the “real” from the “unreal” (“sat/asat”, in Sanskrit) by whether or not the “thing“ was eternal or ephemeral (cf. Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣad 1:3:28, Bhagavad-gītā 2:16, et altri).
Gross material objects (such as one's own body) and subtle material objects (such as thoughts) are always changing, and therefore not “real”.
REALITY is clearly seen by those self-realized persons who have experienced spiritual awakenings (which occur either spontaneously, or after a gradual process over many months or years), yet only intellectually understood by those who have merely studied spiritual topics (that is, those who have practiced one of the four systems of religion described in Chapter 16, but have yet to awaken to their essential nature).
“If you remain as you are now, you are in the wakeful state. This is abolished in the dream state.
The dream state disappears, when you are in deep sleep. The three states come and go, but you are always there.
Your real state, that of Consciousness itself, continues to exist always and forever and it is the only Reality.”
*************
“The ego is the identified consciousness. When the impersonal Consciousness identifies itself with the personal organism, the ego arises.”
*************
“The only true meditation is the constant impersonal witnessing of all that takes place in one’s life as mere movements in the universal Consciousness.”
*************
“Consciousness must first be there, before anything else can BE. All inquiry of the seeker of truth, must therefore, relate to this consciousness, this sense of conscious presence, which as such, has no personal reference to any individual.”
*************
“Insofar as you keep watching the mind and discover yourself as its witness, nothing else can project itself on the screen of consciousness.
This is so, because two things cannot occupy the attention, at the same moment.Therefore, delve within and find out where thoughts arise.
Seek the source of all thought and acquire the Self-knowledge, which is the awakening of Truth.”
*************
“Just as the difference between the space in a pot and the space outside it disappears when the pot is demolished, so also does duality disappear when it is realized that the difference between the individual consciousness and the Universal Consciousness does not in fact exist.”
*************
“All there is, is, is consciousness. That is the Source from which the manifestation has come.
...And the mind is merely a reflection of that Consciousness.”
*************
“All there is is Consciousness, not aware of Itself in Its noumenal Subjectivity, but perceived by Itself as phenomenal manifestation in Its objective expression. If this is understood in depth, there is nothing more to be understood.”
Ramesh S. Balsekar,
Indian Spiritual Teacher.
“As a man who has devoted his whole life to the most clearheaded science, to the study of matter, I can tell you as a result of my research about the atoms this much: There is no matter as such! All matter originates and exists only by virtue of a force which brings the particles of an atom to vibration and holds this most minute solar system of the atom together. We must assume behind this force the existence of a conscious and intelligent Spirit. This Spirit is the matrix of all matter.”
*************
“I regard consciousness as fundamental. I regard matter as derivative from consciousness. We cannot get behind consciousness. Everything that we talk about, everything that we regard as existing, postulates consciousness.”
Max Karl Ernst Ludwig Planck,
German Theoretical Physicist.
@@soubhikmukherjee6871 For a catholic consciousness is the "I" that will return to God. Once he is "detached" he can chose to do the good or the evil and will return to God (not merge !) only when repented.
@@soubhikmukherjee6871 if you don't mind, what's your religion and how it comprehends conciseness? (just asking bc your question made me wonder how the interpretation of conciseness changes according to each religion)
I am not sure integration of information is consciousness. He just said he sees no integration in deep sleep. But how come many monks are aware in deep sleep.
Why does the brain receive stimuli from both electromagnetic forces & electricity, as well as chemical interactions? Is this process one and the same or how does the brain get into the process of deciphering reality around it?
Learn the basics of physics and chemistry then learn how sense organs and neurons work and you will have your answer.
We do not generate voltage as a body. The nerve impulses from our heads to our limbs travel as electrochemical signals, far slower than electricity (but fast enough to operate our body).
Electrical potentials are raised in the cells as part of their ion transport, but these are measured in millivolts and are not applied to the whole body.
The question that comes to my mind is, 'is consciousness quantum mechanics or classic structure?'
There is no distinction reality behaves according to quantum mechanics I think the science consensus is.
It's the wave function an propabilities that define how that reality on a non quantum level will express itself
None of the above
quantum mechanics do not involve/ necessary to explain conscious activity in the brain
Consciousness is part of the survival instinct. Without consciousness how would any creature be able to survive? For example if a cat wasn't aware of the fact that it was hungry then why should it bother to try and catch a bird on the ground or in a tree? Without consciousness the cat wouldn't even know there was a bird in range even if it had excellent eyesight. Without consciousness no creature would have any eyes, ears, nose, tongue or be able to feel anything. Without consciousness we wouldn't even know we existed or anything else existed and we wouldn't know if something including another creature was present which would make it impossible to survive.
Robots can do their tasks without needing consciousness even if they had consciousness the program would still operate by the code. There is a concept of philosophical zombies so it’s hard to tell whether the consciousness itself has any role in survival.
I think this leads to the question whether free will (illusion or of it is not) increases the survival capability. Imagine something conscious but with no free will (or free will illusion)
@@rotorblade9508 Robot tasks and sensory processing and decision making are vastly, vastly simpler and more linear than a cat's. A sufficiently complex robot would necessarily be as conscious or more conscious than a cat.
Where is the need for a consciousness? Why would a consciousness make information processing smaller? Must be the other way around. Logically a consciousness isn't needed.
@@DaP84 Self-awareness and deliberated response to environment *IS* consciousness.
@@DaP84 You need to imagine a much more complex robot. Sufficiently complex. A robotic cat or human, with all the range of possible mental states and behaviors, etc.
Who knows ? Don’t overthink it ! Perhaps we’ll never know ? We might understand more when we die or we might just cease to exist and know nothing!!! I suspect it’s the latter!
Came a long way since trying taking over the Nakatomi plaza
Interesting, maybe consciousness needs to be applied to physics. My consciousness moves matter all the time, how would that factor into our understanding of the universe? Could you also go further and say the universe itself has consciousness, therefore could also move matter according to free will? And perhaps that invisible force of consciousness can account for dark matter? There are some theories that say every piece of matter is conscious, which sort of makes sense, as you increase the complexity of arrangement of the these atoms, you get more complex consciousness, so an atom isnt aware like me or you, but aware enough to obey certain laws with limited free will but some - as shown by the probability cloud of an electron, that could be seen a micro consciousness, and as you add them together we get macro conscious systems like ourselves, also obeying laws but having a range of free will within that. And we too could be just a small part of a bigger consciousness - the universe.
🐟 06. CONSCIOUSNESS/AWARENESS:
Consciousness means “that which knows” or “the state of being aware”, from the Latin prefix “con” (with), the stem “scire” (to know) and the suffix “osus” (characterized by). There is BOTH a localized knowing and a Universal Awareness, as explicated in the following paragraphs.
Higher species of animal life have sufficient cognitive ability to KNOW themselves and their environment, at least to a measurable degree. Just where consciousness objectively begins in the animal kingdom is a matter of contention but, judging purely by ethological means, it probably starts with vertebrates (at least the higher-order birds and fishes). Those metazoans which are evolutionarily lower than vertebrates do not possess much, if any, semblance of intellect, necessary for true knowledge, but operate purely by reflexive instincts. For instance, an insect or amphibian does not consciously decide to seek food but does so according to its base instincts, directed by its idiosyncratic genetic code. Even when a cockroach flees from danger, it is not experiencing the same kind of thoughts or feelings a human or other mammal would experience.
The brain is merely a conduit or TRANSDUCER of consciousness, explaining why the more intelligent the animal, the more it can understand its own existence (or at least be aware of more of its environment - just see how amazingly-complex dolphin and whale behaviour can be, compared with other aquatic species), and the reason why it is asserted that a truly enlightened human must possess a far higher level of intelligence than the average person (See Chapter 17 to understand the distinction between enlightenment and mere awakening). The processing unit of a supercomputer must be far larger, more complex and more powerful than the processor in a pocket calculator.
Therefore, it seems logical to conclude that the scale of discrete (localized) consciousness is dependent on the animal's brain capacity.
Three STATES of awareness are experienced by humans and possibly all other species of mammals:
the waking state (“jāgrata”, in Sanskrit), dreaming (“svapna”, in Sanskrit), and deep-sleep (“suṣupti”, in Sanskrit). Beyond these three temporal states is the fourth “state” (“turīya” or “caturīya”, in Sanskrit). That is the unconditioned, eternal “state”, which underlies the other three.
The waking state is the LEAST real (that is to say the least permanent, or to put it another way, the farthest from the Necessary Ground of Existence, as explained towards the end of this chapter). The dream state is closer to our eternal nature, whilst dreamless deep-sleep is much more analogous to The Universal Self (“brahman”), as it is imbued with peace. Rather than being an absence of awareness, deep-sleep is an awareness of absence (that is, the absence of phenomenal, sensual experiences). So, in actual fact, the fourth state is not a state, but the Unconditioned Ground of Being, or to put it simply, YOU, the real self/Self, or Existence-Awareness-Peace (“sacchidānanda”, in Sanskrit).
Perhaps the main purpose of dreams is so that we can understand that the waking-state is practically indistinguishable to the dream-state, and thereby come to see the ILLUSION of this ephemeral world. Both our waking-state experiences and our dream-state experiences occur solely within the mental faculties (refer to Chapter 04 for an elucidation of this phenomenon). If somebody in one of your dreams were to ask your dream-state character if the dream was real, you (playing the part of that character) would most likely say, “yes, of course this is real!” Similarly, if someone were to ask your waking-state character if this world is real, you would almost undoubtedly respond in kind.
An apt analogy for Universal Consciousness is the manner in which electricity powers a variety of appliances and gadgets, according to the use and COMPLEXITY of the said device. Electricity powers a washing machine in a very simple manner, to drive a large spindle for laundering clothes. However, the very same electrical power may be used to operate a computer to manifest an astonishing range of outputs, such as playing audiovisual tracks, communication tasks and performing extremely advanced mathematical computations, depending on the computer's software and hardware. The more advanced/complex the device, the more complex its manifestation of the same electricity.
Using the aforementioned computer analogy: the brain is COMPARATIVELY equivalent to the computer hardware, deoxyribonucleic acid akin to the operating system working in conjunction with the memory, the intellect is equivalent to the processing unit, individuated consciousness is analogous to the software programme, whilst Universal Awareness is likened to the electricity which enlivens the entire computer system.
A person who is comatosed has lost any semblance of local consciousness, yet is being kept alive by the presence of Universal Consciousness.
So, then, one could complain: “That's not fair - why can only a genius be enlightened?” (as defined in Chapter 17).
The answer is: first of all, as stated above, every species of animal has its own level of intelligence on a wide-ranging scale. Therefore, a pig or a dog could (if possible) ask: “That's unfair - why can only a human being be enlightened?”
Secondly, it is INDEED a fact that life is unfair, because there is no “tit for tat” law of action and reaction, even if many supposedly-great religious preceptors have stated so. They said so because they were preaching to wicked miscreants who refused to quit their evil ways, and needed to be chastized in a forceful manner. It is not possible to speak gentle words to a rabid dog to prevent it from biting you.
There is evidence of Consciousness being a universal field, in SAVANT SYNDROME, a condition in which someone with significant mental disabilities demonstrate certain abilities far in excess of the norm, such as superhuman rapid mathematical calculation, mind-reading, blind-seeing, or astounding musical aptitude. Such behaviour suggests that there is a universal field (possibly in holographic form) from which one can access information. Even simple artistic inspiration could be attributed to this phenomenon. The great British singer-songwriter, Sir James Paul McCartney, one day woke with the complete tune of the song, “Yesterday”, in his mind, after hearing it in a dream. American composer, Paul Simon, had a similar experience when the chorus of his sublime masterpiece, “Bridge Over Troubled Water”, simply popped into his head.
In recent years, the term “CONSCIOUSNESS” has been used in esoteric spiritual circles (usually capitalized) to refer to a far more Homogeneous Consciousness (“puruṣa”, in Sanskrit), due to the fact that the English language doesn’t include a single word denoting the Universal Ground of Being (for instance “Brahman”, “Tao”, in other tongues). The word “Awareness” (capitalized) is arguably a more apposite term for this concept.
The typical person believes that the apparatus which knows the external world is his mind (via the five senses), but more perceptive individuals understand that the mind itself is cognizable by the intellect. Wise souls recognize that the sense of self (the pseudo-ego) is the perceiver of their intellects, whereas awakened persons have realized that the true self/Self is the witness of ALL these temporal phenomena.
The true self is synonymous with Meta-Consciousness, or with Infinite Awareness, or the Undifferentiated Unified Field (“Brahman”, in Sanskrit).
The dialectic exercise in the following three paragraphs should help one to understand the nature of the fundamental conscious observer, that is, the ULTIMATE observer of all phenomena (i.e. the subject/Subject, which is the authentic self, as opposed to material objects):
If one were to ask you whether you are the same person or individual you were at birth (or even at conception), you would probably respond in the affirmative. So, then, what PRECISELY is it about you which has remained constant since conception? In other words, what is the self-identity you had as an infant, which is the present “you”? It cannot be any part of your body or mind, since none of the atoms or molecules in your zygote body are extant, and “you” certainly did not possess a mind at conception. If you are reasonably intelligent, you may claim that your genome is the same now as it was then. However, it has recently been scientifically demonstrated that genetic code can (and usually does) mutate throughout an individual’s lifetime. Furthermore, nobody actively conceives of their essential nature being a bunch of genes!
More intelligent souls would probably counter thus: “The thing which stays the same from my birth to the present time is my sense of self.” This too, is fallacious, since the sense of self does not emerge until at least a couple of years after birth. An infant has no ideation of itself as an individual actor. You may then say “I was a (male/female) human being” but that doesn’t specify any PARTICULAR human (you, yourself).
So, then, what precisely is it which remains “you” from conception till death? That is life ITSELF, which precedes any artificial sense of self. In other words, rather than asserting “I am a man/woman/human/king/pilot/etc.”, simply the impersonal sense of “I am”. That is the true self, which is the Universal Self. Therefore, your essential nature is Cosmic Consciousness, usually called “God” by theists (see also Chapter 10).
Cont...
The Tao (The Reality [lit. The Way, The Path, or The Road]) which can be expressed in language is not the REAL Tao. All concepts are, by nature, relative, and at most, can merely point to the Absolute. That explains why some branches of theology use the apophatic method of discerning The Infinite (“neti neti”, [not this, not that], in Sanskrit). Also known in Latin as “via negativa” or “via negationis” theology, this philosophical approach to discovering the essential nature of Reality, gradually negates each description about Ultimate Reality, but not Reality Itself.
Ultimate Reality (“Brahman”, in Sanskrit [from “bṛh” - lit. “Expansion”, in English]) alone is real - “real” in the sense that it is the never-mutable substratum of ALL existence. The wisest of the philosophers of ancient India distinguished the “real” from the “unreal” (“sat/asat”, in Sanskrit) by whether or not the “thing“ was eternal or ephemeral (cf. Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣad 1:3:28, Bhagavad-gītā 2:16, et altri).
Gross material objects (such as one's own body) and subtle material objects (such as thoughts) are always changing, and therefore not “real”.
REALITY is clearly seen by those self-realized persons who have experienced spiritual awakenings (which occur either spontaneously, or after a gradual process over many months or years), yet only intellectually understood by those who have merely studied spiritual topics (that is, those who have practiced one of the four systems of religion described in Chapter 16, but have yet to awaken to their essential nature).
“If you remain as you are now, you are in the wakeful state. This is abolished in the dream state.
The dream state disappears, when you are in deep sleep. The three states come and go, but you are always there.
Your real state, that of Consciousness itself, continues to exist always and forever and it is the only Reality.”
*************
“The ego is the identified consciousness. When the impersonal Consciousness identifies itself with the personal organism, the ego arises.”
*************
“The only true meditation is the constant impersonal witnessing of all that takes place in one’s life as mere movements in the universal Consciousness.”
*************
“Consciousness must first be there, before anything else can BE. All inquiry of the seeker of truth, must therefore, relate to this consciousness, this sense of conscious presence, which as such, has no personal reference to any individual.”
*************
“Insofar as you keep watching the mind and discover yourself as its witness, nothing else can project itself on the screen of consciousness.
This is so, because two things cannot occupy the attention, at the same moment.Therefore, delve within and find out where thoughts arise.
Seek the source of all thought and acquire the Self-knowledge, which is the awakening of Truth.”
*************
“Just as the difference between the space in a pot and the space outside it disappears when the pot is demolished, so also does duality disappear when it is realized that the difference between the individual consciousness and the Universal Consciousness does not in fact exist.”
*************
“All there is, is, is consciousness. That is the Source from which the manifestation has come.
...And the mind is merely a reflection of that Consciousness.”
*************
“All there is is Consciousness, not aware of Itself in Its noumenal Subjectivity, but perceived by Itself as phenomenal manifestation in Its objective expression. If this is understood in depth, there is nothing more to be understood.”
Ramesh S. Balsekar,
Indian Spiritual Teacher.
“As a man who has devoted his whole life to the most clearheaded science, to the study of matter, I can tell you as a result of my research about the atoms this much: There is no matter as such! All matter originates and exists only by virtue of a force which brings the particles of an atom to vibration and holds this most minute solar system of the atom together. We must assume behind this force the existence of a conscious and intelligent Spirit. This Spirit is the matrix of all matter.”
*************
“I regard consciousness as fundamental. I regard matter as derivative from consciousness. We cannot get behind consciousness. Everything that we talk about, everything that we regard as existing, postulates consciousness.”
Max Karl Ernst Ludwig Planck,
German Theoretical Physicist.
I believe consciousness is not Computational.
Sleeping by raising you bed one end 5 6 inches. With feet at elevated end when you wake up and lie there it feels like your flat thats your consicous and unconscious joined in a harmony an orcastra our energy from the earth
In deep sleep consciousness does not go away and if it did you won't be able to know that you had a deep sleep. But obviously we all know after waking up that we had deep sleep experience!
Deep sleep in this case is a stage in the sleep cycle, not the feeling of a good sleep one can feel when awaking fully rested. We most certainly do not know that we have been in deep sleep cycle as we most often don't even remember having been a sleep in those cases.
The agent has a quantum mechanism.
The state of consciousness is the quantum entangled state of the quantum mechanism. It has no parts.
The state of consciousness creates its own world with time through quantum entanglement.
The agent is also bound by classical physics, quantum state is a gateway for the interaction of particles which gives rise to consciousness. Had classical physics (even if a construct of the quantum) had not been the fundamental prerequisite then it would simply not be which proves that one cannot be without the other, they are tied in a harmonious web.
If you don't believe me you can always smash your head against a wall or something. You may end up in a hospital until you wake up and you will realise when your lights were out your quantum consciousness was unable to function on it's own.
The brain / body could be a device that we are wirelessly connected to. It has sleep modes and also needs to be in a certain condition to be able to function. How you can remove some areas of the brain and still be able to have conciousness and not other areas could be as simple as how an engine can still function if perhaps a few cylinders arnt working. The engine will run but not as intended. But if you remove a different part of the engine it won't run at all, or it will run but perhaps not drive. Interesting stuff better than the mindless dribble coming out of most people's mouths these days 😆
This is two interviews that Ive seen with this guy and although he seems to know his stuff he never answers the question. The question was whats the meaning of consciousness...and there was no answer.
What's the meaning of the Pancreas?
Kinda stupid analysis
What's the meaning of an egg ?
Why is a mouse when it spins?
Kindly repeat that in ENGLISH. :|
@@SpiritualPsychotherapyServices Neh. It's a Zen koan, word for word translation.
"Like an electrician you're zapping it"
Pretty sure this guy's a Bond villain.
🤣
Actually I think he's the NEXT Bond.
I haven't had dreams for a long time. However, there is a spiritual area (at night) to converse with a mother and father - maybe someone else. The only problem is that I can't recall the conversation!!!
Is consciousness quantum? Does it go in and out of the physical universe?
Well, there's no good evidence for that (neither confirming it or disproving it), but sometimes -near death experiences for example- consciousness seems to be independent of our body.
Roger Penrose, the 2020 physics nobel laureate, has spoken and written about the relation between consciousness and quantum physics, you can check it.
Indeed, those quantum particles are cloudlike and sail in the dark inter universal sea. Trapped by their own interactions building up into a field, and then - how horrid - beginning to oscillate and getting stuck to a ground like a bug to flypaper. Released by dancing in all directions at once to increase entropy. This is "experience" and why it's so valuable 'cause it's a need and enchantment.
@@M4th3www John Torday has an interesting idea of cellular beginnings to consciousness, polarized lipids and membranes (cell walls in this case) having something to do with it.
Everything that exists is quantum, but those effects are not visible at human brain sizes.
@@M4th3www if it is independent of the body, where does it go during deep sleep because I don’t remember anything
Tononi = Adam West
after this video, there is a video on the BIG BANG. hmmmm---so Penrose (brilliant man, who happens to contribute to stuff about the brain with his understanding of neuron structure having micro tubules which allow for quantum physical activity//brain calculations and sensing the Universe)--perhaps that is part of what consciousness is or how it happens. So, Penrose states about the so enlarged expanding Universe yielding no clock and then that yields no time and that that is a condition for a big bang. wow!---so, perhaps consciousness is an ingredient needed for any of this to make sense---of course it does. So, without a clock and an observer of NO clock, it does not matter what was before the big bang---and with the big bang, we get matter that coalesces into brains capable of consciousness that will disappear with the freezing of the U. And, consciousness did not exist before the BB. What is this consciousness//awareness to even be able to know that we ourselves can ask of this Universe "where you come from and where you go". CONSCIOUSNESS is the brain conversing with a flesh and blood part of itself that we call MIND. That conversation occurs because humans have developed sophisticated language so that we actually talk our way through pleasure and fear, rather than just instinctively reacting to those things. The better the conversation, the more aware //conscious we are. We ask ourselves "
should i do that or move that or go there---we think it through by this sophisticated discussion between mind and brain. Memory, which is located in the brain and also diffused through out the brain, is necessary for these conversations to have meaning. Last week i chose by discussion to go where i don't belong and got hurt. I remember that and then make a better choice next time (or not, if my choice is controlled by hormones or drugs and then i have no choice---but at least i know that---oooops, i'll add that we have no free will---in one short paragraph, i have revealed some of what i have learned about the BB, CONSCIOUSNESS
The title is wrong on this video, this doesn’t have a thing to do with consciousness
It's when slap someone across the back of the head for doing something stupid and they learn from it...
What's saying there's no afterlife that all NDE are brain made
Why doubt it?
No one said so
I thought consciousness is “I”, even if “I” cannot have self awareness. It is the subject that makes representation.
"if “I” cannot have self awareness"
There can be no self without self awareness.
Not only that but
the self ceases being when it is no longer conscious of anything.
You know you cease when your bod is dreamless sleeping.
And you know you resume being when you awaken.
I is nothing, except if I can think of I, that ability make us intelligent and self-aware.
@@xspotbox4400 it’s not nothing, it’s just not as complex. Think of it as a gradient
Tononi has an investment in his “theory”, so I understand why he’s pushing it, but I’m afraid he’s way off base.
Consciousness relies on a system, not just the neocortex. While both the cerebellum and neocortex are part of the system, the core of the system resides in the brain stem.
Yes consciousness persists even when a cerebellum is removed, but it is diminished. Massive portions of the neocortex can be removed as well and yet consciousness will remain, though even more diminished. Remove the brain stem and it all stops dead in its tracks. The cerebellum and neocortex feed and receive information from the brain stem and subcortical nuclei, which, when taken a together produce what we consider normal consciousness.
Again, the brain (and indeed the entire CNS) should be viewed as a system, and no individual portion is responsible for consciousness anymore than any one part in a combustion engine is responsible for moving a car.
In the end, consciousness is the produced of this cortico-thalamus loop and the interpretation of all neural activity by the left brain interpreter.
IIT has some appeal, but it’s still missing a lot of explanatory power.
The reason everything stops dead if the brain stem is removed is simply because it controls processes critical to sustaining life, such as respiration and cardiac function. However, it plays a very limited role in actually producing conscious experience. Everything stops dead if you remove the heart too, but nobody's suggesting the heart produces consciousness beyond simply privoding oxygenated blood to the parts of the brain that do.
@@JT-mz5oc ,
That is incorrect. The RAS (reticular activating system) is directly responsible for controlling wakefulness - a key component of consciousness.
In addition, the pontine tegmentum is an extremely important area that is associated with coma, and the anterior insula and anterior cingulate cortex are other key components. Any of these components disabled results in coma.
@@JT-mz5oc ,
I might also mention that babies born with a condition called anencephaly, where they have little or no cerebral cortex - only a brain stem and cerebellum - do exhibit signs of consciousness, responding to stimulation and facial expressions indicative of an affective inner life.
@@DeanHorak A person doesn't need to be awake to have conscious experiences. We dream during REM sleep because of the activity of interconnected neurons in the cortex. Moreover, many people who have awoken from a coma have reported having dreamlike experiences whilst they were apparently unconscious, despite showing no signs of the usual sleep-wakefulness cycle.
I'm not denying that the brain is a highly interconnected system with many parts that contribute towards producing a coherent subjective experience, but the cortex clearly plays a uniquely integral part in producing consciousness, and what sets it apart from the rest of the brain is its ability to integrate information.
@@DeanHorak According to the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, babies born with anencephaly are blind, deaf, unaware of their surroundings and unable to feel pain. They also very rarely survive beyond the age of few hours or days old, so any kind of 'inner life' seems unlikely and highly limited if it exists at all.
Time time time
Fundamental time= consciousness,
This doesn’t answer any of the basic questions of consciousness : how does a brain signal translate into emotions and feelings ?? Why do v feel pain and pleasure and other emotions and feelings ? If integrated information is consciousness super computers should have some kind of consciousness. But they don’t. If u destroy a computer it doesn’t feel pain . It doesn’t feel pain or pleasure no matter what u do. So the next logical question would be is it the material that leads to consciousness : does having organic components such as neurons and so on lead to consciousness?! So if v could create a computer using neurons and biological parts would it lead to consciousness?? Cos the same information integration that happens in a computer can also happen in the brain except the computer would be faster. But y is it that the same information that u feed a computer doesn’t lead to any kind of emotions ?? Confusion can occur both in a human and computer but the resultant emotions and actions based on emotions can’t happen in a computer no matter what type of programming it may have including OOPs. So really this doesn’t seem to be the correct approach. If they were really serious about this research they should also consider the approaches of ancient philosophers.
Especially Indian philosophers. This has been discussed in detail . U don’t have to buy into the religious aspects but the answers to consciousness lie there . Almost all possible angles to the topic ranging from negation of consciousness ( Charvaka atheist philosophy ) to different theories of consciousness ( Aajivaka Shramana and so on ) to finally Vedanta have been discussed. While some of this is also found in Ancient Greek and Roman and other philosophers of ancient civilisations none of them r quite as complete or well developed. Or maybe they were and got lost somewhere along the way due to civilisational changes. Anyways it is worth exploring if u really want answers to this.
At four months more or less a baby comes out from the letargic sleep and becomes conscient of its existence. At the same moment all the connection are established and the soul or consciousness is born. It is a creations of the body and all the necessary tools will be developed in time. Consciousness is more than the brain and any natural ability that a person can develop, consciousness is the product of all humanity and has powers that surprise us yet in an emergency consciousness is like a god in us!
So are you saying consciousness can exist outside of the body?
Consciousness is type of energy which gets activated only when unites with healthy are harmonizing bodies cause and source of life. Body and consciousness is like bulb and electricity. Glowing is possible only when they are togather.
This dude is insanely intelligent. And I say that with my IQ of 142. He's a different level; he has the ability of understanding all of this and communicating it in a simple and non-contrived way. I'm jealous of that ability; very few have it.
Consciousness will not be understood if discussed among the materialists. Consciousness is a speritual matter. Understanding the brain is to understand the 'tool' i.e brain as a tool. Any tool has its limitations. Any tool depands on its user. It is not possible for any tool, even the most sophisticated tool, to have its own consciousness.
Observing a moving car on the road, for example, we may conclude that the car is conscious. The car seem conscious in avoiding any accidents, conscious in staying on the road, conscious in observing the road signs, conscious in where its going etc. Who is making the car seems to be conscious? THE DRIVER. If the driver leaves the the car, the car may still be 'alived' but UNCONSCIOUS. Thus when we are asleep, we are still alive but temperorily unconscious. We die in our sleep if our 'consciousness' fails to return to our body. Our consciousness is our 'soul' and is deteched from our body. When we die our body rot and return to the soil but our soul live on with a new body living in a new dimension.
Interesting analogy, the question remains who is the "Driver" for our brains?
0:40 Sounds more like looking through the wrong end of the microscope. What's wrong with a totally Biological Evolution perspective. Instead of starting with the amazing human mind, start with the beginning of the story! Origins of sensing organs, what were they good for? From there, homeostasis and the birth of emotions, feedback mechanisms, awareness.
Why not work with the philosophical leap that consciousness is the inside reflection of a creature dealing with itself and it's environment. Seems a lot more promising than all the meta-physical (intellectual entertainment) distractions. (read up on Antonio Damasio and especially Mark Solms' work on consciousness for the educated version of this story.)
Of course, what's mean by "consciousness" Tonino never explains. The highest realm of human's complex consciousness is not all there is to consciousness (or?) - yet the spectrum of consciousness and its Evolutionary development never seems to get absorbed or receive much air time, why?
It's a spectrum, starts with the simples awareness and homeostasis needs of the body. Works up from there.