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From: TEDtalksDirector
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  • The power within our brains to adapt is really something to marvel.

  • my brain s crazy

  • At 5:01, a little center of right when the camera points to the audience: is that Larry David? Looks just like him.

  • At 15:28 he completely cured my cold as all the mucous came out laughing. MCOL.

  • lol FUK DAT YALz no i don fukin no wat he say lol THUG LIFE!! nigga mayke tym on d a streeeetz haha chek out mah ill rap on my page

  • well sharing

  • If I, the experiencer of my life, am an emergent property of my brain, then a clone of my brain should mean that I would get to experience life again from the point-of-view of the new brain, a bit like being reborn. But this wouldn't occur, instead a new, separate experiencer would emerge. However, if you wiped clean my memory, I would still be the experiencer of my life, even though I wouldn't remember who I was. Two identical brains, two separate experiencers. What makes me the experiencer?

  • @1simonmatthews Well, how do you want to approach this from a Philosophical point of view? Like Tabula Rasa? Is this what you are inferring too? A Neurological point of view? Scientifically? Consciousness is that what I assume you are referring too when you speak about emergent properties? It is sometimes said that consciousness is an emergent property of the brain. In order to answer this I need more information. In other words what about other variables too?

  • @RichWalston Whatever approach brings truth. If there's one thing I know, it's that I experience. Now, if you wiped my memory, my identity as Simon Matthews would be gone, but I would still experience, and start again learning everything from anew. Or say you had one memory erased, it would still have been you who experienced that event and not a different person. But with a cloned brain, it's a different experiencer altogether, which makes me think the experiencer is not produced by the brain?

  • i dont understand why people laugh at 4:45 when he says a freudian argument.

    why is it funy?

  • @cyclotane It's the joke that Freudian arguments seem absurd sometimes.

  • @RichWalston but isnt freud a respected man? or not anymore

  • @cyclotane Yes, of course. It is just that some of his theories are debated by others. Even the best people are wrong sometimes. Even his students Carl Jung had a falling out with him. It was not a joking falling out. It was a serious academic disagreement. I am not an expert on any of these subjects. I am just trying to give you what little information I know from Basic Psych 101 College courses. Some people get jokes and then some do. I never find most things funny. LOL :).

  • @cyclotane

    hmm well..he's a controversial man

  • First, I would like to mention that i have seen the mirror experiment in "House MD" and i was actually surprised that it's true!

    Second, I thought of a question: how is imagination linked to all of this? because there is quite a nuance between imagination and creativity... so is it the same part of the brain? Like when you imagine 3D shapes, is it hightened visual capabilities?

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  • WHERE IS KilluaXIII'S COMMENT ???????

  • @mideastatheist

    His comment has 133 thumbs up and is not shown in the top comments. Interesting.

  • Is that Richard branson at 23.41 ?

  • Talk about creative thinking with regard to the mirror box. Amazing...

  • he's between a pot field and a drum set

  • What  a fucking genius

  • Is that richard branson at 23:42?

  • @Proteus6684

    Yes it is. He seems to randomly show up everywhere.

  • TedtalksDirector vids are high quality stoner entertainment : )

  • Hottie @ 2:54

  • Did anybody else catch the Zeppelin line near the end? Fuckin epic.

  • indian einstein!

  • @LeadBlimp weird! i wrote that before watching and now im seeing pictures of einstein everywhere haha

  • had to go a....lll the way back to find KilluaXIII comment.

  • proves the human body is like a network of several sensors and Virtual sensors which identify problems in the body which can be fooled, just like a smart phone but a organic one which has its own brain

  • Thank God for youtube... Great Ramachandran lecture at the comfort of my living room.. priceless... "The latent beastiality in everyon" he's is so funny haha...

  • how does the brain interpret the mirror of the hand as a real hand even though the person is fully aware it is a mirror image?

  • this guys accent is fucking awesome.

  • The content of this man's lecture is obviously wonderful but what I couldn't help but think about was his accent...it sounds like a mix of Indian & Scottish. Awesome.

  • @N7242C Hm. I didn't hear any rambling.

  • holy crap, is that Richard Branson at 23:42?

  • @N7242C Are you implying that an implied opinion is incorrect whilst implying your opinion to be correct?

  • Really clear explanation also for thos who are not do familiar with brain functioning.

  • Another Hindu Brahmin engaging in ownage; keep it up! This man's grandfather drafted the Indian Constitution (Alladi Krishnaswamy Iyer).

    Why on earth did VS marry an untouchable (American)? It is terrible that he, as well as another Tamil Brahmin Nobel Laureate Venkatraman Ramakrishnan, married an untouchable. Kali Yuga is certainly upon us. Please maintain tradition and caste purity.

  • @MahaVakyas Adolf Hitler also wanted that, look were that got him!

  • @josealonsoleon hitler was an untouchable.. whatever he "wanted" or said doesn't mean shit.. and.. he had no idea about caste. he was a racist.. you don't even know the difference.. lol.

  • Why don't we just show the people who have capgras this video...

  • Vilayanur Ramachandran is a BRILLIANT man, and much more pleasant to listen to than Jill Bolte Taylor.

    I'm not going to respect the woman just because she had a stroke, I mean, yes, it is a touching story... but I think that her new age thinking is biased and dangerous. She thinks the right hemisphere is what it is all about. She doesn't realize there has to be balance between our hemispheres, and we should NOT rejoice when logic, skepticism, & reasoning die.

    Enough ranting, brilliant speech.

  • @zrhealey you know, there's the Rush album out there called Hemispheres.

  • Im a little confused by Dr Ramachandran's assertion that metaphorical thinking and synisthesia are parrallel processes (and his explanation that this is why sysisthesia is so common in artists and writers etc) - after all, metaphor is all about finding common factors between different things -to use his example, a spiky shape and a spiky sound. But in sinesthesia, numbers and colours etc the link between the two is completely arbitrary - "one" is not a particularly green colour...

  • Kipling challenged us to fill the unforgiving minute with sixty seconds worth of distance run. Listening to Dr. Ramachandran well surpasses that test.

  • Dr house did the mirror thing to a Canadian Vietnam war veteran........thought it was science fiction

  • Awesome talk! Who knew till know...

    BTW off topic, but you ppl notice how he seems to have a hint of scottish accent thrown in with some Indian twang? Is he doing a tenure in scotland for some reason?

  • @ace1262 It's the Indian merging with his longyears in America.

  • @ace1262 Yeah, this guy officially has the most bad ass accent period.

  • Did I just saw Richard Branson in the audience?

  • awesome talk... that guy's rolling 'r's are crazy!

  • Dude!  That is one funky, cool accent. Like a NY city/Hindu mix.

  • here is this... mass of jelly.. you can hold in the palm of your hand.. and it can contemplate the vastness of interstellar space..

  • here is this... mass of jelly.. you can hold in the palm of your hand.. and it can contemplate the vastness of interstellar space.. WHAT ARE WE! jeez

  • u deserve a nobel prize!

  • 23 people have damage to their fusiform gyrus.

  • Vilayanur Ramachandran is tops! Thanks Vilayanur!

  • mahn this vid jst blew my mind, LITERALLY, watchd it at 2 AM and now im scared of my own brain!!, this stuff was raw intel

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  • All my neuroanatomy and neurophysiology proffesors should have been there !

  • Richard Branson @23:42

  • fron his name he sounds like an indian but his accent is so unindian

  • Yup, he's Indian. He's been in US for a long time after finishing his undergrad in India. That's why his accent is not typically Indian (akin to a new immigrant), but you can tell when he emphasizes certain words such as "holy grail" with an elongated "r".

  • @mcaj007 he studied in England before going to the US. His grammar is way too good for Americans; most of whom are utterly idiotic and think words like "snuck" and "architecting" are words.

  • @MahaVakyas Whereas people like you are extremely prone to stereotyping and maintaining backward traditions. It's people like you that bring shame to us Indians (and people in general) who see people as *people* rather than instruments of tradition and power.

    Anyway, damn good Tedtalk. This was one of the better ones, for sure.

  • @ashjk92 you stupid cunt.. what the fuck is "backward tradition" you stupid untouchable? mingling with untouchable vermin (jews/christians/muslims) is really backward.. keeping with your own kind is the best for all.. even animals follow that..go watch some more "bollywood" and mingle with those filthy vermin..

  • @MahaVakyas Swearing, insulting, and racism, I wonder why your brain didn't escape such petty forms of expression. Intruiging.

  • @MahaVakyas

    "even animals follow that"

    Exactly. And since we're animals too, humans mate with humans. Caucasians, Africans, Asians etc. are of the same species, hence intermingling is possible and their offspring are fertile (unlike horses and donkeys which produce mules, for example).

  • @Diemedes genes need to flow !!!

  • @MahaVakyas Wow. Someone is bitter. Oh well, no use arguing with stupid people over the internet...

    I loved his material on synesthesia especially. At the lab I worked at (I'm just a lowly undergrad RA), they had been doing a lot of cog sci research involving musicians and synesthesia, and it was fantastically cool. I'd love to meet this guy, I hear he's set up camp at UCSD...lucky bastards.

  • they did the mirror box thing on House !

  • Dr. Ramachandran is such a great speaker. I wish Dr. Gazzaniga had his charisma.

  • Why did one "most popular comment" compare this doctor to Justin Bieber instead of comparing him to "Prince"?

  • When does the band start to play?

  • jesus that floor tom is at a horrid angle!

  • hes wrong about human brain cells , no ptotoplasm but cytoplasm sir,,,,,

  • Very interesting, and captivating Speech, by Dr. Ramachandran. Thanks

    Sethu,Qatar

  • Is that Richard Branson on the right of the screen at 23:41 ?

  • An extraordinary mind Ramachandran has, I am 26, though a very late starter, I intend on going to medical school to study neurology. I want to work with intelligent people like this man.

  • How does this not conflict with the concept of neurplasticity, where the function of the brain is said to be remapped to the undamaged regions?

  • die humans! die!

  • Great talk. The only thing Ramachandran is missing from his brilliant analyses is that consciousness is fundamental. The human brain is unique and powerful, no doubt; but it was formed and works through consciousness, and not the reverse. Philosophers and some scientists (alan watts, amit goswami, etc), are supporting this, as they're finding more and more evidence for it.

  • @asswaxer100 consciousness is no knockout-criteria. It's just a part of the system the brain uses.

    Even the opposite. A conciousness, as defined, requires a subconciousness. Otherwise they wouldn't be seperated. As long as there are processes, that you aren't aware, no dilemma is created.

  • @liquidminds Does this mean u agree with me about consciousness being fundamental or no

  • @asswaxer100 the conciousness is important. it's the most modern part of our brain, that is important for beeing human. But It's 'only' a layer on top of the subconcious, that implements all basic functions of our body.

    Our Conciousness wouldn't be able to handle ALL decisions the subconcious makes every second. So we wouldn't be able to survive, without our subconciousness.

    His speech basically covers the subconcious, that's why he neither agrees, nor disagrees with your statement.

  • @liquidminds is subconciousness possible without a brain? what do u think?

  • @asswaxer100 it depends on your definition of a brain. At least it needs braincells...

    I'm not sure if you are implying the subconcious to be like a "soul" that has no physical body, but if that's the case: yes: brain needed.

  • @asswaxer100

    Is bread possible without wheat, what do you think?

  • @smrndoff the wheat is the consciousness, and the bread the brain.

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  • @smrndoff Bread is made of wheat, we agree on that. But for your analogy to work, then consciousness would have to be made of brain. That's not the case, and therefore you've used a false analogy...I'm not talking abt nothingness, nor am I talking about "being consciouss"--that does require a brain, true. I'm talking about an alternative viewpoint which is becoming more and more widely held: that consciousness is fundamental, not matter. (u can see amit goswami on youtube, as just 1 example)

  • @asswaxer100

    I don't accept that a person can be conscious without a brain. Without a life without a physical body.

    So, if you're suggesting we live on after death, I'm afraid you will find no empathy from me. The intent of two people to create a child is not physical but without physicality, nothing happens. The merest flicker of consciousness / thinking required matter.

    I'm as certain as I can be about anything that when your brain dies, thoughts die, consciousness dies. goswami or no.

  • @smrndoff Well if you're certain, then you must be right...

  • @asswaxer100

    Oh, please don't give up your dream so easily. I mean, it might be possible that something intangable flies out of our nostrils or eminates from our bodies after death. Of course, this 'something' would actually have to be 'nothing' (because if it weren't nothing it would include matter).

    Perhaps nothing flies out of your nostril when you die and continues to think and feel things....just for you.

  • @smrndoff For someone who's so certain, you don't sound very content with what you believe. Or else why the ranting and raving? Btw, consciousness is Non- material (thoughts and images aren't things). if everything were made of matter, then consciousness wouldn't even exist. What you think doesn't affect me, but you ought to check your own arguments for logical inconsistencies... The dream thing was funny, thanks for the laugh.

  • @asswaxer100 Did you watch the video? Consciousness, emotion, thought - it's all in the brain. It isn't a sacred essence, impervious to material damage. If your brain is injured, some aspect of you is changed. Thoughts and images may not be material 'things', but they are produced by your neurons, which are entirely material.

  • @Shikamaru747 Hi. Sure, the brain is the reason u have a personality, yes it's all in the brain. But consider this. The brain is made of material parts, like a chair. A chair doesn't produce anything unlike itself, but the brain does. How can a material object give rise to immaterial things? You may say that the brain is more complex, and that the interaction bt. the neurons generate thoughts. But if u say that, then u have to admit that it's a phenomenon just as mysterious as what I suggested.

  • @asswaxer100 It isn't mysterious enough to declare it intangible. We already know how neurons interact, through electrical and chemical signaling (lol, wiki).

    Also, thoughts and ideas are immaterial in the same way a computer program is. Granted, you can't touch them, but they has no existence apart from the hard-drive or server or fleshy brain they're stored on. And like a computer, the brain is a material object creating immaterial things.

  • @Shikamaru747 As for the bit about computers doing the same thing as the brain, I'll state my opinion now, that a computer will *never* be able to function like a brain, being self aware, etc. This is because it doesn't inherently contain the ability to generate consciousness; and modern science shows us that you can't get something from nothing; it had to have been there, latent, but involved, from the beginning.

    Now I don't expect you to agree with me on this, I just wanted to state my point.

  • @asswaxer100 Interesting opinion. I've always thought that the brain was little more than an advanced computer. We've already managed to simulate a rat brain, from what I hear. As to getting something from nothing, that analogy isn't quite appropriate. For one thing, we're *always* starting from something. No one's planning to take an empty vacuum and conjure a consciousness out of it. If we can create an artificial network of a few billion neurons or so, that's a different story.

  • He has the charisma of a rock star!

  • what's the song at the end, anybody?

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  • I love these TED lectures. Absolutely brilliant.

  • ASSHOLE I R4ILLY DONT LIKE THE MAJORITYTM OF YOU OR MORE IMPOTANTLY, HOW ALL TRGISA SHIT RELates 6o me...because...I cann speak Tagalog, too,you know?!?!

  • ASSHOLE

  • he's saying everything 5 times!

  • @KilluaXIII Think about how stupid the average person is... ... ... ... Then realize, half of them are stupider than that.

  • for every person watching this video there are TWO THOUSAND idiots watching a clip of justin bieber. at this point it's apparent that there's something wrong with the world...

  • @KilluaXIII

    now write that on a beiber video and you get 5,000 people calling you a hater, which I myself don't agree with

  • @grimslider75

    I actually went and took the moment to write what KilluaXlll said on a Bieber video. I don't think people had the mental capacity to understand what I was talking about...

  • @KilluaXIII ... I hate to say it but you are absolutely right. Here's an example: last month I saw two youtube clips: one by a physicist about parallel universes and the other was an X factor clip of some kid singing. The physicist has 2,000 views. The kid singing on X factor? 10 million!! It's a sad reality and reflects very badly on the general intelligence of humanity.

  • @KilluaXIII his popularity grows every time you mention his name, please stop

  • @KilluaXIII oh please for the love of whatever made us, stop using Justin Bieber as a scapegoat on Youtube videos. It's not funny and it's not clever.

  • @KilluaXIII People are generally stupid.

  • @kaupunkimoukari true, but the sad thing is the reason for it. everyone has incredible potential which usually is completely locked up and buried under layers of bullshit...

  • @KilluaXIII

    seriously there is something really wrong with the world !!!

  • @KilluaXIII and you sir are prime example #1

  • Justin Bieber is a smarter version of Vilayanur Ramachandran in another dimension.

  • @KilluaXIII Its interesting how this comment has gone viral.

  • @KilluaXIII Well that's because YouTube is run by teenagers and less who will go on and hate on this kid. It's either that they're jealous of him or that they have some form of subconcious love. idk. I'm 14 and I'm scared for my generation. If this is us now, I see a lot of wars coming up.

  • @KilluaXIII It is to signify the value of your comment which i also think everytime and everyday......

    I HAVE MY YOUTUBE USERNAME BECAAUSE OF THIS REASON ONLY i.e..." worldsacrap"

  • @KilluaXIII There's something wrong with the world when you begin to criticize others over such small matters.

  • @KilluaXIII watching pop science videos simplified for uneducated idiots surely is osmething that's wrong with the world, huh?

  • @SardonicFox1994 By watching these videos, those "uneducated idiots" are becoming educated human beings. I'd love a suggestion as to a better place to start than Ramachandran, he's a genius to even be able to explain this material to laymen.

  • The mirror box part instantly made me think of House and the episode where he used a mirror box to cure the pain in his asshole neighbor's phantom hand.

  • but if wen his mom talks to him in person wudnt he b able to tell tha is indeed his mom orrr...wut?

  • Was that Richard Branson in the audience?

  • the mirror thing been on House MD.

  • utterly engaging

  • too much repetition

  • Ramachandran is a mind fuck.

  • His book 'Phantoms in the Brain' is probably the best neurology book out there.

  • latent beastiality...lollolo...super genius...fucking brilliant

  • Apparently some mutants in the audience can't differentiate kiki from buba. Hahah!!!!

  • I have synesthesia but it is mostly with words and letters, not numbers.

  • I love the way he rolls his 'R's so naturally

  • People know which one is Kiki and which one is Bubba not because they associate the sound with the image, but because the associate the shape of the letters K and B with with the images, one is sharp and pointy like K and the other is round like B.

  • @xavierpaquin Hmmm... perhaps this is the reason WHY "K" and "B" (and O,P,etc.) look like they do.

  • @GMLSX Then the question is: are the "k" and the "b" sounds universally, or at least generally, represented in other languages with the same kinds of shapes as in the roman alphabet?

  • @xavierpaquin I was going to say the same thing. Maybe if we did the test with people who only spoke a language that had different written letters for "k" and "b" it would be more scientifically sound

  • @velocity246 good idea

  •  Damnit, he did such a great job, but he kept repeating himself D:

  • @DEMONIIIK Repetition helps the mind remember. Ever read doctor Seuss?

  • This is like entertainment for me. So informative and he tells it in a way that captivates your attention. Great stuff.

  • 22 people where not in their right state of mind.

  • This was the shit.

  • Should I be worried, if I thought Booba was pink and Kiki was blue? Did anyone else get anything like that?

  • If we had teachers like this everyone would go to school and actually enjoy learning.

  • @Joeri12 but until we have teachers like that, the old saying stays true. "Those who can, do. Those who can't, teach".....

  • @Joeri12 The world is backwards and upside down for a reason but you can still be your own teacher if you're fortunate enough. And that is the whole aim of an education, to teach us how to think rather than what to think.

  • @EveryTongueShallTell

    The word is "autodidact" and, although I'm not one myself, I do teach myself new things all the time. I have been fortunate enough to obtain a Bachelor's degree already so I have received formal education but I've learned a lot more from informal education (things such as watching this video by Ramachandran) than I did in college.

  • @andyrooney12 Neither formal or informal education can show you yourself. The true 'I' is silent. A silent teaching. So is it possible to you learn in absolute inner stillness and silence? You then become the teacher and the pupil which is the actual happening, so do it now and see or block yourself from learning.

  • @Joeri12 There ARE teachers like this...in universities all across the country. 

  • @thermonuclearwarfare I'm aware there are teachers like that, but perhaps only 1% of the total amount of teachers if we are lucky.

  • @Joeri12 I HAD THIS PROFESSOR AT UCSD!!!! :)

  • the real gregory house

  • @Jerrez House used that mirror box trick actually LOL.

  • @magnificoamar I know!!! and I love this guy's RRRRRRRRRRRRRR

  • @magnificoamar

    Yea, I thought I saw that in House but I wasn't sure. So this was Ramachandran's child? Damn. Holy shit!

  • Y'know i slept in virtually every neuroscience lecture in my class last year, but now I"m hanging on to every word this guy's saying...

  • 23:43 Sir Richard Branson. Bravo.

  • love the bmw commercial

  • I like how he pronounces his Rs =D