Think About This: The Doctor Briefly Replies

[crazycat1984]

This is awesome! :D

[noliketoregister]

Just passing through, thought I'd say hi. Hi. Great topic, and such a cool interaction with an authority figure on it. His sentiments echo my own on the somewhat unknowable aspect of the origin of consciousness. Reminded me of Penrose's (I know enough with the Penrose) idea that if we were to simulate consciousness we would have no idea how it worked.

Cheers,

P.S. What the hell happened to honeybearbaby?

[catalyst8]

"[...]certain values are hard-wired into peoples' brains[...]"

I agree. Language & entoptic imagery (being but two) as a product of the brain's architecture, rather than an incidental bi-product of social interaction, featured strongly in my dissertation some years ago. Culturally overlapping mythological archetypes are another example. The evidence is strong that, much like a spider's web-building ability, we have characteristics that the very structure of our brains necessitates.

[StevenErnest]

Noam Chomsky says this about our innate capacity for language. Mythological archetypes are fascinating, world myths, Joseph Campbell. And Jung's Collective Unconscious, which I like, but it may not be quite that innate.

I'd love to read your dissertation.

[StevenErnest]

Regarding innate products of the brain,

Dr. Gazzaniga studies the neurobiology of moral beliefs: Using brain imagey, there seems to be a "built in mechanism" against lying, cheating, stealing.

He also says the need for religion is a "construct of the brain." He's involved in split-brain research.

[catalyst8]

I'll be happy to send you a copy of my dissertation ('Theatrical Ritualism in Contemporary Western Society'), it draws from Chomsky's arguments in 'Language and Problems of Knowledge' & Pinker's 'Natural Language and Natural Selection' in the first chapter, & in the third with Dawkins 'Selfish Gene' & Blackmore's 'The Meme Machine', amongst others.

I'll send a private message to you about sending a copy.

[Person009]

What a coincidence.

[StevenErnest]

It was! And even more amazing that I got through on a nationally syndicated radio show.

( I see you've favorited some John Cage vids on your channel = cool guy!)

[PianoIsTheRemedy]

Kaballah Symbol in the background?

[StevenErnest]

Yes, I'm interested in Kabbalah -- as a complex, nuanced, philosophical system -- not religiously. I have an introductory video on it. That symbol is called, The Tree of Life.

[particleion]

He said so much and nothing at the same time.How can he say we may never know.. well i guess for us to find out we have to create a realistic model of the brain and see if the brain becomes Conscious. Look up the blue brain project, if consciousness is a byproduct of the circuitry of the brain we'll know soon. This is why were trying to create Ai through modeling the human brain.

[Barklord]

Ian Punnet (the weekend host) is an interesting guy. He hosted a local radio program here in Minneapolis.

Nice vid.

[StevenErnest]

Yeah, he's grown on me. He expresses more skepticism toward the guests, which I appreciate. Thanks!

[Boucrate]

Cool! But aren't we somehow, about the dog, confounding intelligence and consciousness? Do we have to have the IQ standard average of a human to have a consciouness? I do perceive the Univers as a Big Ball of Consciousness lol! Merci for the reflection!

[StevenErnest]

Hey, Guybou. Yes, there's consciousness, intelligence... and wisdom. Each seems to be more rare in the world, lol. Your music exhibits all three properties!

I sometimes think of the universe as a vast mind, and each of us are like a brain cell -- some ideas -- like people -- are better than others, heheh.

[CitizenWorm]

Really interesting and usefully timed for me. Thanks for the heads up about his work.

[StevenErnest]

Cool, I'm glad to help.  I just caught an interview with him on NPR. He writes about the neurobiology of moral beliefs: Using brain imagey, there seems to be a "built in mechanism" against lying, cheating, stealing.

He also said the need for religion is a "construct of the brain." He's involved in split-brain research.

And you've probably read that the "Left/Right Brain People" concept is inaccurate, a vast simplification. (Now I should probably actually read his book.) ^_^

[HaleyMary]

Cool video. Consciousness is an interesting area of science. It's kind of hard to know how the process of consciousness and memory actually works since people can't step outside their subjective experience. I found it interesting what the doctor said about the dogs. Animals probably don't have a theory of how people are in life, or if they do, they can't exactly communicate it the same way people can through spoken language using words.

[StevenErnest]

Thanks! I was having discussions on consciousness with Matt/ThouArtThat. I think consciousness can arise from "dead matter," he doesn't.

I think self-reflection is something only humans have.

Someone half-joked that maybe we'll discover that Dolphins have this elaborate spoken word poetry, like the Norse Eddas, passed down generation to generation. That's a neat idea, anyway.