TEDxRheinMain - Prof. Dr. Thomas Metzinger - The Ego Tunnel

[English0pium]

The brain is wired up to deal with arms and legs . . Well obviously.  . It evolved along with the rest of the body.

Tells us nothing about consciousness.

[yerdie1]

Our minds create amazing illusions!

[English0pium]

@yerdie1 And who is the 'observer' of these illusions ?

[Happyascanbe1]

Wonderful lecture. So, anatta it is after all.

[prakis]

Which fool recorded this video, without showing the actual presentation.

[anapanasati1970]

Excellent talk. Why the hell aren't they showing the screen? Probably copyright reasons, but that's asinine.

[fudgesauce]

Perhaps he was saying great things, but I was entirely unable to focus on it as I was steamed that I couldn't see the visuals that were going along with his talk. My inner voice kept shouting at the video to let me see what everyone else is looking at.

[R3N3G4D3DOTCOM]

N,N-Dimethyltryptamine

[MiklePrickles]

i lost my sense of smell about 25yr ago, due to a cranial operation i recieved after a RTA. i have had dreams where i can smell and the moment i wake up there is about 2 or 3 seconds where i am physically experiencing the aroma through my nose. dont know if that means anything, but the second point you made made me think of it x

[Phi42]

He has such great visual aides that we NEVER GET TO SEE! I would like to register my complains to this TEDx camera crew.

[PatriksTube]

@Phi42 same here

[demonfelix]

I see from the comments that a number of psychonauts have watched this. Great.

[killcritter]

It's taken decades of scholarly study and practice to make Dr.Metzinger realize something that a single mushroom trip would unveil.

[bloodpollen]

@ 15:45, he's talking about "pureness". pure beings. can we be pure?

[coyote2625]

This is an amazing rip off from the Buddha's teaching of the theory of "self"! I can't believe that this Dr. doesn't know this.

[killcritter]

Alan Watts already bridged this gap. It seems taboo to correlate scientific practice with religious experience. @coyote2625

[carlosslim42]

good presenter, terrible recording, come on TED!!!

[akakgo]

Who is "WE" that are "unaware of the medium through which information reaches us"? That remains unanswered, but I commend Dr. Metzinger for cogently explaining how 'WE" as we think we are, i.e. our image of ourselves, is just an illusion.

[skinee100]

terrible recording.... can't see the presentation

[djkritikal]

Sounds like Robert Anton Wilson rehashed to me.

[Oishi08]

The uncertainty of self in the cosmos was a philosophical realization I has in late 2008.

[x51NN3Rx]

i wonder has anyone performing the rubber hand experiment accidentaly smashed the wrong hand, :/

[eriwal723]

I saw Metzinger at my university a couple of weeks ago, I can assure you that referring to Aristotle, etc. is intended as a sublime joke. He also called his research on out-of-body experiences a CLM, "does anyone know what a CLM is? A carrier-limiting move". Great guy! Doesn't entirely enjoy giving autographs though it seems :S

[feelthegold]

Imagine a world centuries from ours now in which the process of information gathering from the reality and recognition to past experiences is also matched to an evolved form of the internet, where the knowledge of all of the humans ever to have lived is readily available to your being at a moments notice, with an invisible interface much like our own, evolutionary selves has created. The possibilities of such biotechnologies is fascinating, as well as plausible.

[lookatmepleasesir]

@feelthegold why would we want that world?

[fergusruston]

I don't understand, or particularly appreciate, the way that he refers to Aristotle and Spinoza as 'colleagues'. I wonder if this is merely a mistranslation, or whether he is consciously intending to refer to them in this way. But regardless, this is certainly a very insightful video, and I have found it very enjoyable.

[yuwing]

@fergusruston because Aristotle, Spinoza and himself are all philosophers. You can argue that because he calls them his colleagues, he is giving them "life" and, in a sense, suggesting that their ideas are not outdated and still applicable to the modern society hundreds of years after their deaths.

[yuwing]

@fergusruston Cont: thereby giving them tribute and suggesting that their works are timeless. Tho you could also argue that he is elevating his own status by putting himself at the same level of the famous philosophers... though I think my first reasoning is more plausible

[SamoDaJerbal]

@fergusruston

Colleague literally means someone you work with. Now, he may not have directly spoken with Aristotle, but I find it highly doubtful that any educated philosopher has not "worked with" Aristotle in one way or another.

[ItsdaveNZ]

Wow! Amazing talk - a complex idea beautifully explained. This will give me something to think about, but wait, hasn’t he just explained that there is no “me”?

[anakoda]

Very insightful talk!

[sachamm]

Great talk, wish I could have seen the slides.

[dba706]

You find a version, where you can also see the slides at my channel. Unfortunately, I'm not able to paste the links, here.