Alva Noë: You Are Not Your Brain

http://bigthink.com/

"Contemporary research on consciousness in neuroscience rests on unquestioned but highly questionable foundations. Human nature is no less mysterious now than it was a hundred years ago," writes philosopher Alva Noë in his book "Out of Our Heads."

It's a bold assertion in an age when fMRI has enabled us to see images of the brain functioning in real time, and when many prominent public intellectuals (Stephen Hawking, Eric Kandel) have argued, either implicitly or vociferously, in favor of reductionism. The "brain-as-calculating machine" analogy assumes that human thought, personality, memory, and emotion are located somewhere in the gray matter protected by the skull. In other words, you -- at least, the waking you who gets out of bed in the morning -- are your brain.

But you're not, says Noë. Just as love does not live inside the heart, consciousness is not contained in a finite space -- it's something that arises, something that occurs: a verb rather than a noun. And since the publication of Francis Crick's influential "The Astonishing Hypothesis: The Scientific Search for the Soul," scientists have been looking for it in all the wrong places.

Directed / Produced by
Jonathan Fowler and Elizabeth Rodd

• Category

  Science & Technology

[Barend Davis]

Never send a philosopher to do a scientist's job.

[Vildasnaga]

Ive always considered my brain somewhat like a hologram projector of sorts. "I" am not the fleshy tissue inside the skull, "I" am created by the 'functioning' of said tissue.

When you die, your brain remains, but "you" are gone. A brain is a machine that "projects" you.

This is of course all my own view on it. I am NOT a philosopher and would default to any clearer scientifc explanation if available.

[Maynstreem]

Check out Anton Chekhov's "The Bet"

[Insomain]

I think the reason that this is so controversial is because he doesn't go into what he thinks consciousness is. I don't want to say that he is wrong, rather I would like to see where his ideas fit into evolution, our senses that seem to be at the center of our conscious experience being directly tied to the brain, and a slew of mental disorders, brain damage, and drugs that affect our consciousness.

[Barend Davis]

There is nothing in Quantum mechanics that backs this guy up.

Quantum mechanics is a description of the behaviour of particles at the planck scale, not a license for believing whatever you want.

[Torqueware]

This.

A hundred times. This.

[Torqueware]

Two words:

Quantum Mechanics

[RagingCondor]

This video being so thought-provoking is a good thing. Guess half the Youtubers would rather have served their own perceptions back to them.

[annkimlong]

fact first then theory to suit the fact. scientist. not theory then fact. m pretty sure nurologist does that

[annkimlong]

fact first then theory to suit the fact. scientist.

[SukupolviX]

It's funny how many clueless comments here seem to think that this video is advocating some type dualism. The stupidity of Youtube comments has no limit as time tends to infinity.

[Hopeskaa]

Massively under-sold it, but my thoughts exactly.