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

Brain, bodily awareness, and the emergence of a conscious self: these entities and their relations are explored by Germanphilosopher and cognitive scientist Metzinger. Extensively working with neuroscientists he has come to the conclusion that, in fact, there is no such thing as a "self" -- that a "self" is simply the content of a model created by our brain - part of a virtual reality we create for ourselves.

But if the self is not "real," he asks, why and how did it evolve? How does the brain construct the self? In a series of fascinating virtual reality experiments, Metzinger and his colleagues have attempted to create so-called "out-of-body experiences" in the lab, in order to explore these questions. As a philosopher, he offers a discussion of many of the latest results in robotics, neuroscience, dream and meditation research, and argues that the brain is much more powerful than we have ever imagined. He shows us, for example, that we now have the first machines that have developed an inner image of their own body -- and actually use this model to create intelligent behavior. In addition, studies exploring the connections between phantom limbs and the brain have shown us that even people born without arms or legs sometimes experience a sensation that they do in fact have limbs that are not there. Experiments like the "rubber-hand illusion" demonstrate how we can experience a fake hand as part of our self and even feel a sensation of touch on the phantom hand form the basis and testing ground for the idea that what we have called the "self" in the past is just the content of a transparent self-model in our brains. Now, as new ways of manipulating the conscious mind-brain appear on the scene, it will soon become possible to alter our subjective reality in an unprecedented manner. The cultural consequences of this, Metzinger claims, may be immense: we will need a new approach to ethics, and we will be forced to think about ourselves in a fundamentally new way. At TEDxRheinMain 2011 he will share his thoughts on consciousness and the self and talk about the concept of the Ego-Tunnel.

Pro. Dr. Thomas Metzinger:
(*1958 in Frankfurt am Main, Germany) is currently Professor of Theoretical Philosophy at the Johannes Gutenberg‐Universität Mainz and an Adjunct Fellow at the Frankfurt Institute for Advanced Study. In 2009 he returned from a prestigious one‐year Fellowship at the Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin (Berlin Institute for Advanced Study), is past president of the German Cognitive Science Society and currently president of the Association for the Scientific Study of Consciousness. His focus of research lies in analytical philosophy of mind, philosophy of science and philosophical aspects of the neuro- and cognitive sciences as well as connections between ethics, philosophy of mind and anthropology. He has edited and published extensively in German and English, e.g. one major scientific monograph developing a comprehensive, interdisciplinary theory about consciousness, the phenomenal self, and the first‐person perspective ("Being No One -- The Self‐Model Theory of Subjectivity", Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2003). In 2009, he published a popular book, which addresses a wider audience and also discusses the ethical, cultural and social consequences of consciousness research ("The Ego Tunnel -- The Science of the Mind and the Myth of the Self", New York: Basic Books)

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http://www.tedxrheinmain.de

• Category

  Science & Technology

[carlosslim42]

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

[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.

[HombresdeMaizMexico]

when you said terrible, youre being nice... this recording suck balls

[HombresdeMaizMexico]

maybe there is a self that is capable of extending itself to what it sees and perceives with its senses, i think that consciousness is capable of expanding or internalizing, but this guys says totally convinced that there is not a self, just a process... if you ask me that's an idiot conclusion. (my own personal opinion)

[thenthdgree]

If mind is purely an effect of matter it may be that one day a "supermind" will be created that emulates the conscious experience of a normal human while also modeling the underlying brain processes that make human consciousness possible. However, such a mind would not be able to apprehend itself in real time. For that a "super-supermind" would have to be created, and so on. Any given level of mind will always require a more advanced and powerful level of mind to be fully comprehended

[gryffynda1]

That is frustrating not to be able to see the images he is referencing for the experiments.

[dustofsoul]

how do you know it´s an illusion? to use the word "illusion" is to make a jugdement, to value a process. but how can you know about this if your brain is deceiving "you" as your "me"? how can you distinguish if the process of discrmination is "an unwarranted conclusion - an illusion!" but who ist making this stament: your illusion? so hoe then can you know that your statement is "right/correct""?

[Timothy Campbell]

“... why then thinking that you believe you have a thinking given you the feeling it´s you and not your brain?”

It does my mental processes no good — serves no purpose — for them to know the deep details of how they work. They work with or without that knowledge (interesting though it might be). I can, of course, confuse fleeting thoughts with “me” and think that I AM those thoughts or that at least they largely define my essence. That's an unwarranted conclusion — an illusion, one might say.

[dustofsoul]

so your answer is also just a conditioned response to what? your thinking which is also only an automatic and programmed result of your brain? so why then thinking that you believe you have a thinking given you the feeling it´s you and not your brain? prof. thorsten fuchs explained in his splendid book these and also mentzinger´s theory as condradictions. not enough space here to go deeper!

[MooiboyGoon]

This is exactly ego. You see Mr. Mentzinger as a big fish, while in fact he isn't a definition or any other than you are. The very fact that you are annoyed by his 'wrong assumptions in his pholosophy of mind', is means by the ego to not accept ''what is''.

[Timothy Campbell]

Edit: In the comment above, please replace "When you see a person" with "When you see a female person"

Ah, YouTube, when will you join the 21st century and allow editing of comments?

[Timothy Campbell]

In my opinion, it's your conditioning. You've been conditioned to have a particular model of “a man” and another one of “a woman.” When you see a person with the characteristics you've ascribed to “a man,” you experience cognitive dissonance, which makes you uncomfortable.

It might help if you understand that it's not your “fault” that this happens; you were programmed that way by others. It is, however, your RESPONSIBILITY to see that you adjust the programming to better match reality.