Does Consciousness Have Meaning? | Episode 703 | Closer To Truth 

The "lifelong desire to believe in god, or something like god" is very much how I feel. It's naive to assume what's out there and put a face on it, but given how magical consciousness is in the face of otherwise (apparently) inanimate matter, it's also naive to assume there isn't some greater "aliveness" or something like that.

Another great episode, Thanks Robert!!! 👍👍👏👏

Minsky’s hands have escaped the suitcase of consciousness

Jaron!!! The guests on this series never ceases to delight!

A great book when it comes to this topic: ''The Stairway to Consciousness: The Birth of Self-Awareness from Unconscious Archetypes by Dr Thomas Stark''

This is relieving after the interview with Dennet!

That intoduction alone was the best thing i heard in my life,so damn inspiring that it took me on a trip

I loved the last few sentences. He sums up his conflict.

Guy with long hair has the best clearest thoughts of all of them.

Marvin Minsky hand waves while explaining hand waiving. LOL

Most interesting hand movements from minsky. Very much uncorrelated to his words.

Best explanation of consciousness, imagine all our brains could produce when we're not thinking at anything in particular is a white noise.

"it's a complicated thing this consciousness", taps on the guest's knee 😂 that was a funny and unusual interaction from RLK!

Very nice thinking, the more I think the more I get confused, there is paradox for everything, even for consciousness, the more we come closer to truth , the further we get away from it.

One of your best.

The same comment for you, Robert. There are so many levels of consciousness and types of experience that I doubt you have even scratched the surface. Trying to understand consciousness is like trying to point your finger back at itself. Good luck with that.

minsky died in 2016 good stuff robert tricky questions indeed lead on my man take us with you

damn. these are soooo good

If I remember correctly, those hands play great piano.

This whole comment section seems to believe that they are in possession of the key to this boundless mystery. Can we all at least agree on this? Whatever consciousness is, it's a pretty fascinating little trick that the universe does, eh?

Lucky to me my consciousnesss still watching about more about consciousness to feel how greater this piece of thing I ave got to experience

Is consciousness only an accident of biology? In my limited opinion, it is NOT an accident. I think consciousness came about in simple lifeforms as a need to survive. I still think consciousness is fairly simple. It just has a few complex aspects. Thank you CTT.

"If there is meaning to be found in consciousness, the mechanisms of consciousness should provide clues." I like that. But how many pieces of the puzzle (clues) are missing?

A better question is does meaning have meaning or is it just thoughts we're attracted to. Consciousness is fine without interpretation.

Mr Kuhn please bring bernardo kastrup on your program .....he is brilliant

how this channel can only have 250K follower, to me this fact said a lot about the state of the world

Rodolfo Llinãs, in his "i of the vortex", makes several excellent points. That the brain evolved as a comfort finder is one. In an apex position, comfort and coherence are the same thing: this is how the brain became a coherence detector. This explains our "semantic landscape" and why meaning is place; why you are *where* you are and, anyone in your place would be exactly you and, i trust you like my own soul.

Ned gets it. You get to the part where he's gonna mention the hard problem then go to the computer scientist. I know there's a prevailing "there is no hard problem" dogma floating around but, i'm old school so i miss it.

OMG my favorite channel of all time! What took you so long to find me honey? ❤️

Consciousness is when I suddenly realized I had been conscious previously ????? Great semantics !

I hope you find your answers Dr. Kuhn. I think the more we learn about the nature of the universe and reality itself, the closer we will come to understanding consciousness. The brain should look outward, not inward. If the universe had not created the mind, the mind would not have been able to question it's existence in the universe.

I like the interview setting of a room absolutely PACKED to the brim with chairs

In spiritology, consciousness is life energy. Life is full of meanings therefore consciousness as life has meaning in many ways.

Does consciousness have meaning? If I say no, how long (in microseconds) can I maintain this answer?

Could consciousness come about from different activites in mind, which themselves are produced by physical processes in brain? The brain physically contains operations which when work in conjunction bring about consciousness?

Consciousness is the fabric of existence. You are that consciousness, that is why and how the mind(s) are aware of the world.

Creditable NDE cases and altered states provide statistical significant evidence on hypothesis that consciousness is not local.

yes i do

How could consciousness be an illusion when consciousness is the mechanism through which we perceive illusion?

Consciousness gives meaning to everything.

This is the greatest RU-vid comment section of all time.

The subconscious appears to be more non-physical with some kind of connection to external, while the conscious more likely connects physically to something internal.

It does now

Consciousness is flow of energy

Ok, so you are saying free will, in itself has meaning, I hadn’t thought about it like that 👍

Kuhn = consciousnesses. Consciousnesses = Kuhn

Awareness is known by awareness alone.

What is consciousness but the operator of our fear mechanism? (Our personal protection system.) Would this conversation even have been considered before we had a developed civilisation full of resources?

Meaning happens only as an activity of consciousness. Asking if consciousness has meaning is a bit odd though. Sort of like asking if color has green, or maybe if taste is insightful.

Conciousness may well demand explanation but as I see the problem is we can only hope to explain conciousness via the medium of conciousness.so in a way conciousness would be explaining itself.

I’m looking for a word to use, other than accident

This reminds me of Wittgenstein and his book Philosophical Investigations and his view of mind; that meaning is derived from the use of ordinary language - his idea simply is that the dualist view of mind and body is wrong - 'I think therefore I am' (Descartes)... his view is that to be able to think and to experience sensations one needs to have a language that is derived from the the external. Basically, consciousness is not an from the inner but from the external - this was radical idea that attacks many great thinkers over the ages. But taking this idea further you can move in the direction that Penrose and others are approaching that maybe the mind which has normative reason is external and perhaps singular in nature - keep pulling that thread.

Can consciousness exist without something to be conscious of.

I think our brains have evolved to the point that we're able to perceive, & describe our 🌎. The univ has made us aware if itself & how it functions. We had nothing to do w it. It comes from something outside of ourselves that our brains have been wired to recognize!

Here are two examples of the mind influencing matter: 1. Your body says you are aware. The information flow from conciouscness to nuerons. 2. Evolution made a good corraltion between brain feelings and mind feelings. You could have had caos in your mind and a functioning brain, if the mind has no active role to play in evolution. Say you see red but you feel your burning. If you want I have more to say on the body mind problem, it is the pivot of everything.

Consciousness itself might be complex and complicated because it emanates from the immaterial realm. However, its manifestation in the material world is quite simple and easy to understand. Two levels could be distinguished: medium consciousness in humans and lower consciousness in everything below humans. In living beings especially humans, consciousness evinces six operational frequencies namely: wakefulness, awareness, alertness, imagination, intuition and dreaming. The last frequency is operational when we sleep.

Wanna get rid of religions and ideology, examine consciousness and provide empirical schematics of that natural phenomena. And than run, run for your lives!

18:40 10:49 if you wanted a tool how would this tool be given

18:50 Name of the music please.

A question for materialists: What is the evolutionary purpose of subjective experience if p-zombies are just as good at survival as conscious humans?

Our reactions, feelings, habits, etc...are not isolated to the brain. They include inputs and outputs from all of our body...notably the heart. Yet, we reduce consciousness to the brain. It is both physical/material AND not located exclusively in the brain.

the brain processes what could be referenced to or what is thought to be information but what about the absence of information what is that in nature?

Jesús, your channel is great, but you up load so fast... I can’t keep up 🙁

To be aware one must have a mind. To have a mind one must be in Consciousness.

I think that the consciousness did not arise from the cosmic dust, but the other way around. The cosmic dust arose from the consciousness, or they are the same thing.

Pls , the opening music name, thx

From this video there seems to be some confusion with invention and thinking as Conciousness. Revelation synchronicity coincidence need under decision etc. Refer to real living aspects of life and not just thinking. But thinking then is what is rich to these aspects

The topic as the headline seems more akin to what Hannah Arendt notes in her book The Human Condition in her prologue about the 1957 and the two decades earlier Russian version. Of an irony that can have several reasons including possible reactance to the Freudian hypothesis of the "return to the womb" or merely it expressed differently and in error coupled with humanity's own failures at organizing itself effectively! For if not your consciousness what else is speaking, thinking and expressing itself? Or the grand escapism!

Is consciousness relationship then

Consciousness is witnessing entity. it witness the existence so that the existence become exist. It witness your I feeling so that you know that you exist

find something that the brain is not capable of doing on it's own or with some interactions with the presumed external reality inputs being processes neurologically but how to observe it or how to touch it or how to interact with this thing this is the process by which we could discover how the brain interacts with consciousness

It's impossible to know if the red I see is the red you see! In fact, such evidence of this is with shades of orange red 1 observer sees orange and another sees red.

To understand human consciousness we must start to understand the brain functions and the basic "consciousness" in much much simpler organisms.

There's a formula missing like E=m2 or to B(brain) + C(consciousness = R (Real)but by trained people

If I want to be a rational person then I must believe on another accident fair

Meaning implies cause and effect. But, consciousness is pure awareness. It has no cause or effect. So, the question is inexplicable.

You keep referring to some kind of internality.

Without light no seeing. Without air no sound. Without Consciousness no knowing!

It doesn't have meaning, but you can certainly give it meaning.

The brain may be a path to go from the non-physical derived subconscious to physical derived conscious.

Does blue have purpose?

Like I say, consciousness is nothing but an integration of mental abilities. Mental abilities are Observation, Comprehension, Imagination, Curiosity and etc. Each of mental abilities is an integration of interfaces between Mind and Body, heart, brain and etc. Life events can be explained (analyzed) by mental abilities. A toddler is eating ice cream while sleeping on a chair, his hand won’t let go the cone. That is how mental abilities work together. Practically, improve mental abilities will improve consciousness, vice versa. This definition of consciousness fits for materialism and immaterialism and It links physical and spiritual. This definition bridges science and philosophy. No more mystery about it. Hopefully, scientists and philosophers can work toward this direction. Btw, it is a blessing of fate to define this way when I was working on my Model.

The idea of "consciousness" emerged out of dualistic Cartesian philosophy which divided reality into "dead matter" and "pure ideas". We are now obsessed with a dualism between brain and body, but the very same Cartesian misconception is at its roots. There is no such thing as "dead matter" or "pure ideas" -- ideas are always mediated by language and technology, and physical things have intrinsic properties and teleoogy.

A: LIGHT.

Consciousness IS meaning-giver

Robert goes to Jaron Lanier while introducing him as an artist while his description clearly indicates Jaron is a computer scientist. These interviews are great, particularly the ones with scientists and philosophers, however Robert's oscillation between science, philosophy and religion promotes the idea that he's more lost than searching when it comes to consciousness. I am referring to his lengthy interviews with religious figures in relation to consciousness quest. Robert confuses his own personal existential crisis with the quest to understand the consciousness. The former is primarily emotional issue while the latter is fundamental human curiosity.

We would all love to continu evolving after death and our hope is that conciousness is something special, that never dies. In reality, when you take a step back and view this objectivly, the odds dont seem to be in our favor. Just take away speach and you ve got a human being that responds to its environment just like any other animal.

“ what do we think consciousness is” Who’s “ we”

Nobody knows what conciousness is... We still have no idea...

@Robert Kuhn any chance you can do a program exploring consciousness from the brain's "software" perspective with the right people? I feel that the brain's functions and its potential role in producing or enabling consciousness has (distractively) received too much attention from the hardware point of view. I tend to believe, however, that the brain's hardware (neurons and synapses, etc.), while playing an important role, may not be as critical in enabling consciousness (if at all) as the way the brain's software has been programmed is. The software may be able to operate similarly on a different hardware as well! This may be a subtle yet somewhat underestimated piece of the puzzle. Thanks for the great work you are putting out there.

I'm Researcher and Professor in Computer Science at the University of Venice, Italy. My research field includes functional languages, compilers and type systems, though I have a strong interest for consciousness science, physics, phylosophy and everything in between. Over the decades I developed my own theory on what consciousness could be and why I personally believe that most collegues in the AI field could be wrong: computers may never become conscious - that's my claim - because we confuse the function of consciousness with the spontaneous emergence of the phenomenon from the relations of a complex system. Let me clarify. Whether consciousness is just a product of neural activity (Materialism) or it comes from an underlying layer of quantum-level computations (Orch OR), the substance is the same: consciousness is an informational process, thus described by the relations among the states of a complex system, not by the states themselves. If you freeze a brain in an istant in time, then it won't be conscious: consciousness is the "continous becoming" of the interactions between the states within the brain (or whatever else is involved). Consciousness is a "shape" - Giulio Tononi forged a good word for it - a stable shape consisting of the union of the interactions between the nodes (neurons) of the network, constantly renovating, constructing and maintaining that stable shape over time. This makes consciousness a property of the dynamics of the relations between the items of a system, which in turn implies that it doesn't have to be neurons necessarely: my claim is that any system with intricate interactions may produce consciousness, if capable of assuming and maintaining that shape over time. Consciousness therefore abstracts the substrate upon which it is physically implemented (neurons and/or whatever else is involved) and does not depend on the matter, but only on the informational content set up by trillions of relations among that matter. Let me make a sloppy metaphor: consciousness is the movie, not the film. Now, if we generalize this, we may come up with some sort of "polymorphic" property for consciousness: you could setup a trillion of small items on a network and make them interact properly, reproducing a stable shape consisting of the relations among such items over time - would that become a consciuous system? My guess is yes. You may apply that to any system made of nodes and interactions between such nodes: a trillion of neurons exchanging electro-chemical signals within the brain, or a trillion of stars exchanging photons within a galaxy, or a trillion of quarks exchanging gluons within a neutron star. Now, here lies, I think, the great misunderstanding that many AI specialists believe: if we reproduce that on a computer through a program emulating such relations and interactions through computations, then that doesn't mean the system will become conscious. It may seem counterintuitive but the reason is the program only emulates all those relations through a series of computations happening in the memory of the computer, which does not mean it would reproduce the relations themselves or their actual stable shape over time. There's a very subtle difference between reproducing the dynamics of a system and emulating it via computations: the outcome may look the same, but the qualia won't emerge. You may end up implementing a program that speaks, thinks and even believes it exists - but that does not mean it is conscious. Yes, I know it is counterintuitive, but if consciousness emerges spontaneously from the relations of a system, then emulating that system won't work. Let me make another metaphor: by emulating the chaotic motion of particles due to temperature in a fluid, you won't make your computer hot! Arguably, in order to make a computer conscious we would need to recreate and reproduce the very same shape between the relations currently happening in our brains: for example, by putting transistors in a net and allowing them to relate in the same complex way that neurons relate when producing that stable shape. But that would not be a program emulating them in the common sense - that'd be something else. I know, it is a very subtle difference: I'm afraid it is not easy to explain this as a comment on YT. Mr. Khun, should you be interested in this, I'd love to delve deeper into it.

I swear the second guy sounds like Donald Trump! I was listening only to the sound, and I was like what does Donald know about the brain?

Life's sweet mysteries!!! Will we ever know? There is definitely something "explainable" about everything,especially our existence, but it is just information to evaluate and assess which is more believable or convincing. The fact is, we don't know!!!

the genes write the neurons, a computer just have to write evolving genes

My take is that what we call consciousness is the outcome of a two-layer process: the lower level process which we are hardly aware of it is what keeps us alive and functioning by responding to our environment. I would think all animals have it; the upper level process is of an analytical nature which adds the ability to reflect on our environment including ourselves not just react to it. Consciousness is in fact a cognitive loop: "I think therefore I am".

Since when are red and green different colors?

Consciousness is Value, has no meaning, meaning is perception of reality.

Awareness must be of the illusion of a self. Meaning? To love others. And to serve. Purpose not meaning.

Every night when we sleep, where is our normal awaken consciousness?

The mind is the only bridge to reality