I prefer the term "external reality simulator". My own understanding is that basically, the brain is executing an algorithm that has predictive power, as you point out, with the "qualia" that form the basis of the elements of conscious experience being nature's way of making measurements. One's subjective conscious experience while in the waking and REM states is known to be the result of the Thalamo-Cortical Cognition Cycle (TCC) and is shared by all animals with a cortex. The TCC integrates sensory perception with stored experience, and it is that "simulation algorithm" that is literally your consciousness. With a base cycle of 25 milliseconds, or 40 Hz, the TCC is the basis for our ability not only to perceive external reality in real time but also to dream, to imagine, to plan and anticipate, etc. Recall how real dreams in the REM state of sleep can seem sometimes. However, TCC malfunctions can and do happen, as in the case of schizophrenic delusions and hallucinations or ingestion of psychoactive drugs. The TCC can be stopped by a number of conditions such as deep non-REM state sleeping, brain injury/concussion, anesthesia and death. So, consciousness is quite intermittent and ultimately, temporary.
@@jr.bobdobbs Thanks, "Bob"! If anyone could appreciate it, I knew you would! I agree with you on your inkling about it being an "artifact" if you will of ongoing deterministic processes. I'd like to add that, most of the time, while going about our day to day business and conscious (aware/awake/not-sleeping) existence, we aren't particularly concerned with the fact of our own existence and sentience. You are just dealing with whatever you happen to be focused upon in the moment. That is the default state of any conscious entity (which include most animals), and is what consciousness is for; to be able to anticipate moment to moment what to do and how to react in whatever situation such entity finds itself within. It is only when that sentience looks in the mirror of the mind's eye, so to speak, and notices its own existence and awareness; that's when it seems kind of strange, even weird, and we start asking why that is and how can that be? In that instance and moment, the TCC reality simulator is trying to derive a solution for its own existence and trying to deal with it. The feedback loop that arises results in a kind of mental singularity for which evolution has developed a compensating mechanism to deal with and not allow an out of control situation that compromises the sentient entity's ability to function and ultimately, its existence. That mechanism is what gives us our identity and sense of uniqueness and self-importance. That is ultimately what I believe our subjective perception of "consciousness" to actually be.
It's refreshing to hear this viewpoint being proposed. It seems very much in line with what David Deutsch has been saying, the originator of quantum computation, (who builds on the works of Karl Popper) regarding knowledge-creation by means of conjecture, criticism and error correction. Although it still leaves the gap of how experience arises from physical matter in the first place. Nonetheless this is the most reasonable place to begin from. As Deutsch says, if you can't program it then you don't understand it.
Well articulated but I remember reading about most of these particular concepts in the 1990s via Dennett and his outlook then was admittedly an extended synthesis of others work - Still, it does strike me as being on essentially the right path …
Since the 1990s research using fmri scans etc has given more information about the physical brain. But I suspect many were thinking along the same lines even earlier than the 1990s. Goodness, even my sister and I used to wonder about things like colour perception way back when we were young teens in the early 60s. It was just one of the many things we wondered about back then. And we were just 2 kids.
This is dead on. And, it can be proven with an endless number of experiments and examples. Unfortunately, most people will not be able to grasp this because they are invested in proving the opposite for one reason or the other. Even when you prove this with experiments most people tend to think narrowly on the interpretation, and the result only applies to the particular experiment. I will need to re-watch this to see if he articulates the point convincingly in 1 or 2 sentences or less, which is what I need. This is why eyeball witness testimony is a flip of the coin, and should not be used as evidence in court cases, especially to convict a person.
"they are invested in proving the opposite" You mean contradicting his conclusions and rendering them incorrect??? Not only is reality an illusion, now scientific theories share the same standard of fact as religious fables? Pfft, no wonder you buy this guy's bull****
@@PaperRaines He is not talking about reality. This is about perception. The show brain games and countless other experiments prove what he is saying. He is just articulating a unified theory of an unending number of provable experiments. I would start with brain games. I have used the show to train craftsmen and clients, who mistakenly believe that the brain perceives reality as it is. I try to tease out that we perceive in narrow serial inputs and paint a wider picture (wholly made up and impossible to actually see) in our minds. In fact. It is provable the outside of the center of 15 degree cone in our center vision, our eyes cannot see color. The color we see is made by the brain. Rods and cones. In fact, the fovea of the eye, the really sharp vision is 2 degrees on center, which is why we read with eye jumps, no matter how big or small the font. In fact, we see upside-down, and our brain flips the image upside down. Glasses that flip the vision upside-down can be worn, and after a week or two, the brain no longer flips the image upside down.... Tip of the ice berg.
@@PaperRainesIt doesn't matter whether it comes from religious fables. Only thing that matter is whether it's testable and stick to scientific method like making novel predictions. Just because you dismiss it because it comes from religion is a genetic fallacy. How do you know if religious fables are indeed false.
Let value human more than information machine! Be a true and conscious human beings who has conscious intelligent and emotional mind to consciously objectively and/or subjectively experience and has rational psychological ability to recognize and differentiate the truth from falsehood (hallucination), and able to value good/bad of the perceptive information as well as able to make intelligent choice.
So the question is how does the optic nerve distinguish between a red apple, a person with brown hair and a picture of each and how does it convey this to the brain.
So perception works just like web pages, things get asynchronusly and parallely updated in the DOM hierarchy which directly or indirectly manifests as reality.
He never said we create reality. Reality is actually concretely out there. It's our perception that is guess work. When our guess don't match with reality then we make updation. He is not spouting that new age woo woo that all of reality is illusion.
Your views are simplistic and I disagree with most of what you say. What you call predictions is really experience. My brain is billions of little cpu's doing a multitude of things besides making predictions. Only a fraction of that makes it into my thoughts, the rest is recycled to try again. All we've really learned about the brain is that the whole is much, much greater than the sum of it's parts.
I agree. All of the brain's predictions are only even possible because of experience - memory. But with experience, the brain does proceed to make predictions. All the time. Many times, we see what we expect to see, as in his example of expecting to see a friend. This happens to me all the time when reading. I am constantly predicting what is coming and many times "see" the word I am expecting, only to find on closer inspection that it was wrong. I suspect that some car accidents are caused by people seeing what they expect to see, when the reality is different.
Everybody talks about illusions and simulations, until the day reality asserts itself onto a person and doesn't relent. At that point they usually switch from fanciful science wishing to religion. Anything, but just accepting we came from nothing and life has no meaning ultimately That's just not good enough for most people as a reason in and of itself to live your life. It's a real shame
I really don't understand what does it means, no brain is not predicting, it's thinking finding meaning it analysing as it is researching making sense of world that's not what prediction machine does,I think brain is much more thwn than that or it is much more than brain
@@PaperRainesHe never said we create reality. Reality is actually concretely out there. It's our perception that is guess work. When our guess don't match with reality then we make updation. He is not spouting that new age woo woo that all of reality is illusion.
Interesting story told by Spaniards arriving in Mexico and told to them by the Aztec Indians.. Some Aztec Indians could not see the Spanish ships anchored off the coastline. Their brains could not process an object so foreign that their brains substituted ocean for the image of the ships and so they saw nothing but ocean. Makes you wonder if we encounter strange things during the day but see nothing ... LOL
Roger - when will you realise that when you claim your “giant” is DNA certified as 100% human it is demonstrable proof that the DNA is 100% contamination. DNA is the blueprint of life. 100% human DNA will produce a human - not a 100ft tall giant (which of course does not exist). What you are saying is the equivalent of saying you constructed a Boeing 747 from the blueprints for a Cessna. Your grasp of science is zero. You just see shapes and make up nonsense. You claim to be taking photos of electrons on an old Samsung phone, you claim there are 1600km long dragons lying around. It is all utter nonsense. That is why no real scientist will ever takes you seriously. I assume it is also why you are so terrified of discussion with anyone who understands science that you block them from your channel so you can pretend they don’t exist and pretend you are right. Sad…
How many human beings in this world think they have smarter brains than a fish? If you think you are more intelligent than any fish or bird or other species in this world. Please explain why they all survive in this world without money but human beings lives revolves around money. Just shows how low human beings are on the species list since we can't survive without money
Oh, I wondered why when I look at trees they say 'what the f*&k you staring at?' They weren't actually trees, I was perceiving trees! Silly me thinking eyes and ears were for seeing and hearing.
