Is consciousness an illusion? 5 experts explain
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Published 2024-01-11
This video is an episode from @The-Well, our publication about ideas that inspire a life well-lived, created with the @JohnTempletonFoundation.
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Watch the full podcast now ► • Dispatches from The Well
In the newest episode of Dispatches from The Well, we’re diving deep into the “hard problem of consciousness.” Here, Kmele combines the perspectives of five different scientists, philosophers, and spiritual leaders to approach one of humanity’s most pressing questions: what is consciousness?
In the AI age, the question of consciousness is more prevalent than ever. Is every single thing in the universe self-aware? What does it actually mean to be conscious? Are our bodies really just a vessel for our thoughts? Kmele asks these questions, and many more, in the most thought-provoking episode yet. This is Dispatches from The Well.
Featuring: Sir Roger Penrose, Christof Koch, Melanie Mitchell, Reid Hoffman, Swami Sarvapriyananda
Read the video transcript ► bigthink.com/the-well/dispatches-podcast-episode-5…
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About Kmele Foster:
Kmele Foster is a media entrepreneur, commentator, and regular contributor to various national publications. He is the co-founder and co-host of The Fifth Column, a popular media criticism podcast.
He is the head of content at Founders Fund, a San Francisco based venture capital firm investing in companies building revolutionary technologies, and a partner at Freethink, a digital media company focused on the people and ideas changing our world.
Kmele also serves on the Board of Directors of the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE).
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Read more from The Well:
Actually, neuroscience suggests “the self” is real
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Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein can illuminate the debate over generative AI
► bigthink.com/the-well/mary-shelley-lessons-franken…
Few of us desire true equality. It’s time to own up to it
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About The Well
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All Comments (21)
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"Am I thinking, or am I just thinking that I'm thinking " Hits blunt -Bill Nye
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Even if all that I perceive as external reality is an illusion, the illusion exists
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0:00 Introduction to hard Consciousness problem 4:55 Christof Koch's view: Neuroscientist 12:17 Swami Sarvapriyanada view: Spiritual view 19:06 Reid Hoffman view: Tech entrepreneur Co started ChatGPT 27:00 Melanie Mitchell view: Artificial intelligence 30:27 Sir Roger Penrose view: Nobel prize Physhist 35:57 Final insights 🧘
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Wow, this was one of the best documentaries about consciousness that I have seen. The host Kmele Foster did an amazing job with each interview and kept me thinking the whole time.
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If it is an illusion, what is being illuded?
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Hats off to the host, Kmele Foster. He was thoroughly engaged with each of the interviewees and asked intelligent and insightful questions. I love content like this. Keep it up!
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I really enjoyed this and thought you did a great job of addressing all these different perspectives of consciousness. I mean, you could make a whole series of 45-minute videos (or longer!) just on consciousness. And maybe you should. I think it's an incredibly interesting topic to many of us. I would love to see you talk to other philosophers and neuroscientists about it, including Anil Seth, Sam Harris, Donald Hoffman, Bernardo Kastrup, Jay Garfield, and perhaps experts on psychedelics and consciousness, and philosophers who believe in simulation theory, etc. I have my own hunches (or wishes), but I love to hear about different perspectives because I always learn about new possibilities, and since there's no way to prove any of this (at least not yet), it's all kind of fair game, as far as I see it!
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You know a program is good when you watch the whole thing and only realize 40+ minutes have passed after the fact. Grade A content as always! Thanks
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'it is light of light' i think is the most comprehensive phrase for consciousness
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The monk gentleman was very well spoken, and the way he worded things was just pure joy to listen to. 😮❤
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The first guest doesn't understand the difference between experience - objects, including subtle objects - and awareness, or that which perceives experience. It is an important distinction.
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Absolutely spellbinding in it's content. We are surrely much morre than just a pile of atoms. I reached a point of complete awareness in this video's attempt to define it's purpose right at the end when I saw the dog being loved and the woman shedding a tear. It moved me...
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What Swami Sarvapriyananda said is intriguing. Consciousness is the light of lights.
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Consciousness is so basic, simple, ephemeral, fragile, and at the same time so powerfully meaningful and important that people simply can not imagine it has not a special structure or clear place in the physical world or bodies.
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Wow! What a wonderful video! Full of experts, a terrific interviewer and of course the biggest question of all time. Will definitely subscribe to this channel and share it with people I know. Thank you!
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This is sooooo amazing! I’m a witch and all of this is contemplated daily, sometimes hourly. It becomes a conscious part of our lives. Collectively 🖤
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More of this please. I love this kind of open exploration of life & living it. The more we learn the better we become and I am 💯 on board for this!
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I love the diversity of thinkers collected here! So many delightful angles!
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Insightful perspectives! The mystery of consciousness continues to intrigue. While its illusory aspects are compelling, our vivid subjective experience remains. More interdisciplinary research can shed further light. A thoughtful discussion!
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One of the most eye opening things I’ve learned about consciousness was through my undergraduate work in psychology. I lucid dream occasionally and wondered how this happens in a brain state that is fundamentally characterized by reduced consciousness. So I began comparing cognitive and neuroscientist papers on dreaming, lucid dreaming, and wake states. Come to find out, lucid dreaming is more similar to being AWAKE than regular dreaming. It happens through increase brain activity in parts of the brain that are specifically quieres during non-lucid sleep. So then what is sleeping? How can I be “more” awake than non-lucid dreaming and remain asleep? Why is dreaming so essential to survival that it continues despite full consciousness awareness of it? Science is so beautiful because the questions never end.
