You Actually Share Your Brain With a Silent Stranger

For mind bending check the great explanation from CGP Grey, "You are two"[1], which argues the two brain hemispheres can operate independently. [1]: ▶ this video

in “My Subconscious Is a Better Developer Than I Am” · View on HN

Consciousness must be much more high level than microtubules and quantum effects. I think the split brain "experiments" (not really experiments [0, 1]) are much more useful than the experiments presented in tfa. [0] [link] [1] ▶ this video

in “New research on anesthesia and microtubules gives new clues about consciousness” · View on HN

Also, neurologically you are not one person. You are two: ▶ this video It's not hard to imagine the nearly constant competition that erupts between neural sub-networks in your brain -- their collective output signals vying to be the dominant signal. Just stand in front of a bowl of ice cream and try to predict whether you will or won't actually eat it. (Impulse control, etc) Sensory awareness is helpful towards guiding these competitions and impulses into a direction (and a longer term habit) that is more aligned with your longer-term values. Also helpful: engineering your environment. [link]

in “If I Know what's good for me, why am I sabotaging myself?” · View on HN

You're probably right. We have a couple examples of this happening. There's the interesting quarks that people with split brain hemispheres experience. ▶ this video And dissociative identity disorder where there arguably multiple consciousnesses inhabiting the same brain. It is probably an evolutionary advantage that humans have a ( mostly) uniform singular consciousness.

in “Decades-long bet on consciousness ends – it’s philosopher 1, neuroscientist 0” · View on HN

Is it hard though? Or is the hard part ethics i.e. personhood, and because the terms are conflated that makes consciousness hard, since it means you cannot accept what consciousness is without needing to also define ethics. Drop the idea that consciousness is sufficient or required for personhood in favor for something more behaviourally consistent like cuteness or power, and things become clearer. There is a part of you which simulates social interaction by learning models of various other agents it has inferred the existence of. As can be expected from something which is looking for agents based on indirect clues, we know this part does struggle with accidentally assigning agency to things which clearly lack consciousness i.e that damned sharp rock you stepped on twice. This part of you is capable of simulating a finite number of simultaneous such agents at a time, meaning it will focus on, as a whole, being able to predict the actions of the agents most often observed. It is also why we would expect it to replace groups of people you only interact with as a group as a "them". It is also very common that the most significant agent to simulate would be you. Hence one of the models being simulated is you. This is what generates the perception of consciousness, why it is you yet separate. It predicts the cognitive bias of the mind body duality, yet maintains the perception of consciousness. A part of you is constantly trying to explain your own actions, but critically, while w

in “Making the hard problem of consciousness easier” · View on HN

You are two ▶ this video I always come up with good ideas when relaxed, usually when not working on the problem (showering / running). God why are they working us to death?!

in “My Subconscious Is a Better Developer Than I Am” · View on HN