Anil Seth: How your brain invents your "self" | TED

Who are you, really? Neuroscientist Anil Seth lays out his fascinating new theory of consciousness and self, centered on the notion that we "predict" the world into existence. From sleep to memory and everything in between, Seth explores the reality we experience in our brains -- versus the world as it objectively might be.
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[@DemetriPanici]

*"Very little is needed to make a happy life; it is all within yourself, in your way of thinking." - Marcus Aurelius*

[@pb25193]

Why is it that people who come up with these quotes, happen to already have everything? Aurelius was born as the emperor of the largest empire to ever exist at that point of time

[@machkarski]

@@pb25193 Only having everything allows you to compare everything. Otherwise you can always assume that something you don't have is the key for the happy life.

[@pb25193]

@@machkarski so you mean to say that actualization is paywalled behind king levels of success? Cool

[@machkarski]

@@pb25193 Not at all. I was answering the question why the guy who has lived behind the wall happen to be the one who can say that there is nothing valuable there and to sounds credible. He is not the only one who makes the statement but is one who has the authority to make it. After all we can agree that if the quote had my name at the end nobody would believe it :)

[@pb25193]

@@machkarski well said, friend.

[@ThisisRubbishlo]

Waking up, is like booting your computer up, awake and here I am in a moment. Self is here. Loved this Ted Talk 👍

[@rustycherkas8229]

Having trouble deciding what to use as the "alarm sound" to wake up in the morning: - Brian Enos Windows '95 boot tune, or - the old modem connection handshake sonata... One is almost normal; the other is so close to what happens as bits of consciousness "negotiate" connecting with a new day...

[@jasemalhammadi4228]

So basically he is saying that consciousness is a product of perception despite the conventional belief that consciousness is independent from the body (dualism). I hope science can prove this empirically rather than just giving the usual color perception example or if they are able to create consciousness in the lab.

[@rustycherkas8229]

@@jasemalhammadi4228 So you've never seen a murmuration? Go watch a video. Comprised of only several hundred independent but interdependent bodies, there emerges a group behaviour that appears to be self-aware to an extent. It's not difficult to imagine the ebbing & flowing of billions of simultaneous murmurations could show behaviours that may appear to us as if the collection was consciously interacting with its very, very large environment... Is "culture" or "religion" not a self-perpetuating emergent behaviour of a large population of interacting units? Is it self-aware, self-regulating and seemingly desirous of growth and a long existence independent of its components and able to recognise and react to external opportunities and threats? Advanced AI systems have less than 1% of the neurons of a human brain, and their wiring and behaviours are still being worked out (trying to catch up to 500 million years of evolution of biological systems.) "Computing" is far less than 100 years old and you want a demonstration of "consciousness in the lab" today? Patience, grasshopper...

[@punitm6999]

With all due respect, I think that is the opposite of the point he's making. The self is itself a perception. The self is also perceived in a dream

[@climbing_in_the_clouds]

Ideas like this are intriguing. What a beautiful video. A similar subject is that of conscious control. Most of us assume we are steering the ship more than we actually are. When I am hungry, I consciously choose what to eat. However, I do not consciously choose when to become hungry. I do not choose when to be satiated. I do not control the digestion of the food I have ingested. I do not control the multitude of functions that occur within my body. I simply react to them and my response is what little conscious control I have. Most of what happens in my body and mind is occurring on a subconscious level. The examples and thoughts I have provided only even provide an infinitesimal insight into the ideas of what consciousness truly is.

[@silverskid]

"Controlled hallucination" is, he says, "not based on accuracy but for utility, for usefulness for staying alive." Aside from the special sense of "hallucination" (we're not talking about things that don't exist, or figments of imagination but simply our best guesses about events and their causes in a real and constraining world), the distinction between accuracy and utility is, at the very least, fuzzy since in order for my best guesses about events to have "utility" they must, in many cases though not all, have some degree of accuracy-- hence the concept you lean on, "prediction error" implying we pay for our inaccurate/incorrect inferences. If I "guess" that a berry is edible but it is poison, the problem isn't that the berry lacks "utility" but that it really is poisonous. The guess that it is edible is not simply "useless" but *inaccurate* which alone explains why it can kill the eater. Yes, some ideas (say religious ones) may have functional utility (say social cohesion) yet lack standards of accuracy. Not all ideas or judgments are truth apt, especially those in speculative metaphysics. But in a great many cases that have to do with ordinary perception, accuracy is a sine qua non, and you can't decouple utility and accuracy. Judging the speed and distance of oncoming traffic, the color of a traffic light, or even the meaning of words contained in a legal agreement-- all these judgment/"best guesses" lack utility to the extent that they are inaccurate. As you admit, entities in the world exist mind-independently, though of course they can be interpreted in various different ways. Still, despite the interpretive space open (for example, color) there are still bounds within which perception and cognition must function (as you admit when saying the inverted spectra thought experiment goes "too far"). Thus, accuracy and utility overlap, with accuracy having the more central explanatory value. These and many ordinary judgments/guesses do not lack accuracy BECAUSE they lack utility, but rather they lack utility BECAUSE they lack accuracy. Constructivism has its limits. Constructions are constrained by actual conditions. Reality testing is paramount--even if we don't have "absolute knowledge " of a mind-independent reality. Kant had already made that point which defined his Copernican Revolution. Nothing new there. We needn't have some privileged ontological perspective. BUT judgments about what is going on around or within us are knowledge-claims, and as such they are, in most cases, either more or less accurate (they track certain mind-independent actualities) or they are mistaken/erroneous (which explains how "prediction errors" can be assessed). If we jettison accuracy constraints altogether we end up with some kind of subjective idealism, or strong form of anti-realism. BTW, much of this is simply a rehash of philosophical disputes in philosophy of science and metaphysics. There isn't a lot of "neuroscience" in this particular talk.

[@fadilahilda]

How great explanation about something unexplain, thanks Anil Seth, every words out from you here are amazing.

[@Swimdeep]

Given my brain tumor removal, “feeling like myself” continues to be challenging. My brain is still rewiring itself. 🧠

[@kunalkhan1143]

I did 9 Brain Surgeries becasue of Brain tumor and Internal infections. I got paralyzed and Blind too. I wish you a great life ahead my Friend.

[@dobermanlove777]

Just "feeling" is enough. You will realize that by just "feeling", you will automatically connect to your "self" I wish you well

[@hughhunt1800]

i wish you luck. hugs

[@sebastianvanced4425]

What is the difference in experience, how would you describe it?sounds interesting

[@piruz3243]

❤🌹🌹

[@McC_Cal]

Meanwhile, the red cup looks orange to me. But it’s still just a cup regardless. Our experience of color “or anything” technically it’s a flipped orange/red cup. Pretty cool to think about. Have a great thanksgiving btw!!! Best wishes!

[@kirschlein55]

100% orange to me too

[@realrogers890]

Actually is a gradient color, top orange, red bottom

[@rickybloss8537]

But what even is a cup? Take a cup remove one atom, is it still a cup? If so repeat until it's not a cup. I'd say most people will have different conceptions of when it ceases being a cup. It's ultimately arbitrary construct which is also likely vary wildly from person to person.

[@manojsaranathan6706]

@@rickybloss8537 Right. To a termite, a human table made of wood is food.

[@theeternal6890]

*Brain creates a self but that self is illusion and real self is to be realised.*

[@REDPUMPERNICKEL]

Brain creates a self but that self is no illusion. Self is illusion in the same way movement is illusion. A movement is not a material object yet without material objects there can be no movement. Neither a self nor a movement is an illusion, rather, both are conceptual entities and a self requires a material substrate for exactly the same reason as does a movement.

[@greyareaRK1]

Yes, please, more of this.

[@finaldestination813]

You reach to the ultimate reality when you question everything.

[@Gingnose]

And that's where you construct your work from scratch as Socrates said

[@melaniex._1]

im 14 and i know im gonna be a neuroscientist in the future

[@kdot8042]

Just had a meditation where I realized that all 'I' am is awareness of & executive decisions for my unconcious mind, which caused me to freak out a little. Seeing this video in my inbox helped me put my thoughts into context & calm down. Thanks, my fellow feeling-machines 🤖

[@Noukz37]

Exactly, the "true self" is just the observer, that is always silently there and don't worry everyone freaks out when they realize this :-)

[@MARYANNE269]

From the first it helped MY perspective 😊

[@micridg]

@@Noukz37 To nit pick over the use of words, your true self couldn't be there, it would have to be here. Have you had a realisation of your true self?

[@Noukz37]

@@micridg Not sure what you mean there, but "that" is also called soul, or spirit. However, it is the same in you, or anyone else, so it is everywhere. :-) Words have many meanings, so best not to pick the nits :-) Yes I did, a couple of months after I started meditating, and I was puzzled and confused for a few days what had happened to "me". Luckily internet is full of lovely, helpful people :-)

[@Noukz37]

@@micridg Well words have various meanings, especially for something "complex" as this, so best not to pick any nits :-) I'm not sure what you meant, but the self is also called soul, or spirit, but it's not an individual, it's the same, the you and the me and everyone... so it's there AND here. :-) I've been officially introduced to "my true self" couple of months after I started meditating, and it took me few days to understand what really happened.

[@georgecoyne6545]

Anil Seth has an excellent understanding of self and consciousness. It fits with what I wrote in the 59-page chapter on Consciousness in “Notfinity Process: Matter-In-Motion” (2021) in which research in cognitive and computational neuroscience is cited. It is possible to understand the self as a survival program.

[@anika1271]

16:53 He took 'never mind' to the whole different new level😅 and I love it. Some time ago, I've thought this way too that people have their own brain so they have their own thought. 😅 When people and I disagree with some stuff, it was just 'never mind' 😅

[@timmmychanga]

Thank you 🔥❤️🙏

[@carljohnreyes3687]

I always believe that our brain is a transducer of the world beyond our material reality, we know that energy cannot be destroyed nor created but where do the electrical impulses inside our brain go after thoughts were produced, if we will follow that conservation of energy technically we must be able to retain all of the memories we used to have? Consciousness might be one form of energy which far exceeds the reality our physical body lives in which we uses to wonder about things beyond, just imagine how vast our thoughts are, for sure we aren't just bound in this material world. It is like our brain is limited only by physical means, death could be another way to achieve a greater consciousness.

[@bejoubum]

This. Exactly. What becomes of our energy after death?

[@carljohnreyes3687]

@@bejoubum Most likely pure light, once light is fired it does not lose or decay energy. If you would ask me how we would be able to have a greater consciousness if we are light, I don't know the answer to that. But as we get a deeper understanding of our reality, the idea of heaven and God makes more sense than all of the theory of existence combined. the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And God said, Let there be light: and there was light. God is depicted as an extremely bright light, which if we are to follow my theory, the brighter you are the higher your consciousness. This is too much to handle.

[@ghislainbugnicourt3709]

@@carljohnreyes3687 Most of the energy you use, especially in your brain, ends up dissipated as heat. Which in turn is irradiated as infra red light, lost in space, but this light has nothing to do with consciousness because it holds no information. To get consciousness with light you'd need a structure that bends, or reflects light in a complex way so that it could maintain itself, "compute" and then "predict" things. About the rest of the discussion, of course you can have a spiritualist view on life, but try not to present it as "superior" to the materialist view (I'm referring to your use of "for sure" or "makes more sense than" that don't prove anything, except that you want to believe it). It's just two different approaches to the world, both can be interesting, but the topic of the video is rooted in materialism.

[@hyejue]

thanks. I apprecialte your clear eyes. Those are touching me. 감사합니다.

[@sebastiencollin500]

His demonstration is interresting but a little bit long too explain his point of view. I am also interrested in this specific theme, and I would be interrested in exchanging with him. This theme can be introduced by 3 ways: -the by pass of the concepts generated by our brain -the chart is not the land - the vision of the fly (animal) If you want to exchange a bit with me you will be welcome. Sorry for my english, I am (sorry about it ) french 😄

[@Od4n]

To the question of are we seeing the same colour or shade of colour... I remember having seen a documentary of an African tribe who can differentiate between greens where other people cannot. They were very observant in their environment where more shades of green existed and it mattered.

[@tomacana]

I had previously referred to Anil’s controlled hallucination as our nested reality. Back in 1973 was when I first heard that our brain has a fabulous memory that make 3D multi=sensory pictures of now. Each picture contains all that the sense inputs send to the brain and includes even our feelings, thoughts and the action we were taking at the moment. The controlled hallucination is one of the better analogies of what actually occurs. Sam Harris addressed it as a waking dream wherein the brain dreams our consciousness. In those many years, I approached this occurring reality with a Zen approach. Now we have the recent developments in neurology and have better tools for understanding. There is a movie called, ‘Something the Lord Made’. It was about the first open heart surgery performed to save the lives of babies born with blue baby syndrome. The consensus at that time was that the heart was our god muscle and no one should dare entertain surgery in that arena. That was in 1944 that the first open heart surgery was performed on a baby. The science changed our perception just look at us now. The cognitive studies are making large strides but lag due religious suppression. Here in the USA, we have alliances that sneer at critical thinking and philosophy in general.

[@isoramispalacios8289]

Good morning friends it's brilliant great thank you a thousand blessings

[@abot5533]

"Something doesn't exist, until it's observed." - Someone I don't remember but was probably important. The introduction of this talk made me remember this.

[@martinesejour3361]

The cup looks orange to me and not red. Is it the lighting? I would love to gain more insight into the research that's performed on anesthesia or being worked out? It's such a mystery and this is the first time I've heard a plausible explanation about this topic.

[@TheLadyteesha]

Orange to me too ☺️

[@bejoubum]

I saw orange as well.

[@austinricky]

the reason we're not meant to think back isn't only because its essentially meaningless.. but also because it hinders our momentum which is only properly achieved if we forget our place in space and time.. not bowing down to our place in space and time.

[@MARYANNE269]

Cool. Like your thinking x

[@letsreview8200]

Very good, Very good. The speaker in this Ted talk is very close to the first stage of Buddhist enlightenment Sotapanna. A Sotapanna as defined by the fully enlightened Buddha is one who by his own clear insight has seen through the illusion of self-view and has abondoned the idea of self. In reality the body is just a collection of physical elements and the mind is just current of consciousness experience. There is nothing permanent and under control hence we can't call anything self. I hope Anil tries to practice and realise this truth experentially rather than logical thinking. This would be far far good for him

[@rustycherkas8229]

Please explore Seth's other presentations. One of his Ted Talks culminates with the "lights out and oblivion" at death that you allude to... My impression is that Seth has already acquired the insights you allude to, yet is making the most and sharing the best of his passage from a "rational" perspective... No hocus-pocus or hero worship required...

[@martinstent5339]

"Memory is not what the heart desires. That is only a mirror, be it clear as Kheled-zâram. Or so says the heart of Gimli the Dwarf. Elves may see things otherwise. Indeed I have heard that for them memory is more like to the waking world than to a dream. Not so for Dwarves." Not only between Elves men and dwarves does the character of memory differ. Also between humans.

[@Erebos111]

Cognito ergo sum, Anil! Thank you for your thoughts and considerations on 'Brain and Self'. As you mentioned, you delivered an opinion stretching from the neuro-perceptual science of how the brain perceives 'reality' by interpretating sense inputs to the creation of the Self as a controlled hallucination per se. I find this interesting because I consider the brain's ability to interpret the external reality through neurological pathways as different to the brain's use of higher cognitive levels to 'create' a sense of self identity. The human self IMHO does not, except in unusual circumstances, live in isolation. I believe it lives in a complex matrix of interactions with the external in terms of the experiences with the environment it lives in and the people and objects it finds itself exposed to. In order to become an individual being and 'survive' as you describe it, the brain and more importantly consciousness acts and develops in such a fashion that it makes sense of itself and its environment by becoming an individual self. I see this as not an hallucinatory state but one that has clear parameters and goals. One could almost say that it is a primary function which allows us to become human with all the diversity and amazing abilities we have as a species.

[@msm3pk]

I love this, just watched it for the third time. Mind continues to be totally blown. Also heard Anil Seth on the Evolving Leader podcast last week, so so interesting.

[@jenserikbech]

I feel home in myself!

[@kv1815]

How vome that I've never heard of this genius guy before?!

[@JungleJargon]

You are what you believe about yourself. It's what you are convinced of. Everything you do is based on what you believe and your self worth is based on what you have been able to accomplish and what you fail to accomplish. It's not complicated. I actually recovered from schizophrenia by changing what I was believing. I had to change all my habits of thought. Your belief is your guide and your limiting factor. The more you believe the truth, the more free you will be.

[@robertjsmith]

Jungle Jargon, so now do you have a non-dual perspective ?

[@JungleJargon]

@@robertjsmith I no longer have hallucinations or delusions. I’m back to normal.

[@robertjsmith]

@@JungleJargon Good for you

[@JungleJargon]

@@robertjsmith Thanks! I wish the doctors cared as much.

[@AjayKumar-fb3gx]

how was your experience of schizophrenia? and how long did you have it

[@randomguy4820]

Fascinating, I beleve that the core of consciousness started with a persons or animals feelings (pain pleasure anxiety hunger) ect. and that every other part of the brain has evolved around that. Its two parts, the feeling machine and the calculating and checking machine.

[@tiborkoos188]

The one idea that I really liked in the talk is that the sense of being alive is a representation. Also, the important point here is that feeling alive is a self concept, which wasn't made clear. Still, this is original.

[@MasterPeibol]

There was a time that I thought that consciousness would never be achieved by the machine. But if this new approach of how consciousness works gets validated, it is strikingly similar on how we train AI today through neural networks. Therefore, self awareness can be achievable by an AI. This would be truly remarkable.

[@Gingnose]

AI is simply made by the imitation of the human's brain so if the components are sufficient, there could be artificial consciousness

[@NandakumarRaghavan]

Our "intelligence" is very artificial you mean?

[@MasterPeibol]

@@NandakumarRaghavan Neural networks learn by backpropagation, adjusting the parameters and threshold value of the network in order to minimize the error value for all input. This is basically how Dr. Seth describes the mind, a Bayesian brain that randomly guesses at first, and little by little adjusts the outputs to match the inputs. A sufficiently powerful neural network could, then hypothetically, gain a type of consciousness, that would be, in fundamental and practical terms indistinguishable from human consciousness.

[@rustycherkas8229]

@@MasterPeibol While I agree with you in principle, there are many milestones yet to be reached... With full respect to the researchers for what has been achieved to date, it seems that each system is 'tuned' to solve one problem only. It's the old "walk and chew gum and decide to whistle a tune" challenge that has to be met, imho. I've no doubt self-awareness in silicon (or some non-biological system) will be achieved, but HAL was damn optimistic of Clarke. If such a system does not face the finality of death (permanent non-existence), will it be able to relate to us squishy clever monkeys that do?

[@Roberta_Esposito]

just consider that computers must be programmed . theyre stupid. they only “ know” what we tell them

[@vksomji]

Hello Anil Sir, I saw Vlog on TED about Hallucination. I liked it because I can relate my Mental Disorders and problem with the Vlog about Hallucination. Now I was Diagnosed with Psychosis and Psychotic Depression in 2012. Prior to that I had Early Episodes of Psychosis 2 to 3 prior to my Mother's Sudden Death in 2008 and after I was Laid Off from my Employment Six months after my Mother's Death. I did experienced Traumatized Shock in my Brain like my Heart Beat in my Head. After I got Treated for Psychosis in 2012, what I am left with after Experiencing severe Psychosis and Psychotic Depression is Auditory Hallucination like Cognitive, Negative and sometimes Positive Voices in my Head. These Voices triggers Tourette TICS like a Cursing Verbal Conversation which lasts for Half an Hour. As on Present Date my problem is that due to Past Mental Disorders and Medication I Experience Hallucination specifically when the Telivision is on. I hear some Absurd words when the TV is on with some Movie. It's like everyone in the Living Room enjoys the Television Show except me. I keep giggling or Lauh over Loudly 😆 when certain Words are or Conversation is are replaced with some Funny or Absurd words, Voices which is there in my Subconscious Mind. This creates a Huge misunderstanding among me and others present in the Room All I want to say is that Hallucination is at High Wave when Television 📺 is On, especially if the Person is affected with Auditory Hallucination..... Sometimes a Controlled Hallucination makes a Person LOL like Self LOL. Only the patient affected with the Changes in the Brain Fluids due to some Traumatic Episode which includes Medication can Experience Controlled Hallucination. In Such a Scenario the Patient or affected Person experiencing Controlled Hallucination, appears as if the affected Person is LOL on Others present in the House, Room or Outdoors, intentionally. Such a Scenario creates a Huge Misunderstanding in the mind's Normal People who are unaware of "What is Mental Disorders". Such a scenario can also End up causing Physical Assualt to the Patient or Person affected by Hallucination.

[@robertjsmith]

have you tried Transactional Analysis

[@vksomji]

@@robertjsmith Transactional Analysis what is that. ???? I was Allien and UnEducated in Mental Health until 2021. It's like I was stuck with my Mental Disorders Unsorted, Unattended for almost 14 long Yrs like an Illiterate and UnEducated Population in the World who are Allien to the Terms ADHD, Psychosis, Hallucination,PTSD and the Root Causes of such Mental Disorder. I am going through the 5 Phases of Mental Disorders. 1. Early Phase 2. Being Overwhelmed 3. The Struggle to Cope Mental Disorders 4. Living with the Experience 5. Living Past the Experience I learnt my Life Time Lesson. So far within 10 yrs since 2012 I have gone through the Early Phase , the Overwhelmed Phase, the Struggle to Cope with Mental Disorders, Now I have accepted it so Kind of Struggling to Live with the Mental Disorders....I need to be patient with the 3rd, 4th and 5th Phase of my Mental Disorders after I got Diagonosed with Mental Disorders. Yes Sir, I had to Relook and Review my Entire Treatment of my Mental Disorders right from Phase 1 to Phase 3 that is Early Phase to Struggle Phase after the Pandemic 19 and after I was Chucked out of my Employment in 2020 because of Non Performance at Work Place arising from the Work Disability attached to Mental Disorders. So after Revisiting, Reviewing my Mental Health Condition after the Pandemic 19, it's like I came out of Phase 1 the Early Phase of my Mental Disorders successfully after I got Diagonosed with and Treated through Allopathy, Ayurvedic, Homeopathy. After that I Stepped out of Phase 2 the Overwhelmed Phase of my Mental Disorders Unsuccessfully and Had to be in the Phase 3 , My Struggle with Unexplained PTSD for almost 9 yrs, it's a Long Way almost like Baby 🐥 🍼 Steps in Phase 3 after I got myself Educated Online about my Core Mental Disorders from the Professionals in Mental Health. I have become a Practical Pessimist, trying to keep away Negativity, I believe in the Gravitational Pull of Earth after Experiencing the 1 to 3 Phases so far of my Mental Disorders. Now, I want to Live a Normal Happy and Healthy Life the way I used to be before I was Diagnosed with Mental Disorders. Thanks for Educational Channel about Mental Health. I believe in Practicing a "Pinch" of Self Hypnosis along with Medication for Nutritional Deficiency to SNAP OUT 💫✨👌ADHD and other Mental Disorders. Bye and Take Care. Commented at 16:135 hrs ⏳ of this Day, Saturday 15th of October 2022.

[@voiceoftruth7803]

I hope you get over your troubles

[@vksomji]

@@voiceoftruth7803 Yes, I have been a Guinea Pig since I was diagnosed with Psychosis.

[@AbuHilal.]

Even though we know the self is an illusion, we still live by it. But there are people, such as Tony Parsons, Jim Newman, and others who say they don't have this sense of being a self anymore. I wonder what would Anil think of that.

[@katarinajanoskova]

Give a listen to his chat with Sam Harris

[@AbuHilal.]

@@katarinajanoskova I sure will thanks 👍🏻

[@austinricky]

the topic presented at the 20.5 mark is interesting.. its because we are not meant to go back and revisit things.. we're supposed to live in the moment at all times.. the fact that looking at old pictures has you remember things you would otherwise forget shows you how bad we are at recalling past events.

[@zebonautsmith1541]

what put the personal "you" inside your body and not someone else's body?

[@User-xyxklyntrw]

The cup that throw and hit other, is the similar thing with the "red - redness" because it will involve perception that will be different for each person, some will feel less hurt, moderate and very hurt depend on variables like sensitiveness , etc.

[@sailormoon5760]

Great ☺️

[@kunalkhan1143]

I did 9 Brain Surgeries becasue of Brain tumor and Internal infections. I got paralyzed and my vision is still Blind too. I had PTSD as well. Is there any opinion about my situation that you can give me plz?

[@-RAV3N]

Thinking back to when he said, if a cup was perceived as green but to him it was red is not a good line of thought I think it is. Imagine you don't understand color by their names and someone holds a green leaf. They teach you the leaf is red. You then call the leaf red. You now know the leaf is red. the same person looks at the purple leaf in his hand and knows it is red as well. He was also taught the name of that color by someone before he knew what it was called. We can only describe the color based off of colors closely related to that colors wave length or more simply an object by the same color. We cannot prove it is not red to ourselves because of this. A man from a far away land is speaking to you. He looks at the orange leaf in the man's hand and teaches you it is called Erup in his language. You teach him that it is called red in yours. you both agree that it is the same color but both of you use different names for the leaf color. The color of the leaf looks completely different based on how both yours and his brain perceive the wave lengths of that color. Yet, you both still agree it is red. I think this is interesting but not as dramatic as your perceived red as another's purple. I think its more along the lines of Orange is someone's Red since genetics would keep it similar between everyone. Think about how your taste is different from someone else. I think it's something like that.

[@guriramana5875]

Very nice sir

[@brettharris635]

Brilliant

[@ThomasToPC]

Prof Donald Hoffman would say that the cup isn’t really there in reality as we know it, because not even time and space exist in the way that we perceive it for they like the red colour are constructs of the conscious mind.

[@rustycherkas8229]

"I know you think you understand what you thought I said but I'm not sure you realize that what you heard is not what I meant" --Alan Greenspan

[@julelemaitre]

This makes me hugely think of Kant, the concept of numen etc

[@finaldestination813]

Life is nothing but a illusion created by our minds still we fight each other on a daily basis knowing this

[@gravitheist5431]

I have a question about the blinking dot illusion starts off pink and when your focus concentrates on the center it turns green . My question is has this experiment been done with other colours ?

[@erichthecat6032]

I would be interested in your view of the role and mechanisms of sub-consciousness (I'm living in Vienna 😉😉

[@bejoubum]

... and the autonomic

[@erichthecat6032]

@@bejoubum and automatic 😉

[@johnmoffat7855]

I heard and read about this thinking 30+ years ago. Anil, why does this make us human separate from all living life when we don't and may never know what the process is for life to be cognizant of the environs around them?

[@voiceoftruth7803]

It makes us different but not special.

[@annsunderland4673]

Amazing talk ! 👌 ( just a little side note tho…..the cup is actually orange😂)

[@dirtydawgy3237]

That red coffee cup is orange !! :)

[@megandaya4991]

"How things seem is not how they are."

[@adapan837]

reminds me of Embodied Simulation Hypothesis

[@Natallou55]

The self is an amalgamation of our perception and conditioning. It is unreliable and ever changing. However how can change be recognised If there is nothing stable within us? Stability and permanence therefore exists within. Without it, we would not be able to see and talk about the constantly changing self.

[@yanlinster]

I am wondering if that is a very deep frown line in the middle of his eyebrows or it's a marking? The cup's colour can be interpreted differently for those with colour blindness.

[@MARYANNE269]

Red is my favourite colour.. 😊

[@tiborkoos188]

But perception IS a bottom up interpretation. Prediction does play a role in perception and cognition but what our mind predicts is not what we consciously experiencing as the perception. The strong evidence for the this is that mental imagery is faint compared to perception and cannot over ride what I perceive. Seth's description of the mechanism of the sense of self is correct (we can only wish that more people would understand this) but again this is not about predicting anything. My mind does not uses the concept of self to describe what it expects to happen but to interpret /make sense of what is happening !

[@MrBonners]

KZbin video several years back. Self consciousness is a collection of feedback loops experienced in our environment intertwined for 'how to' and apply to new problems to be solved . The more loops the more complex thought capability. A fish only needs a minimum number of feedback loops to survive for it's maximum life span. Does a snail have minimum sense of 'self' or just hormone response?

[@motivationbaychannel6891]

DO JUST ONCE what others say you can't do and you'll never pay attention to their limitations again.

[@yasminmakeup4596]

❤️❤️❤️

[@lah6739]

It goes back further than Plato if one is willing to explore outside the European worldview and look to ancient India. The Yogis of ancient India were exploring the nature of self 3000 years ago and the Buddha took it further into the nature of reality 2600 years ago. Read Science and Philosophy in the Indian Buddhist Classics Vol. 1: The Physical World and Vol. 2: The Mind. Very fascinating. Quantum mechanics probably comes closest to explaining the true nature of reality and it agrees with Buddhist philosophy quite accurately.

[@MartinRothmassagetherapie]

A person's most important activity is thinking and acting. Michelangelo emphasised this in the dome of the Sistine Chapel by placing the brain and hands in the foreground. Who am I? I am the sum of my genes - that is the first answer. I am the sum of my experiences - that is the second answer.

[@listenenglishamericantv1008]

❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️

[@Richorto]

correction: ORANGE coffee cup

[@tjssailor4473]

If there was oblivion then suddenly my personal existence then oblivion why couldn't my personal existence occur again? That means we would be subjectively eternal since we wouldn't know anything about the intervals of oblivion in between.

[@slide6strings]

The coffee cup looks orange to me.... Excellent presentation.

[@tjssailor4473]

We often hear of the hard problem of consciousness. Why is there qualia or experience of anything in the first place? I would submit there is an even harder and more important question - why do I seem to be a specific individual experiencing a specific subset of qualia? This is the most important question that must be asked and answered but rarely is. As a matter of fact there seems to be a huge blind spot when it comes to this in discussions of consciousness. If material reductionism is to be relevant to the big questions, then it has to explain not how brains generate consciousness but how the specific brain in my head could create the specific consciousness I seem to be looking out of the eyeballs of this specific body. Why do I PERSONNALLY EXIST as an individual in the first place? Out of the infinite matter in the universe how is it that only the three pounds in my head could create me? What is different about that three pounds for this to occur? Consider that billions of bodies showed up before this one. Billions showed up after this one. None of them seem to have created my existence. This body could be running around without it being ME just like these billions of others All bodies are made of the same elements. All brains have the same basic anatomy. If all brains are basically the same and are creating consciousness then there should only be ONE consciousness looking out of every set of eyeballs simultaneously. A hopelessly superimposed existence from every possible viewpoint at once. I’m sure that materialists would claim that no, no, brains are so complex they are all different. Ok, so what would have to be recreated in another brain for me to exist looking out of another set of eyeballs? When the ontologies purporting to explain consciousness are examined critically it becomes obvious that all materialist/reductionist strategies fail completely in attempting to address the individuality question. What is the principled explanation for why: A brain over here would generate my specific consciousness and a brain over there would generate your specific consciousness? Integrated information over here would generate my specific consciousness and integrated information over there would generate your specific consciousness? Global workspace over here would generate my specific consciousness and global workspace there would generate your specific consciousness? Orchestrated quantum collapse in microtubules over here would generate my specific consciousness and orchestrated quantum collapse in microtubules over there would generate your specific consciousness? A clump of conscious atoms over here (panpsychicism) would generate my specific consciousness and a clump of conscious over there would generate your specific consciousness? If an exact copy of my body was suddenly created in antarctica would I find myself to exist freezing there while also sitting in the comfort my living room? According to the physicalists that would have to be true or their argument collapses into incoherence. Materialism already fails since it cannot find a transfer function between microvolt level sparks in the brain and any experience or qualia. In addition it’s not possible for materialistic ontologies to address this question of individuality since no measurement can be made that could verify my consciousness vs your consciousness and therefore no materialist ontology could make any coherent statements about the subject. How could pure awareness even be individualized? Physicalists demand measurements but with consciousness there is nothing to measure. There is electricity in the brain they say. We’ll measure that. Is electricity consciousness? If so then once I again I should exist everywhere at once since electricity cannot be individualized. My blender uses electricity. Is it a genius? Unless materialists can answer these questions their premise collapses like the house of cards it is. As far as other ways of thought are concerned only Dualism and Idealism can account for our sense of individuality. Dualism assumes we are all individual spirits/souls matched up to a body through some undefined process. Idealism, which states that consciousness is primary also answers the question of why I seem to exist as an individual. One consciousness exists looking out of every set of eyeballs and in the process the illusion of individuality is created in each case. In actual reality I am you, you are me, we are one.

[@REDPUMPERNICKEL]

Imagine a vast pachenko machine in which the number of pins and their locations are constantly changing. Now imagine identical steel balls being launched into play in a continuous stream. The random path each takes down through the pins is a ball's identity. The path is what makes each ball unique.

[@REDPUMPERNICKEL]

Have you considered the possibility that each human being is running an instance of the self-being-conscious-process at least while their bodily substrate is not running the deep-and-dreamless-slumber-process?

[@jasonsebring3983]

"If I see red.." could be "If I hear a pitch..." etc, in terms of subtle differences, but our species of course ties us together in its similar perceptions from our genes from person to person. For example we don't perceive sound like bats do.

[@MARYANNE269]

That's why I 100%belive things happen for a reason.. I haven't even begun to listen what this man has to say and in his first sentence is where I am at.. Who am I? ... At the moment I really want to cut my hair.. Have a drastic change. But aware of the 'vulnerable people I work with know me.. Do I just wanna get out and be a different version of me that I wanna be or do I just cut my hair and let them see a different me. Sounds mad now I am texting this but. Who are WE? . I conform to the' right way of being to suit my job.. But we can only do this for so long.. I say give a job a year.. Ive been ther 2 1/2.. But my hair is part of me who I am. .. If I can't wear it down and natural then I am not being me.. Hmmm yes I've got on with it for years..but... We need to live and express ourselves as if not our lives are being wasted!.. Surely.. I just need a fucking hair cut.. Just (lol took 7 mths.) brushed out my dreadlocks.. Now want a short shaggy mullet 😊 all the best to all of you who will find a way.. Enjoy your time x

[@elost9844]

The problem is, how can one "pseudo-self" ask or blame some other "pseudo-self". They do, although! It's pretty hard to realize that any of our achievements is just "A Turn Of A Friendly Card"...🎲

[@patriciaadducci6549]

That's why enlightenment makes people happy. Try it! No praise or blame sounds empty but it actually allows you to live in true compassion for yourself and others.

[@davidrandell2224]

Light is a cluster of electrons. The red part of light is the more massive than the others. A mass spectrometer- prism- shows this.Does the falling tree make noise/ sound absent an ‘observer.’ “The Unique and Its Property “, Max Stirner,1844/2017 Landstreicher translation for “ you.” Creative nothing.” No advance since then.

[@ShadyForest]

Are you okay?

[@Od4n]

Short term memory only... Good movie is Memento. See how things can play out 😁

[@mehdifarshad5276]

We make ourself because we need to be responsible to society and our life. We make individuals to make them responsible. We are unique because we are a bit different from each other. So brain accepts that he is unique in someway. Sometimes brain learn from society or in first level from family members that he is culpable so brain learn or create self to describe a lot of related things about SELF. All about mystery concept LEARNING.

[@potapotapotapotapotapota]

I just don like feeling pain :(

[@j.trulyrandom]

The self could be a weird collection of experiences that have been brought to our attention for whatever reason

[@TrinkBruder]

OMG physics. To attach more existence to a human brain than a black hole in the physical universe is the essence of Megalomania

[@MrBonners]

What minimum intelligence is required for a perception of self? Does a fish have a perception of self? If so does it have a perception of future not hormone inspired. Fish remembers and returns to a specific food producing nook or cranny? That would indicate a basic understanding a concept of future.

[@rumpolstilscin]

My left eye has always perceived color slightly different than my right eye.

[@traveltechnic3268]

👍👍

[@zafiralam1941]

Anil seth is an alien. Else how one explain a dark matter as brain and consciousness. But this alien has mastered human language.

[@dawidcham]

Do animals experience the level of consciousness discussed here, as in the same experience of integrating disparate external inputs into an artificially constructed, and error corrected model of the world? I'm going to say yes, but that human consciousness has one more piece built on top of that: another modelling system that is most significantly developed in humans - that of modelling our own behaviour, and predicting what we ourselves will do next. As any AI researcher will tell you, just because a brain (wet or electronic) is a machine, it's in no way easy to describe in a meaningful way how the algorithm got to the solution it did. Why is this ability important or adaptive? Because we are social animals and it behoves us to behave in relatively predictable ways to others (to not do so, is the ultimate sin). We call training this self-prediction model 'thinking', so to misquote Descartes "I tell stories (about myself), therefore I am".

[@rustycherkas8229]

The hour was late. The innkeeper wanted to close-up the pub soon. Descartes, who had been lost in thought gazing into the fire for hours, was approached by the young barmaid. Made timid with awe and respect, she whispered, "Last order, Mr. Descartes?" Rene didn't move. Somewhat more forcefully the barmaid asked again, "We're closing soon. Would you like a final pint?" Again, Descartes showed no reaction. Now peeved and perturbed, the barmaid banged Descartes empty glass on the table and shouted, "Last order before we close!?" Descartes, roused out of his reverie, recognised the situation immediately, looked-up, smiled and replied, "No, I think not" and promptly vanished in a puff of existentialism... :D

[@user-by3io4gn6e]

Has the complete knowledge of the unknown evolved in this field?

[@totalfreedom45]

_Three things cannot be long hidden: the sun, the moon, and the truth._ -Gautama Buddha *_1_* What is *_the self_* (the ego)? It is a bundle of memories in an empty shell, the twisted product of our evolutionary animal heritage where self-preservation is essential for survival: all animals pursue pleasure, avoid pain, and avoid being killed by another animal owing to the instinct of self-preservation. *_We all_* have that unnecessary product reinforced by heavy societal conditioning except for one known case-Gautama Buddha. The self has created beliefs like soul, spirit, God, the hereafter, and so on. *_2_* Buddha was uninterested in a Supreme Being. At 35 he realized that the *most* important thing in life is to end psychological suffering, which is caused by the self. 💕 ☮ 🌎 🌌

[@user990077]

That coffee cup is orange.

[@nogunnofear6703]

So your whole life occurs between your ears that is not news. Thought it is the only creative force and whatever you think is what you get. It's all about focus. You can have any world you want. That is what's so disappointing about our current one.

[@HakuCell]

the dislike bar was useful to know what others thought about the talk

[@new-knowledge8040]

Imagine a computer was built that was so complex that it can create consciousness. Now imagine that the consciousness became very curious and wanted to figure out what consciousness is. As it began to get closer and closer to figuring it all out, the distance between it and the program that created it, is now becoming smaller and smaller. As a consequence of this, the consciousness itself, is also becoming smaller and smaller. And so, if your mind is on the path of truth, and thus you can see the truth concerning things such as what creates consciousness, the structure of reality, etc., your mind may be very small in size. However, if you're not truly in touch with the truth, and thus you are not in touch with reality, your mind may become quite large. With this being the case, you will probably end up with multiple PhD.s, or at least one PhD, all thanks to not being in touch with reality. But that also means that if you are a physicist, you will never truly figure out reality completely, due to your not being in touch with it. Meanwhile, to the small minded, those who's entire school classes laughed at, the structure of reality, is blatantly obvious. How to create consciousness, is blatantly obvious. But no one believes this, due to them not being in touch with reality themselves.

[@greencoffee9373]

Im not good at english,so anyone kindly tell me what he is trying to say,like just a summary please😁

[@madimikayla1704]

🥰

[@warlock154able]

THE SELF IS A PERCEPTION but who (inside me) perceives that Self?

[@cmacmenow]

is this then a firm argument for Idealist Monism?

[@scottforbes8768]

If you were fearful of getting the colour wrong and you know what colour will make fear ease, that the colour you say and then see over time!

[@x.4543]

It is time to practice.

[@davidrandell2224]

Every atomic object doubles in ‘size ‘ in 19 minutes. Can you- psyche, ego, soul, memory, ad infinitum keep up? Well it must otherwise.... It follows such are also physical.

[@HominidPetro]

Anil is a high elf from the college of winterfell who specializes in illusion magic

[@dlanska]

Well some of this is misstated. "Newton discovered long ago that all of the colors that we experience, the rainbow, the visible spectrum, are based on just a few wavelenths of electromagnetic radiation. ... For us humans a whole universe of color is generated from just 3 of these wavelengths" Cones have a point of meximum sensitivity, but respond to a wide range of wavelengths. One can give the impression of different colors from mixing of 3 wavelenths (eg as approximated in a video screen), but that does NOT mean that for regular vision our eye picks out the 3 wavelengths and relies on just those. I know that it isn't possible to fit sensory perception into just 23 minutes, much less a sense of "self," but it really undercuts the overall argument to overstate or misstate supporting points.

[@conlawmeateater8792]

I agree 100%

[@ak.5620]

Hi

[@stephendowney7315]

“…physical things, like the coffee cup, exist in the world wether we’re perceiving them or not…” The Three physicist who won the Nobel prize last year might have something different to say about this

[@toddchavez8274]

Come on Ted you couldn’t furnish this guy with a decent microphone?