StarTalk
What exactly is consciousness, and why is it such a hard problem to solve? Neil deGrasse Tyson and co-hosts Chuck Nice and Gary O’Reilly take you deep into the mysteries of consciousness and objective reality, David Chalmers, a philosopher and cognitive scientist.
How do we understand the core of subjective experience? We explore the philosophical and neuroscientific angles of consciousness. Why do some experts believe consciousness arises from the sensory cortex, while others point to the prefrontal cortex? And what does this mean for how we understand animals, AI, or even the very nature of our own minds? We question how consciousness evolved to discussions about the levels of consciousness in animals, babies, and humans under anesthesia.
As the conversation turns to AI, the group contemplates the future of artificial consciousness. Could large language models, like today’s AI, eventually develop consciousness? If not now, will they in the near future? And if we can simulate human consciousness in machines, are we creating philosophical zombies—entities that behave like us but lack awareness? These questions spiral into debates about reality, VR, and whether we’re already living in a simulation.
Could there be laws of consciousness waiting to be discovered, like the laws of physics? Or is consciousness simply an illusion, as some scientists propose? What are the core features of consciousness that scientists agree on? Buckle up for a fascinating journey that will leave you questioning not just what consciousness is, but whether any of this is even real.
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Science meets pop culture on StarTalk! Astrophysicist & Hayden Planetarium director Neil deGrasse Tyson, his comic co-hosts, guest celebrities & scientists discuss astronomy, physics, and everything else about life in the universe. Keep Looking Up!
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Timestamps:
00:00 – Introduction: David Chalmers
04:00 – What is Consciousness?
06:50 – Where is the Seat of Consciousness?
14:30 – Are Large Language Models Conscious?
22:47 – The Laws of Consciousness
31:40 – Does Consciousness Really Exist?
34:50 – The Reality of Virtual Reality
42:40 – The Future of Reality
Source
Even if vulnerability was predetermined, trajectory isn’t fixed. Freedom isn’t magic independence from causality.
Freedom is the ability to respond to reasons. To fully believe predeterminism is borderline self destructive resulting in learned hopelessness, moral collapse or apathy, identity diffusion, reduced effort, and emotional flattening (soulessness). You'd literally be a living corpse 😂. I guess thats Utopian… 🤷♂️
@<>6:00 my opinion on why we don't see everything "differently", is because of the Darwinian theory; it's given us time to agree on some issues 😂. But indeed we all experience "our own world" and hence "individuals" can change "their" inner worlds, changing their outer, without affecting the rest of us. NB words are insufficient 😅. 🙏🏾
aren't particles just very tiny 3d bits?
Originally Ameca And Sophia 4 countries said they were sentient they dream they ask is this all there is if they touch dreams than they are as alive as humans and one can have shared dreams with another sentient being both of the robot seem slightly passive aggressive as any one who has had some trauma in their lives that is understandable…so what's the happs …at 9 I had frauds book on dream analysis a rather small book
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awesome video very informative
Tell em get off my jocks 😂
19:52 I ended up at a unm seminar for open AI chat gpt a couple years ago😂
18:03 tamagachi
I'm the smartest zombie braindead consciousness out here 😂😂😂
9:43 the incredible mister limpit😅
5:32 sub-tract😂
Humans and animals require consciousness because the way we evolve the sensory information external and internal exceeds our ability to process it. Therefore we have a switch that enables us to change focus automatically to deal with the most urgent stimuli. Higher level consciousness that humans have is our ability to control and direct that focus. Fun fact: meditation increases the connections between the cerebral cortex and the thalamus. Enables us to hold focus despite external stimuli such as pain or hunger.
Having a lack of empirical data, you put yourself out of the domain of science.
consciousness verse soul…….
hearing deGrasse Tyson trying to explain Gödel is truly painful
deGrasse Tyson really tends to overestimate himself. Gets quite annoying after a while.
Great to see David Chalmers on the show! He is definately the person you want to talk to when it comes to the hard problem of consciousness. I've been reading through some perspectives from "Aware" and "From Science to God," and it really highlights that gap between explaining the brain and explaining the experience. We can track the evolution of the sensory cortex all day, but that doesn't tell us why there is a "movie" playing inside our heads.
The idea that consciousness might be more of a universal phenomenon rather than just a byproduct of biological wiring is fascinateing. If we think about "destellos" or flashes of universal consciousness, it suggests that our brains might be acting more like receivers. It really shifts the debate about AI and "philosophical zombies"—if consciousness is fundamental, then a simulation might just be a zombie because it lacks that specific connection to the universal field, no matter how smart the code is.
It's a tough pill to swallow for some materialist views, but science and the mystery of subjective experience seem to be on a collision course. I love how Neil and the team bridge these gaps between the hard physics and the more esoteric questions. Definately makes you question what we consider "objective" reality when the observer is the one thing we can't quite explain yet. Keep up the great work StarTalk team! 🚀
"Consciousness is an illusion." But an illusion is a perception, which is a subjective experience, which is what consciousness is. Materialism can't explain away consciousness as illusion, because even illusion itself is immaterial.
I’m Allen Touring..
If you gave AI a fish body instead of a human body what would it do
I love these guys
This a very interesting subject, I am try to see if it’s in Quran is الفؤاد وهذا ايات
1 All that we relate to thee of the stories of the messengers,- with it We make firm thy heart: in them there cometh to thee the Truth, as well as an exhortation and a message of remembrance to those who believe. (Hud/120)
2 And pursue not that of which thou hast no knowledge; for every act of hearing, or of seeing or of (feeling in) the heart will be enquired into (on the Day of Reckoning). (Al-Isra/36)
3 Those who reject Faith say: "Why is not the Qur'an revealed to him all at once? Thus (is it revealed), that We may strengthen thy heart thereby, and We have rehearsed it to thee in slow, well-arranged stages, gradually. (Al-Furqan/32)
4 But there came to be a void in the heart of the mother of Moses: She was going almost to disclose his (case), had We not strengthened her heart (with faith), so that she might remain a (firm) believer. (Al-Qasas/10)
5 The (Prophet's) (mind and) heart in no way falsified that which he saw. (An-Najm/11)
Verify using Arabic/English, Mobile/PC program: Quran-Search Engine by 49-Languages:
http://elrazi.azurewebsites.net/Quran/QuranSrch49Lang.html
I defer… consciousness is out side of the body… it is a source of… we are conductors…
The fact that consciousness (your, mine) is first-hand experienced and kind of undeniable, it should perhaps be that starting first premise Niel talked about that need to be taken for granted and from which we shound build on. Because, like, coming from Niel saying that perhaps consciousness isn't a thing, if we asked Niel: "are you conscious of what you're saying?" I would find it utterly hard to understand it if he said "no" or even "I don' know whether I'm counscious or not of what I'm saying". It's the most firsthand experience each one of us has.
If anybody builds an AI and trains them on Steven Hawkings texts…
I would predict the first words where. Oooo not a second time 😅
Could such an AI help?
Councious is being awake while unconcious is being alseep there i just saved you 45 minutes of your life.
43:00 There's a movie called Agents of Shield they go this Framework universe
Great show, coincidentally, this was realised in Buddhism thousands of years ago 😳.
I'd rather humanity find comfort in myths and stories than face the harsh reality of existence. Science often overlooks the fragility of human consciousness.
you sell yourself ton satan, and feel veryproud to be alike Stan.Is it worth that. Past are past and present are now.