Tags
consciousness, Ego-Tunnel, Metzinger, The Ego Tunnel: The Science of the Mind and the Myth of the Self, Thomas Metzinger, Virtual reality
Interesting talk; yet, its not helping me accomplish anything — so, as when Mr. Spock said “Interesting” he probably meant, “I’m not going to say anything more about this.” That’s what I mean too.
We can all try some of the experiments at home though… let me know if this makes you doubt self is real — really.
Program Description
Brain, bodily awareness, and the emergence of a conscious self: these entities and their relations are explored by German philosopher and cognitive scientist Thomas Metzinger. Extensively working with neuroscientists he has come to the conclusion that, in fact, there is no such thing as a “self” — that a “self” is simply the content of a model created by our brain – part of a virtual reality we create for ourselves.
At TEDxRheinMain 2011 he shares thoughts on consciousness and the self and talk about the concept of the Ego-Tunnel.
But if the self is not “real,” he asks, why and how did it evolve? How does the brain construct the self? In a series of fascinating virtual reality experiments, Metzinger and his colleagues attempted to create so-called “out-of-body experiences” in the lab. As a philosopher, he offers a discussion of many of the latest results in robotics, neuroscience, dream and meditation research, and argues that the brain is much more powerful than we have ever imagined. He shows us, for example, that we now have the first machines that have developed an inner image of their own body — and actually use this model to create intelligent behavior.
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Thanks for visiting,
Eric
[I’m thinking I’m most likely not going to get many views of this one.]
Related articles
- The Death Illusion (emptinesscafe.wordpress.com)
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the Hunt for Truth 
Now that is the most cerebral post I have ever read! But was it I, who really read it? LOL! That is some deep stuff right there.
Did someone say something?
I heard it as well. I dont feel as if I have spoken. A machine likely is to blame….. hahahahahaha This guy Metzinger reels me out a bit!
1) If a heart stops beating and there is no blood pumping to the brain, then after about 10 seconds all brain activity is ceased. That was normally time to declare the official death. As many as 20% of people who are brought back to life after a few minutes to in some cases perhaps an hour may report consciousness activities — being able to hear/see what was happening as if they were floating in the room. We are not the body..
2) being not the body then what Metzinger describes is not relevant.
3) Try this: Stand and look into a mirror every day for a about one hour. In a few days or maybe a few weeks, you will suddenly notice that the mirror is empty.
Thomas Metzinger calls up some questioning of perceptions — its all good really. He is like a machine man — and I suppose that’s why I posted his video. We cannot fathom this stuff unaided.
However, we may prove to our satisfactionthat what we perceive is based on senses that cannot perceive what is real — senses that fill in what the brain calls for from the possible realities that it knows about — to find — form in matter that makes sense to the person (many copies of the person) and may also probably have to be in some sort of sync with all of the other dimensions that contribute to the being in now.
The senses create illusions because the brain works with copies of reality. Even personalities can be created as needed and when threatened in traumatic situations, the nervous system will signal a need to select one that is already formed and ready for use. I’ve posted some simple illusions here in the past. More complex illusions surround us. Is space-time huge as we perceive it to be or is space-time really-really tiny — smaller than a subatomic particle?
I’d post more on this — as you can see it won’t be viewed though by many followers — so I don’t really have much motivation to pursue this much.
Here is more on how perceptions of reality occur