Episode 176: Split-Brains and the (Dis)Unity of Consciousness
Very Bad Wizards
Tamler Sommers & David Pizarro
4.8 • 3K Ratings
🗓️ 12 November 2019
⏱️ 108 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
David and Tamler discuss famous 'split brain' experiments pioneered by Roger Sperry and Michael Gazzaniga. What happens when you cut off the main line of communication between the left and right hemispheres of our brain? Why under certain conditions do the the left and right brains seem like they have different abilities and desires? What does this tell us about the 'self'? Do we have two consciousnesses, but only that can speak? Does the left brain bully the right brain? Are we all just a bundle of different consciousnesses with their own agendas? Thanks to our Patreon supporters for suggesting and voting for this fascinating topic!
Plus, physicists may be able to determine whether we're living in a computer simulation – but is it too dangerous to try to find out?
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Links:
- Opinion | Are We Living in a Computer Simulation? Let's Not Find Out - The New York Times
- Physicists find we're not living in a computer simulation | Cosmos
- Nagel, T. (1971). Brain bisection and the unity of consciousness. /Synthese/, /22/(3), 396-413.
- CGP Grey video - You Are Two
- Split brains - Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy
- Gazzaniga, M. S. (1995). Principles of human brain organization derived from split-brain studies. /Neuron/, /14/(2), 217-228.
- Split brain: divided perception but undivided consciousness | Brain | Oxford Academic
- Interaction in isolation: 50 years of insights from split-brain research | Brain | Oxford Academic
- Dennett, D. C. (2014). The self as the center of narrative gravity. In /Self and consciousness/ (pp. 111-123). Psychology Press.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Very bad wizards is a podcast with a philosopher, my dad, and a psychologist, Dave Pizarro, |
| 0:05.9 | having an informal discussion about issues and signs and ethics. |
| 0:09.3 | Please note that the discussion contains bad words that I'm not allowed to say, |
| 0:13.6 | and knowing my dad some very inappropriate jokes. |
| 0:17.0 | Money just perverts everything. |
| 0:19.5 | At this point I could stand to be a little perverted. |
| 0:30.3 | We do our attention to that man behind the curtain. |
| 0:38.8 | Who are you? |
| 0:40.9 | Who are you? |
| 0:42.5 | I'm very bad man. |
| 0:43.9 | I'm a very good man. |
| 0:45.5 | Good man. |
| 0:50.0 | They think he's lost, and we know who brings the new apps. |
| 0:54.0 | We do our attention to that man. |
| 1:00.0 | Anybody can have a brain. |
| 1:04.0 | You're a very bad man. |
| 1:06.5 | You're a very good man. |
| 1:08.3 | Just a very bad wizard. |
| 1:11.3 | Welcome to very bad wizards. |
| 1:12.8 | I'm Tamler Summers from the University of Houston. |
| 1:15.6 | Dave, Barack Obama said that woke people confused, |
| 1:19.4 | trashing someone on Twitter with real social activism and change. |
... |
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