Through the Doors of Perception

The Infinite Monkey Cage

BBC

Comedy, Science

4.7 • 9.4K Ratings

🗓️ 25 November 2013

⏱️ 41 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

This week, Brian Cox and Robin Ince attempt to walk through the doors of perception. On the way, they'll encounter the nature of consciousness, the secret messages hidden in pop songs, the problem of objectivity (it's subjective) and how time appears to warp. This week's guests are psychologist and presenter of Radio 4's All in the Mind, Claudia Hammond, Neuroscientist Beau Lotto and the writer Alan Moore. Producer: Rami Tzabar.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello, I'm Robert Ents.
0:01.2	And I'm Brian Cox.
0:02.2	And welcome to the podcast version of the Infinite Monkey Cage,
0:05.3	which contains extra material that wasn't considered good enough for the radio.
0:09.1	Enjoy it.
0:10.0	Welcome to the Infinite Monkey Cage, I'm Robert Ents.
0:11.8	And I'm Brian Cox.
0:12.6	This week we are going to be looking at how we perceive the world.
0:15.2	Is it possible to experience all the world's reality
0:17.6	or are we living an illusion?
0:19.2	Just as the philosopher Thomas Naval wrote that we are unable to know what it is like to be a bat,
0:23.4	can we really know what it's like to be another human being beyond ourself?
0:26.8	What of how we experience time?
0:28.5	Einstein said, put your hand on a hot stove for a minute and it seems like an hour,
0:32.8	yet an hour with a beautiful woman seems like a minute,
0:35.5	which is why I spent much of his research budget on trying to build a girlfriend out of kettles.
0:41.4	Also, to be honest, who managed to spend a minute with their hand on a hot stove?
0:45.0	I think that Einstein might have been overrated.
0:48.0	I think it's making me feel out, but I'm not sure yet.
0:51.6	So anyway, Brian, I have to ask you to begin with as the most rational on the show always,
0:57.2	is it really possible to know reality?
0:58.9	Is the idea of a single reality ludicrous?
	...

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