This is fantastic content. Consciousness is such a rich topic, and a favorite of mine for contemplation. I'm a person of deep faith, a Reiki healer and ordained clergy of nearly 20 years, and I enjoy quiet mysticism.
But I'm also geeky, and love hard science, as it helps us better understand.
Curt, we need much more of Iain McGilchrist on your channel! His philosophy, in my view, edges closer to the 'Truth' than any other I’ve encountered, and I’m excited to see him on your show again. I owe him a profound debt of gratitude; his insights provided the depth and perspective I needed to develop and publish what I believe is a compelling contender for a 'Theory of Everything'—or as I prefer to call it, the 'Story of Everything.'
In today’s scientific climate, we often hear that 'all the low-hanging fruit has been picked,' a phrase used to almost downplay the accomplishments of earlier scientists while rationalizing the lack of recent, transformative discoveries. But I’d argue that while the reachable fruit may indeed be gone from that particular orchard, Iain McGilchrist revealed an entirely new, untouched orchard to me—a space for exploration beyond the usual scientific paradigms. Thanks to his work, I went picking, and now my mind and spirit are nourished in ways I couldn’t have imagined. Even if my conclusions are ultimately proven wrong, I’m grateful to Iain for awakening my right hemisphere, rekindling my creativity, and helping me see the world through a fresh lens.
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Modern scientific discourse, where physics and philosophy often settle into mechanistic interpretations, finds a refreshing contrast in Iain’s work. His perspective is deeply human, even poetic—a reminder of the dimensions we risk overlooking in our quest for knowledge.
On Buddhism. I think you refer to fake westernized Buddhism. It is pretty horrific and reactionary, denying the self — a privilege only rich ℭ𝔘𝔑𝔗𝔰 can afford to parrot. True Buddhism, as I humbly and imperfectly understand, is to not be selfish. That is the meaning of "no self". It is an incredibly difficult spiritual virtue to master while not denying the individuality of each soul and our interconnectedness. Maybe none ever do master this virtue of utter selflessness and entering the metaphorical 'Valley of True Poverty and Absolute Nothingness' — the "last stage" of the wayfarers journey in Sufi philosophy, which is why it is important, because few ever gain such detachment while still fully caring for others. But the world would be a far better place if we all did, or even just if a few more did. justmy2cents.
Curt you are brilliant and obviously on a noble quest to understand the world you live in, however ...
Consciousness is just the constant monitoring of all our sensorial inputs (and comparing these inputs with past memories) and ... all of this is possible because the fundamental unit of memory (the two-unit clock of opposite spin, up/down quark, electron/positron pair, call it what you will) has the ability to observe (i.e. interacts causally with its local environment).
All of these mumbo jumbo theories will only serve to confuse the general population. Consciousness is not a mystery and neither is the I of subjective experience, once you realize that the fundamental unit of memory has exactly the features needed to generate these physical properties.
All these are not the same - some are design and others are implementation - and from the perspective of a solutions architect and software engineer I assure you these are NOT the same “thing” , a single design can have multiple implementations thus it’s unclear to the extent that these are really “competing” theories.
@24:50 I've long since found GEB to be a little immature and juvenile, but an awesome fun work of art, one of my favourites too, like top ten. Hofstadter's "Le Ton beau de Marot" is a far superior work to GEB, imho.
On consciousness, Chalmers' "The Conscious Mind" is perhaps too nerdy, but is still by far the best book on consciousness, beats GEB hands down. GEB does not even address qualia one way or the other, so is lame. Beautiful lame it must be said, the most beautiful. If anyone has done better than Chalmers let me know, but don't write "I am a Strange Loop" — which is nerdy cool... again, but again lame and ultimately empty.
If you really want seriously beautiful wisdom, beyond the academic enclosures, then I'd recommend the letter to a Sufi, "The Seven Valleys and the Four Valleys" — it is the greatest practical and illuminating work of metaphysics I've ever read.
I always find Chalmers to be by far the least insane.... among a pantheon of insanity. (That includes myself.)
This Iceberg is a great one, because it shows us there really is no science of consciousness to speak of, the whole concept there even could be a science of consciousness is thoroughly questionable. Most of these attempts just assert some unverifiable model, and almost all of them ignore subjective qualia, even Penrose, he and Stuart have absolutely zero account of subjective qualia, Penrose just mumbles something about platonics (which is fine, but it is no account).
Chalmers does not have qualia either, but admits qualia is "something". All theories are highly diseased. Except maybe panpsychism because it is not even a theory, it is a joke — if an electron has proto-mind then the word "mind" is meaningless. It tells you something when panpsychism can be taken seriously. It tells you no one has any gdamn clue about this — obviously more than a mere "process" — that we call thought.
The thing about panpsychism that could be true is that all things have a common unique universal source. But that's about it. You cannot call this thing a universal Mind and declare victory, because you have no idea what "Mind" is! You can call It universal Mind, and then admit you have faith in it being a sort of Divine Absolute, but then I am afraid Wittengenstein in non-stupid mode is begging you to shut up about it.
Super fascinating! I love the background music…adds a nice fluent vibe to your delivery of complex information kind of bridging a perfect balance between the logical and the artistic mind. 😎
This is fantastic content. Consciousness is such a rich topic, and a favorite of mine for contemplation. I'm a person of deep faith, a Reiki healer and ordained clergy of nearly 20 years, and I enjoy quiet mysticism.
But I'm also geeky, and love hard science, as it helps us better understand.
I'm personally a fan of Panpsychism, as a theory.
Wikipedia:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panpsychism
Curt, we need much more of Iain McGilchrist on your channel! His philosophy, in my view, edges closer to the 'Truth' than any other I’ve encountered, and I’m excited to see him on your show again. I owe him a profound debt of gratitude; his insights provided the depth and perspective I needed to develop and publish what I believe is a compelling contender for a 'Theory of Everything'—or as I prefer to call it, the 'Story of Everything.'
In today’s scientific climate, we often hear that 'all the low-hanging fruit has been picked,' a phrase used to almost downplay the accomplishments of earlier scientists while rationalizing the lack of recent, transformative discoveries. But I’d argue that while the reachable fruit may indeed be gone from that particular orchard, Iain McGilchrist revealed an entirely new, untouched orchard to me—a space for exploration beyond the usual scientific paradigms. Thanks to his work, I went picking, and now my mind and spirit are nourished in ways I couldn’t have imagined. Even if my conclusions are ultimately proven wrong, I’m grateful to Iain for awakening my right hemisphere, rekindling my creativity, and helping me see the world through a fresh lens.
---
Modern scientific discourse, where physics and philosophy often settle into mechanistic interpretations, finds a refreshing contrast in Iain’s work. His perspective is deeply human, even poetic—a reminder of the dimensions we risk overlooking in our quest for knowledge.
On Buddhism. I think you refer to fake westernized Buddhism. It is pretty horrific and reactionary, denying the self — a privilege only rich ℭ𝔘𝔑𝔗𝔰 can afford to parrot. True Buddhism, as I humbly and imperfectly understand, is to not be selfish. That is the meaning of "no self". It is an incredibly difficult spiritual virtue to master while not denying the individuality of each soul and our interconnectedness. Maybe none ever do master this virtue of utter selflessness and entering the metaphorical 'Valley of True Poverty and Absolute Nothingness' — the "last stage" of the wayfarers journey in Sufi philosophy, which is why it is important, because few ever gain such detachment while still fully caring for others. But the world would be a far better place if we all did, or even just if a few more did. justmy2cents.
Curt you are brilliant and obviously on a noble quest to understand the world you live in, however ...
Consciousness is just the constant monitoring of all our sensorial inputs (and comparing these inputs with past memories) and ... all of this is possible because the fundamental unit of memory (the two-unit clock of opposite spin, up/down quark, electron/positron pair, call it what you will) has the ability to observe (i.e. interacts causally with its local environment).
All of these mumbo jumbo theories will only serve to confuse the general population. Consciousness is not a mystery and neither is the I of subjective experience, once you realize that the fundamental unit of memory has exactly the features needed to generate these physical properties.
GL
All these are not the same - some are design and others are implementation - and from the perspective of a solutions architect and software engineer I assure you these are NOT the same “thing” , a single design can have multiple implementations thus it’s unclear to the extent that these are really “competing” theories.
@24:50 I've long since found GEB to be a little immature and juvenile, but an awesome fun work of art, one of my favourites too, like top ten. Hofstadter's "Le Ton beau de Marot" is a far superior work to GEB, imho.
On consciousness, Chalmers' "The Conscious Mind" is perhaps too nerdy, but is still by far the best book on consciousness, beats GEB hands down. GEB does not even address qualia one way or the other, so is lame. Beautiful lame it must be said, the most beautiful. If anyone has done better than Chalmers let me know, but don't write "I am a Strange Loop" — which is nerdy cool... again, but again lame and ultimately empty.
If you really want seriously beautiful wisdom, beyond the academic enclosures, then I'd recommend the letter to a Sufi, "The Seven Valleys and the Four Valleys" — it is the greatest practical and illuminating work of metaphysics I've ever read.
I always find Chalmers to be by far the least insane.... among a pantheon of insanity. (That includes myself.)
This Iceberg is a great one, because it shows us there really is no science of consciousness to speak of, the whole concept there even could be a science of consciousness is thoroughly questionable. Most of these attempts just assert some unverifiable model, and almost all of them ignore subjective qualia, even Penrose, he and Stuart have absolutely zero account of subjective qualia, Penrose just mumbles something about platonics (which is fine, but it is no account).
Chalmers does not have qualia either, but admits qualia is "something". All theories are highly diseased. Except maybe panpsychism because it is not even a theory, it is a joke — if an electron has proto-mind then the word "mind" is meaningless. It tells you something when panpsychism can be taken seriously. It tells you no one has any gdamn clue about this — obviously more than a mere "process" — that we call thought.
The thing about panpsychism that could be true is that all things have a common unique universal source. But that's about it. You cannot call this thing a universal Mind and declare victory, because you have no idea what "Mind" is! You can call It universal Mind, and then admit you have faith in it being a sort of Divine Absolute, but then I am afraid Wittengenstein in non-stupid mode is begging you to shut up about it.
Super fascinating! I love the background music…adds a nice fluent vibe to your delivery of complex information kind of bridging a perfect balance between the logical and the artistic mind. 😎