You Probably are Not Sentient

Embark on a deep exploration of the nature of consciousness, self, and the human experience in this thought-provoking video. We dissect the intriguing notion of consciousness as an emergent property of a memory compression system, comparing the mind to a building security system with diverse inputs. Our dialogue delves into how consciousness could influence automatic responses, the deceptive role of consciousness as a 'lying historian', and the perplexing interplay of actions, conscious awareness, and free will.

We challenge common assumptions about universal human experiences, shedding light on the absence of an internal monologue or mental imagery in many individuals. We probe into the role of language and narrative in shaping emotions, and how understanding our mental processes can foster improved interpersonal relationships.

Part of the conversation focuses on the potential decline in IQ due to genetic markers, the role of language acquisition in the development of consciousness in children, and how narrative building might be detrimental. There's a look at the future of humanity, discussing how integration with technology could enhance human experience and our consciousness's susceptibility to modeling others' behaviors and emotions.

The final segment delves into anthropomorphism, artificial intelligence, and our emotional reactions to robots. We share personal experiences with academia, independent research, mental health, the autism-schizophrenia spectrum, and our personal lives and relationship. Join us in this captivating dialogue that blends philosophy, neuroscience, technology, and personal reflections.

Second Summary:
The conversation between Malcolm and Simone explores the idea of consciousness, human autopilot, and sentience. They delve into the concept of "road hypnosis", a state in which people perform actions on autopilot, unaware of their activities. They argue that much of our lives is spent in this state, with brief periods of lucidity enabling changes in our automatic behaviors.

They then move on to discussing consciousness as an emergent property of a memory compression system. By comparing the mind to a building security system with various inputs, they explain that our consciousness is a synthesis of sensory inputs compressed into a unified memory. This memory can influence automatic responses, but the current experience of consciousness is passively observing rather than driving actions.

They go on to discuss experiments with open brain surgery, split brain patients, and deceptive stimulus, all of which illustrate that our perceived consciousness often wrongly attributes causality to its decisions. This misunderstanding is likened to a "lying historian" in our heads, recounting past decisions with an illusory sense of control.

The conversation wraps up with a consideration of free will, emphasizing that while actions often precede conscious awareness, we still retain the ability to color our perception of reality. The speakers theorize that this conscious perception is likely an evolutionarily advantageous compression algorithm for communicating linear experiences over time. This concept challenges the idea of singular identity, pointing instead to our brains functioning as separate instances, similar to AIs.

[pettergasstrom]

I love that Simone is all Ash from alien "I admire its purity"

[iarebrown]

Hello, I came from Ed Dutton's podcast. So send him some love next time you see him :)

You guys talked about people who have thoughts and ideas and that some people are able to identify the origin of those thoughts. While most people have thoughts appear in their minds and have no idea where they come from.

I want to extend this idea further about the kinds of thoughts that people have on their day-to-day lives. I've been cataloging different types of "consciousness" for some years now (not sure if consciousness is the right word, maybe "daydreaming" is a better word). But some people spend their days and nights imagining all different types of things (although I know more people who just waste their time away watching the tv without thinking about anything at all). Anyways, here's a short list of things people fill their time imagining. Most of these are from my own experiences:

- Imaginary personas: being able to accurately recreate a persona and have a conversation with it. Malcolm, for example, imagines conversations in his head by building the persona of the person inside his head. I've been doing the same thing since I was very young. Now at this age, most conversations go in the way I imagine them to if I've practiced them before hand. Christopher Hitchens admits he imagines debates in his head and debates from both sides of an idea until one wins - which he credits for the source of his debating skills.
- Spatial imagination: being able to imagine spaces in one's mind. Nicola Tesla was famous for being able to invent things in his head. I can make objects in my mind and rotate them in order to get a better view of it. This helped me in organic chemistry when I had to imagine how molecules interact in the third dimension. It helps that I can rotate several molecules to watch the reaction. But this is very straining for me and I can't see/recreate too complex of a reaction in my mind. I can simulate at most 2 molecules and watch one reaction - while I'm sure some biochemist can accurately imagine more complex reactions in their mind. Some people do nothing but build things in their heads and test them out in the real world.
- Predatory thoughts. Growing up as an immigrant in Canada, I have been exposed to numerous impoverished and volatile families. Among the boys I encountered, there was a prevailing mindset focused on finding quick opportunities to make money, whether through theft or selling insignificant items. Their thoughts were constantly occupied with exploiting their surroundings. These individuals would wake up each morning with the intention of identifying buildings with low security to spray paint during the night or seeking out things to steal and later sell. Their mindset was dominated by seeking out vulnerabilities to exploit for personal gain.
- Sexual thoughts: I was a late bloomer, so I didn't understand people who thought about sex ALL THE TIME. Well now I do. As a man, I am often plagued with thoughts about sex - even when I'm trying to focus on something productive. One extreme example are people known as "coomers" (lol).
- Exploitative thoughts: In my experience in the corporate world, I observed managers intentionally overworking and complicating processes to justify their importance, which unfortunately leads to unnecessary expenses and inefficiencies for the company. Similarly, during my time as a scientist, I witnessed numerous instances of scientists engaging in manipulative tactics to secure more funding or advance their careers, often at the expense of genuine scientific exploration and discovery. Many individuals in the field of biology, who originally aspired to be medical doctors but did not succeed, exhibit high conscientiousness, competitiveness, and a drive for career success without possessing the curiosity or ethical values typically associated with scientific pursuits. These failed med students who become scientists is the reason I left my previous career as a neuroscientist.
- Intrusive thoughts: Some people I've talked to have intrusive thoughts of finding vulnerabilities in people and exploiting it. They often blackmail, guilt trip emotionally vulnerable people. Some people are predators and their imagination is filled with intrusive thoughts about hurting people.
- commiseration: My woke friends have a tendency to constantly compare themselves to others, particularly in terms of who has more or less than they do. This mindset leads them to distance themselves from those who are doing well and unintentionally harm their relationships. On the other hand, they tend to attract and maintain connections with individuals who are not thriving in their lives. They look at everything with the lens of oppression. They can't make sense of the world without it. All they think about is how they're being oppressed. They are some of the most mentally unstable people I know. I have long given up on helping these people because it's such an unsurmountable challenge. Although I have to admit, the sex was often interesting and fun (I did this when I was younger. I'm 33 now, and the same people just gross me out).

Lastly, I have a friend who is a Zen Buddhist monk, and he doesn't think about anything. Not about: money, sex, status, attention, affection, nothing. He eats if he's hungry. He sleeps when he's tired. He walks if he's bored. He doesn't work and lives frugally (he's retired at age 47). He tries to see everything objectively and reacts day to day. He's an extreme example of someone who tries to purge all thoughts from his mind. On the surface it seems successful - but he's struggling with real demons deep down. I don't think it's possible to purge all of one's consciousness.

[AshAndCream]

I'm only 5 miutes in, but what I find most amusing about this is that if it is true, upon realizing it to be true, the best outcome seems to be to not care that it is true.

[joem]

I think we try to mentally automate as much as we can so there's enough mental bandwidth for novel situations which may be stressful or dangerous. That's why developing good habits is important e.g. wear your seat belt, look before crossing the street, don't forget to brush your teeth

[againstjebelallawz]

"More human than human is our motto".

[AshAndCream]

Mindfulness exercises taught by Sam Harris helped me escape a lot of my road hypnosis in life.

[x-mess]

Dear Simone, i agree.. Our bodies are a gift! Through it we experience love... the rush of anticipation of holding our loved ones, sensing their warmth, loving other flawed humans and forgiving being forgiven in order to continue connection. Also the ""fun"" of discovering and learning new things together.. ❤

[nat_the_gray]

Just came here because I heard there were two developmentally disabled people championing eugenics on this YouTube channel. Not disappointed, this is the best comedy podcast I've found in years.

[filmjazz]

About the internal monologue question: Malcolm seemed surprised that a high percentage of people don't have an internal monologue, as if this indicates that they are somehow less conscious than those who do. I had an internal monologue as a child but then as I got older I decided to quiet it forever, and now I only have it if I need to process an idea with words. The rest of the time I have music, rhythms, or a relative silence. The internal monologue is a Voice that we need to control and not let get out of hand. Those who have not trained it and tamed it are likely to suffer negative psychological consequences from it. This topic is difficult to summarize in a comment, but simply put the "internal monologue" is kind of an asshole.

[Investigativebean]

Presuming that we all have impulse control, and we do not. Social mirroring is part of our development too. I think empathy helps us pay attention to what is happening around us. To our fellow humans. Our empathy is triggered by certain anatomical changes too. Facial expression and biochemistry even.

[alexreeve]

Descartes: “I think therefore I am.”
Malcolm: “Hold on there person of Frenchness.”

[naturalisted]

I've been considering the idea that there may actually be _some_ people born without any conscious experience, or any experience at all. That they are actually just like a robot, and there's nothing that it's _like_ to be that person. No subjective experience. I think about this because there are people born without internal monologues, without skin pigmentation, without vision or hearing, and there's a very wide verity of people born without things. There's even been people born without eyes. So is it really out of the question that there may exist some without experience itself? Philosophers play with the idea of "philosophical zombies", asking if everyone but themselves doesn't have subjective experience, and they're the only one with subjective experience in the universe... But is it really far fetched that some people like this really do exist? As the kids call it "NPCs" (Non-Playable Characters)...

[benjaminhansen]

Hi. New subscriber. I've been working through your videos. I'm really enjoying them. You're both really bright and intellectually fearless to a rare degree. With regard to this episode - Any thoughts on Aaron Schurger's thesis that the Bereitschaftspotential doesn't disprove free will? Also, do you an opinion on the hard problem of consciousness and responses to it such as Phillip Goff's promotion of panpsychism or Bernado Kastrup's idealism?

[Winterascent]

I can't remember most of my life. I don't know why I made a lot of the choices I did over my life. Pretending that it is important to constantly think about what is mostly unimportant is silly.

[Investigativebean]

I spend way too much time in auto pilot. It takes a conscious effort every day all day long to check in with myself. Time flies too quickly not to stop and appreciate the accomplishments. Even appreciate the ambiance. Wasps are sentient. They will bypass human faces to get on specific face they have memorized. It’s more attention than I pay to face typically. Dogs read human facial expressions better than humans do.

[ItsameAlex]

Malcolm Collins - Jason Reza Jorjani is a collaboration that needs to happen

[elienops]

I've always been told I have autistic traits, but I too recognize simulating past & potential conversations with others all the time (sometimes makes it weird or stressful to interact with a person I've been disproportionately simulating though), including the pang of cringe at recalled past misunderstandings (I really wish to one day meet someone with whom I can just go back at any moment to any time in our conversation history and resume the conversation from there or edit/update things without waiting for a moment to occur in which it makes sense to the other person for me to bring up the thing I've been thinking about again and I can do so inbetween things without repercussions). Or I can recall a whole conversation that the other totally forgot, but not remember their name. I remember on several occasions people modeling me as autistic in ways I thought were inaccurate. I do probably suck at modeling people in real-time, more so when tired, when I perceive myself acting autistic and perceive others perceiving me doing so making me even more anxious and tired. Also, I'm sometimes accused of lacking emotions that I do experience but choose to take distance from so I don't always express them in ways that are expected.

[daveulmer]

Humans are Intelligent Systems governed by knowledge in ten contexts. The ten contexts are Name, Authors, Purpose, Environment, Language, Configuration, Operation, Owners, Market, Value. You can edit the knowledge in these contexts to change your life.

[againstjebelallawz]

Since you are a neuroscientist, I would like to ask you this: what role does the heartbrain play in our minds?

[Investigativebean]

Anxiety and adrenaline increase dopamine, and dopamine triggers a reward or punishment for that chosen reaction. It’s synapse but also hormonal. I think sentience is more an illusion brought on by executive functioning reflexes really.