Leonard Mlodinow - Powers of the Subconscious

How significant is the subconscious? Though Freudian psychology is mostly discredited, most of our mental activity is indeed subconscious. Think about walking, engaging hundreds of muscles in exquisitely orchestrated coordination without thinking how and when to contract each muscle. The subconscious is playing a major role in everything we do.



Leonard Mlodinow is a theoretical physicist and author, recognized for groundbreaking discoveries in physics, and as the author of five best-selling books.


Closer to Truth presents the world’s greatest thinkers exploring humanity’s deepest questions. Discover fundamental issues of existence. Engage new and diverse ways of thinking. Appreciate intense debates. Share your own opinions. Seek your own answers.

[rcnhsuailsnyfiue]

This looks like Lawrence interviewing his younger self. Uncanny!

[torbjrnsivertstl]

In the embryonic stage (early fetal stage) there is an abundance of nerve cells and synapses, so it seems like a competition between them to survive, those who are most in use survive, others die. Later in life, the nervous system is remodulated in response to its own activity. It is called neuron plasticity. The neurons make contact through the synapses, if there is a lot of activity through the synapse, the presynaptic neuron will make additional axon terminals (like making more lanes leading into a highway) and/or more receptors/channels for neurotransmitters (glutamate) in the synapse. If there is little activity, on the contrary it is reduced and the contact can be broken. This is considered to be the physiological basis of memory.
"Afferent neuron" gives signals to the brain. "Efferent neuron" sends signals from the brain, through the motor system to control skeletal muscles (so we control it on purpose) and through the autonomous system, it works automatically. The autonomous system is divided into three parts. 1. The enteric division the signal goes to the hormone glands. 2. The parasympathetic nervous system goes directly from the brain stem and out into the body, it gives orders of the character "fight or flight". 3. The sympathetic division goes through the spinal cord and out into the body and the order has the character "rest and digest". In 2&3 pregangliolic neurons lead to synaptic stations called ganglia, post-gangliolic neuron carry the order further to the muscles, smooth muscles, since it is automatic. The neurotransmitter is acetylcholine except for post-cangliolic neurons in the sympathetic division, where it is norepinephrine (norepinephrine). This is what causes the effect on the muscles to be the opposite.
Then we can say that information is coded by neurones and hormones. But there are only a few kinds of them. The point is the effect from the body when they are sent and the body when they are received.

[jeancorriveau]

Our brain causes our emotions. Since we may not be aware of the origin (since it's subconscious), we can't hastily conclude that the person is responsible for having had that emotion. Our responsibility is limited to what to do with the emotion we have. That, in turn, may train our subconscious to improve its responsiveness.

[AtAtFB]

Freud wrote an excellent essay titled "Remembering, repeating, and working- through" -- how I think about the subconscious

[mutexnet]

Excellent episode. Please bring Mr. Mlodinow back sometime for a longer interview. Thanks.

[Bill-jcfy]

I read Dr Mlodinow's book on this subject several times and found it to be one of the most interesting books I've ever read.
If you're interested in this in this topic, you should definitely pick up a copy

[torbjrnsivertstl]

But have they forgotten neuroplasticity, that the nerves make contacts through synapses and expand contact as needed? We learn in this way and what we learn depends to some extent on what we choose to learn. And then we may now wonder if humans are able to appreciate themselves more than computers, what may make us appreciate ourselves and each other more than machines?
The nerve thread (axon) sends an electrical impulse, no more coding than that. Through a synapse, it can be passed on to another nerve cell. Some of the synapses are electrical, ion passes through a narrow channel to the next nerve cell. Others are chemical, neurotransmitters are sent over the synaptic cleft, they bind to protein on the post-synapse, these proteins are pores and the neurotransmitter becomes crucial for whether or not they should open up, which then affects whether or not the postsynaptic nerve cell should pass the signal on.
A cell has protein that is ion channels in the cell wall, they are selective, so there will be more Na+ outside the cell and more K+ inside the cell. The sodium-potassium channel emits three Na+ out for each time it sends two K+ in, so the cell becomes negative inside and positive externally. Repeated channels come into play, but the result is a voltage of 60-80 mV above the cell wall.
What is special about a nerve cell is that it is stimulated to send electrical pulses, by receiving signals from other nerve cells, the sensory neurons are stimulated through the senses. The nerve cell has small treads called dendrites and synapses, where it gets voltage differences over the cell wall that is collected in a funnel (axon hillock), where it is decided whether to send such an electric pulse through the nerve tread (axon). The pulse is a short-lived voltage of about 35mv is generated with the opposite sign, a voltage difference of about 90 mv, it is sent as an electric pulse through the axon.

[torbjrnsivertstl]

We benefit from being social, but in this corona-time people are more lonely and for many it is not so good. For some people it results in poor finances and financial depression can also contribute to mental depression. There is certainly a lot we can do to avoid becoming depressed, for example exercising, going for walks and keep ourselves in good physical shape.
There is a lot of memory in the body, even though we are not conscious of it. In the immune system, it can host memory cells that make us resistant to disease. If we are well trained, the muscle cells remember it, so it will be easier to become well trained again. They have found out a lot of what function different areas of the brain have, we have different kinds of memory in different parts of the brain. But it is still a mystery what consciousness is and how memory is coded.
What we choose to be concerned about and choice of friends is important. It affects the state of mind. We know that hormones are important for the state of mind and this is how many drugs work, but my point is that the state of mind also affects the hormones. And to a certain extent you can choose your state of mind.
If someone believes in something, is trained in it, hopes for it and invests in it and then it fails, then it is obvious that they become sad and it can turn into long-term depression. On a Good Friday, it may be appropriate to recall that when Jesus and his disciples were in Gethsemane, they were all sad. Jesus knew he was going to be executed. But God raised him up from the dead and that changes everything. The cross of Jesus tells of a death, but is still a life-giving and joyful message, because he rose from the dead. It gives us hope of eternal life and the glory of God and that hope does not disappoint us, because he gives us the water of life for free, by mere grace, without the requirement of any work. The love of God is poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who is given to us (Rom.5, 5).

[susanmaddison]

"Subconscious" is a better word for much of what is called "unconscious". Things like mental blocks. The conscious mind is aware of it, vaguely or indirectly, tiptoes around it so as to deal with it yet avoid bringing it into full conscious view. Denial of it is as purely "unconscious" serves as a form of denial of responsibility.

[theloveofreading]

Closer to truth - the only program to upload the same videos over and over again !!

[somethingyousaid]

It's in the unconscious part of your mind that you're honest with yourself. Brutally honest.

[rotorblade]

Subconsciousness does most of the things we are only aware of a small part of the process

[Dr.CandanEsin]

It is not possible to discuss conscious mind and unconscious one without subconsicous (preconscious as Freud named it). This is the area of psyche where unconscious psyche conveys its needs to conscious mind through automated behaviors, bodily reactions, images, sensations or dreams including day dreams.

[torbjrnsivertstl]

Apostle Paul also told us about the difference between the way to death and the way to life.
Rom.6, 20 When you were slaves to sin, you were free from the control of righteousness.
21 What benefit did you reap at that time from the things you are now ashamed of? Those things result in death!
22 But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life.
23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Since we have come to believe in Christ, we shall regard it as if we are crucified with him and in baptism we are buried with him, so that the old eval nature is dead and buried. So baptism symbolizes salvation like a few people were saved in Noah’s ark. It is a pledge and acknowledgement of good conscience toward God on the foundation of the resurrection of Christ. So it is important for us to say so, first of all to God, then to humans. So notice that it is not on the foundation on anything else but the resurrection of Christ, it is not based on what any human have done, neither us nor anyone else, but Christ, because God completed his work of salvation in him, by letting him die as a sacrifice for all our sin and then rose him from the dead.

[suryacoapy]

To be honest, a discussion about the unconscious without mentioning dreams is rather inadequate.

[torbjrnsivertstl]

The salvation is not based on anything we naturally experience in this world through our senses. But by turning to Christ in fait and call upon him as our savior and Lord, we experience that he gives us spirit and life from heaven, so that the Holy Spirit reveals him for us as our savior and Lord. He gives life to our soul and Spirit in our heart and body, so that the soul lives in the spirit in the body, so that the spirit rules in our body, this life rules over the biological life. In this way we become independent and free.

2.Corinth.3, 17 Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.
18 And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.

In this way we become sovereign over the physical nature, so that real sciences is no problem to us, even though it becomes hard to understand and learn. But notice that he scientific methods in real sciences also makes us able to think independently. When we do a scientific experiment we observe what happens from outside, without interfering with it. What we learn this way may also make us able to do something more, by ruling over the physical nature, like living souls.
To use the results from real sciences against this is not appropriate then. If this is the aim of any kind of scientific research, it may be temptation like when the serpent said to the woman that if they ate from the tree of knowledge, they would become like God, to know good and bad. The aim is to search for an argument against living in society with God. In this way empiricism becomes temptation (Matt.18, 5-10). In this way the gentiles tramples on the holy place. This is stupidity, but real science is not that stupid, it has rationality.

[torbjrnsivertstl]

Diencephalon with its hormone glands is the central part of the brain at the top of the brainstem. It consists of the thalamus and hypothalamus, at the back lies the pineal gland and at the front lies hypothalamus lies with the pituitary gland at the very front. The brain stem comes under this, the upper part is the midbrain, then comes the pons and at the bottom is the medulla oblongata. Medulla oblongata regulates breathing, heart, blood circulation and digestive system. Pons also takes part in this, it regulates breathing. Most of this is then automatic, it happens even if we sleep or if we should be unconscious.
So it seems like that the limbic system and the brain stem correspond to what in the literature is called the heart, because very much basic feelings we feel by heart.

[torbjrnsivertstl]

In an experiment with single-celled animals (like amoeba) they put out poison at one location and food at another. Then the colony learned it, so that they moved just to the food, not to the poison. It showed that it had memory. Living cells in our body may also have memory then. Nerve cells send electrical signals in the hole body, in the brain there is just very much of it and consciousness and self-consciousness is in our brain, but what is it?

[facelen]

Well here is again a guy who talks about Freud clearly without the required knowledge about his work. Of course he did not have at his disposal the technology required by the scientific method. But his ideas influenced a new concept about the human mind. What is the role of the mnemonic system, what is the role of language, etc. He raised questions that are still relevant today. For example, it is known by neuroscientists today that there is a huge difference between a fact, the memory of it and the description of it. Freud studied the processes that distort, displace, replace representations that were ahead of his time and are, again, still relevant today. And it has to be pointed that his works had a "scientific" ambition only at the beginning, but he knew the limits of his time and the more he got deep into his concepts, the more his ideas became closer to an essay on language and meaning that the subject builds over a certain cultural background. There is a discussion at the world scientific forum on the idea of a "self" that shows how Freud's ideas and questions are still relevant without saying or recognizing the freudian contribution. To discard Freud like that, a body of work so complex and rich and also all the post-freudian psychoanalysts contributions is just shameful.

[torbjrnsivertstl]

In the old testament it is told about people who did eval in the secret, in the darkness, so that the people could not know it an punish it. They also taught that there is no God or at least he doesn’t see it or know it and will not punish it (Psalm.10, 4 & 53, 2). Those who made idols and worshipped them also taught like that, but they also were called ungodly and unfair. Even some of God’s own people taught that way, but he taught them that it was he who did his work with them.

Isaiah.29, 13 The Lord says: “These people come near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Their worship of me is based on merely human rules they have been taught.
14 Therefore once more I will astound these people with wonder upon wonder; the wisdom of the wise will perish, the intelligence of the intelligent will vanish.”
15 Woe to those who go to great depths to hide their plans from the LORD, who do their work in darkness and think, “Who sees us? Who will know?”
16 You turn things upside down, as if the potter were thought to be like the clay! Shall what is formed say to the one who formed it, “You did not make me”? Can the pot say to the potter, “You know nothing”?

Similarly God did his work with the peoples around them, even though they didn’t understand it. So they didn’t honor him as God who did his work with them and their kingdom, but started to think that they had done it, as if they were gods, but then he punished them. He heard what they said, when they honoured themselves as gods, he punished them, so that they lost their power and their kingdom collapsed (Ezekiel 28, 1…Daniel 4, 28….. ).

God created everything with his word, Jesus is God’s Word, in him is life and the life is the light for humans. If we acknowledge our sin for Christ, his blood cleans us from it, in this way we repent from doing eval in the dark and come into his light. By receiving Christ we get the right to become children of God, born by the Holy Spirit and what is born by the spirit is spirit. Then we can freely talk with God and come to him with all our needs in our praying and expect that he hears us and answers us as a father that loves us and cares for us.