Leonard Mlodinow - Is Consciousness Unified?

We feel as if our consciousness is unified—we integrate sight, sound, all the senses. Our minds feel as an indivisible whole. But eye or brain injury can alter or eliminate sight. A stroke can destroy subtle aspects of language capacity—you can write and not speak, speak and not write. The brain is compartmentalized. So is unified consciousness an illusion?

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, hosted by Robert Lawrence Kuhn and directed by Peter Getzels, 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.

[being_manish]

Idk man the only theory of consciousness that suits me is from David Hoffman, I just love his idea of consciousness being a fundamental thing in the universe and all the things we see are the contents of it

[whitefiddle]

This accords with my findings! When I'm drunk I see multiple people but they all speak in perfect unison. So there's your unity in multiplicity.

Hic.

[BarryKibrickOfficial]

Always loved Leonard when he came on my show and he's great here!!!

[matheuspadilha]

I really admire Leonard Mlodinow he has works like the subliminal book which is excellent I would like to see a Closer to truth interview with him on the subject of free will

[mrddcass]

He's missing that consciousness isn't just the thinking mind. Why is there something there witnessing these thoughts?

[waldwassermann]

When answering the question of whether consciousness is unified, I cannot see how it could not be. What I also know is that division is a misnomer, whether at the cellular level or the cosmic level, and that there is only differentiation within oneness, for the purpose of love.

[gracerodgers]

One of the brightest interviews I've seen in Closer to Truth... and I've seen alot of it! Robert Lawrence Kuhn you are getting closer to truth.

[filmesndependentes]

I believe that Consciousness is unified. But perception changes it through us. It's like we would filter an outside energy as soon as we receive it.

[madmax]

I got the feeling that Robert wasn't sure how to word his question succinctly enough to avoid terms/phrases that themselves are not fully understood. Basically layering questions on top of questions in order to answer questions.

[SRAVALM]

What are all those books? What subjects, which authors?

[thejackdiamondart]

What about the FABRIC of space. When you say you don't believe that there is anything outside the body that has to do with consciousnessI would ask does the fabric of space around us or through us? Does it exist in the internal cavities of our bodies? What about entangled particles? Could they be involved in consciousness? I don't think it is time to dismiss the possibility that there is another element to consciousness the is metaphysical.

[stephenzhao]

1:32 the most interesting approach that I see to consciousness today is this approach through integrated information where consciousness seems to have to do with not just having information different parts of a system but the connection between those parts the idea that the information that system has is greater than the sum of the parts and of course our brains are extremely highly interconnected so taht does seem to match the physical structure of the brain and the consciousness that arises from that whereas the pixels are just sitting there. 1:59 Well you could maybe the analogy between the camera and my eyes because our eyes themselves are not conscious but pick up electromagnetic information to pass on (you may not say that Bob, cause our eyes are detectors which absolutely make a wave function collapse). 2:09 LM: yeah if you cut the picture in half where you end up is two half is to half you actually have the same thing nothing changes because the pixesl don't know about each other so if you cut a picture in half you have the same information but there are people with uh who are called split brain patients who've had their corpus callosum cut that separates the right and the left hemisphere of the brain and they do that sometimes as a treatment for severe epilepsy and when that happens the right side of the brain and the left side of the brain can't communicate and it's very interesting that when that happens the people they seem normal when you talk to them but if you investigate further it seems almost as if they have two consciousnesses, two personalities, and Christoph Cochin one of his books write about a particular case that's kind of sad where 2:53 a woman was being interviewed and she was asked how many seizures she had had in the past week and she was asked to raise her hand to tell and one hand went up and said two and the other hand went up and said four and then one hand started to put the other hand down the hand started fighting with each other and the two halves of her brain were fighting so as opposed to the camera with where nothing really happens when you divide the image in half in your brain if you cut it in half you get two different two new brains so taht is a characteristic of consciousness the integration seems to be very key. 3:24 Bob: you mentioned that cousciosness is more than the sum of its parts uh how so because some disagree with that some say that seeming feeling that it's more than the sum of parts is the grand illusion. 3:31 3:40 LM: well what I really said was that the information is more than the sum of its parts now I don't know how to say consciousness is more there are there is a one mathematical theory out now uh Julio Tanoni's theory that seeks to quantify consciousness but I don't think we really know yet how to quantify consciousness in the sense that we could say this is more conscious that that I mean we have a feeling for it you could say my dog you might feel you dog has a certain level of consciousness and you might feel that you have a higher level of consciousness but I am not sure what really means so as a scientist I'm a little bit I hesitant to talk about what is more or less in consciousness. 4:17 Well 5:56 what does that mean something grander? Bob: well it means that consciousness is uh has an independent existence of itself it doesn't have to be spoocky but it just has some independent fundamentally a different thing about it other than just the sum of the inputs. 6:12 well you say there's something grander than what's there I mean if I had an identical physical system that is my brain and I put it in the identical state I believe it would be identical to my mind and it would have the same thoughts that I'm having. [I think the existence of our brains relys on our souls that emerges on Spirit The Divine. Atheists are marching on wrong diretions.] 6:24 so I don't think there's anything outside of the physical system that is involved in consciousness. yeah so that if you were able to duplicate all of your mental process or all the physical processes of your brain in another medium that would have same internal not just behavior but internal uh subjective feeling [it is impossible we are unable to duplicate all of your mental process or the "physical processes" just as you are not capable of controlling what you will dream, which demonstrated that the godly soul is fundamental to the animal soul that holds 3d physical world. ] and 6:51 whatever that means yes I do I mean because it would have the same physical state and I think that consciousness arises from a physical state [it is totally wrong unless your physical world holds reality the whole] you know nothing Dr Leonard Mlodinow.

[rishabhthakur]

What is limitation use of language ? Can language make knowledge out of consciousness ?

[jo]

I think Leonard confuses consciousness with cognition at the start. Our cognitive processes assign meaning to the sensory inputs sent to the brain from our eyes. Meanwhile consciousness is just pure perception, there is no meaning assigned to the images received. There exist accounts of individuals who have (through relevant medical means) gained sight following a lifetime of blindness. Subsequently, they (at first) fail to see or understand the visual stimuli they receive (E.g., they may lack an understanding of depth or distance). Yet, even without thought or any kind of meaning behind what they ‘see’, they still perceive, they still experience what it is to receive the sensory input of sight. That, I believe, is what we mean by consciousness: just pure perception and awareness, without thought/cognition.

[milannesic]

If he copies himself down to last detail, down to last particle, as he said, who of those two bodies would be exactly HIM? What body would contain his consciousness? The original one? What about the copy? Copy is also him down to last detail. He said that consciousness is a product of physical components. If you make exactly the same physical components and connect them in exactly the same way, you get absolutely, exactly the same consciousness, the same person. So, what exactly would happen with him?

[jamesruscheinski]

why is there consciousness / awareness of information?

[ronhudson]

I am conscious. I am self-conscious. I am concious that you are concious. I feel. I have trauma. I get elated and depressed. I am happy at times and angry at others. I can hold the two concepts of the most fundamental particles and processes known and the infinite grandeur of the universe in my mind at the same time. The how's and why's and limitations expressed by this and other scientists don't affect, alter or dimiish these truths - even one little bit.The search for understand neither elevates nor diminshes the extravagent glory that is me or you or a butterfly or my pet dog or the stars. Search for the truth until it is known or more fully understood but don't try and use it to reduce the human mind, personality or conciusness to a base, mechanistic level. The how and why can never dim the glory of our consciousness.

[chester-chickfunt]

The critical flaw here is assuming that "human consciousness" is a steady-state or constant-state situation. An individual's consciousness changes markedly throughout a lifetime, often from exposure to new information (and a changing biochemical stew.) Where does the new information come from, on a fundamental level? Did the information always exist...only to be uncovered by another human and then transferred into your brain, thereby altering your conscious state? Or did some other human have the right "tuning" to actually create new information? We know so little about ourselves and our universal setting. It is essential to question everything, as Lawrence does in this series. But it would be unwise to assume we have reached a state of fundamental understanding about anything. Maybe we as products of some fundamental AI system can never fully grasp the basic coding of the AI itself. So then we are right back to religion, faith, science and all of the other things that trigger our self-destruction...

[SRAVALM]

off the bat, the question is dualistic due to what the sages call avidya. Unified means to 'make' or 'become' united, uniform or whole. What is there to make "this( which implies what exactly?)" unified or whole. If there is something else or outside from itself, to make itself whole there wouldn't properly be unification regardless. Now, what monism(advaita vedanta) acknowledges is that because of multiplicity or avidya posits a misconception or illusion from the relative or embodied soul perspective.

The psycho physical is seemingly physical and dependent upon life, spirit, prana. Is there an Absolute Consciousness greater than ours -- is what is implied.

What I find difficult is how psycho physical consciousness, somehow, we can go beyond the limitations of brain circumscription. We, through our eyes, grasp forms or conceptions seemingly outside of us, thus impressing them into our minds as in memory or constructing subconscious. There does reckon a 'ONENESS' or monistic whole that we are just aspects of and ignorantly believe only we are individual conscious of it.
I will say our psycho physical experience requires the physical, most certainly dependent upon Spirit however, but there is a ONENESS that is Ulimate consciousness. High energized light is hydrogen, hydrogen makes up atoms if I recall correctly. You can say ALL is LIGHT, or Ultimate Consciousess -- same thing. We are forms in, and not separate, and most definitely always unified -- ONE.

[bradmodd]

We should probably respect Tononi's theory more, not because it isn't ridiculous, but because it is the first step of many to come, many attempts to come to quantify and catalog consciousness, mostly by AI I guess.