Christof Koch - What Is Consciousness?

Consciousness is what we can know best and explain least. It is the inner subjective experience of what it feels like to see red or smell garlic or hear Beethoven. Consciousness has intrigued and baffled philosophers. To begin, we must define and describe consciousness. What to include in a complete definition and description of consciousness?

Christof Koch is a German-American neurophysiologist and computational neuroscientist best known for his work on the neural basis of consciousness. He was the president and chief scientist of the Allen Institute for Brain Science. He remains at the Institute as a Meritorious Investigator.

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.

[sigu]

To the editors: it would be great if you include the date of an interview (or the production date of an episode) in the video description.

[aadilsultan]

New developments in consciousness, amazingly beautiful, various deep insights. ❤

[sigu]

So glad to hear that he emphasized the role of feedback within the brain in the generation of consciousness.

[thomasrebotier]

This must be an old one, as Cristoff speaks of Francis Crick in the present tense.

[pallerj]

This idea of a feedback loop is not a new one.
I presented the idea at a conference in Copenhagen and wrote a letter to Sir Francis Crick about it.
He responded that he had demonstrated it to Christof Coch in the lab.
If it turns out to be true, I was first !

[russcox]

I really need to know, if consciousness does occur in the brain, how is it people having a near death experience can see and hear things that happen in another room? The brain and consciousness are strange and miraculous things.

[francesco]

i've saw many interviews of him with Kastrup lately, with whom he says he agrees on many points

[atlasrising]

I’m always curious as to why there is always an undefined, non-framework oriented approach as to what consciousness is, or how it emerged, and an explanation of its emergence as it relates to this physical reality in these discussions.

For example, the question asked is
“What is consciousness?”

A definition would set a baseline understanding that leads to a reasonably good and logical explanation of the existence of consciousness within the human brain.

Instead, it’s as though the host and guests are assuming they know what constitutes consciousness, yet they don’t define it, and use the word as though it has been thoroughly defined and go on to claim that their scientific research backs their opinions of what consciousness is.

I’ve been researching an origin for consciousness for the last three years and my research doesn’t lead to what’s discussed here. My research has led to something tangible, and explanatory, and is aligned with what we know to be scientifically true of this physical reality.

[Maxwell-mvrx]

Neuroscience keep out how brains make up consciousness so far. This guys shows how figure out consciousness It is NOT neuroscience proceendings. Instead he figure out consciousness with rambling linguagem. It is wortheless neuroscience because is Impossible though emperism predict consciousness evidence.

[cgtxzvh]

Beautiful shirt... Suitable for the topic.

[craigswanson]

Consciousness is MINUSCULE compared to our UNconsciosness, where the totality of our natural and cultural experience directs the consciousness.

[rossw]

koch takes consciousness to mean attention, eg, the magic trick or red table beside him

but consciousness is any subjective experience, including perceptions that are not consciously noticed, bc they are still in the form of colors, textures, shapes, etc - ie, qualia

so the visual processing center prob does produce visual perception

but attention to individual objects in visual perception happens elsewhere, eg, the thalamus and frontal cortex

[WildBullWriter]

My huge disappointment re: all of these Kuhn "Closer to Truth" interviews is that Kuhn does not start with the question: "What is your definition of consciousness?" It's rather, to be blunt, dumb of him not to have done that. Because a decent definition must be the starting point for any productive discussion of anything (esp. something as fuzzy as "consciousness"). Instead, we have allegedly brilliant scientists talking about things that are vague and confused, and they often SOUND vague and confused. (So does Kuhn, for that matter.)

[hosseindod]

consciousness is what others see you and you see yourself through their eyes in other word consciousness is result of malfunction when you compaire yourself with others

[PracticallyZen]

Does this model of feedback loops suggest that all animals (or computers) with such loops are conscious? This suggests to me that any sufficiently complex networks with the appropriate feedback loops will be conscious.

[highvalence]

1. Either there is evidence that doesn’t underdetermine or there is underdetermination. (P or q)

2. If there is evidence that doesn’t underdetermine you need to show there's not underdetermination. (if p then q)

3. Therefore either there is underdetermination or you need to show there's not underdetermination. (q or r)

[felixccaa]

as a german with ADS it is so iritating that he is speaking english and using the german "r"

[Hololifting]

The illusion means being deceived. Deceived, but for what purpose? Believing that you are human. If this is a dream, then you are not human. If you can be a horse in a lucid dream, you can be anything. However, your logic is grounded in sensing a body throughout your entire life. Therefore, it might seem very difficult to accept the truth.

What is the truth? The truth is that you are consciousness. You are the light in the projector. Your feelings determine the location in the perceived image on the screen. Logic is the content of that location. Together, they create an image. The image itself is a result of feelings and logic. Feelings are the Father. Logic is the Son. And the image itself is the Holy Spirit.

[silvomuller]

More scientists must work on the hard problem. The persistent suspicion that LLM may be conscious will enable that.

[onlyonetoserve]

Tankyo bro do edukate me brane science.