Anil Seth: How your brain invents your 'self' | TED

Who are you, really? Neuroscientist Anil Seth lays out his fascinating new theory of consciousness and self, centered on the notion that we "predict" the world into existence. From sleep to memory and everything in between, Seth explores the reality we experience in our brains -- versus the world as it objectively might be.

The TED Talks channel features the best talks and performances from the TED Conference, where the world's leading thinkers and doers give the talk of their lives in 18 minutes (or less). Look for talks on Technology, Entertainment and Design -- plus science, business, global issues, the arts and more. You're welcome to link to or embed these videos, forward them to others and share these ideas with people you know.

[DemetriPanici]

*"Very little is needed to make a happy life; it is all within yourself, in your way of thinking." - Marcus Aurelius*

[willrogers]

<<<I respect your work mate...TA is all well and good but I find it truly baffling that all major crypto youtubers just look at pure TA and completely ignore the bigger narrative of why BTC is pumping and why the future outlook might not be as rosy as it seems. It's kinda irresponsible to ignore the fact that each ETF launch so far has caused a major dump at the peaks of BTC. We were already on shaky footing with historically low volume and almost pure whale pumps, narrowly avoiding a long-term bear market. This is the worst possible time in history to invest as so many don't back up their crypto assets.More emphasis should be put into day tradiing as it is less affected by the unpredictable nature of the market.I have made over 13 btc 4rm day tradn with Morris insights and signals in less than 4 weeks, this is one of the best medium to backup your assets incase it goes bearish.

[McC_Cal]

Meanwhile, the red cup looks orange to me. But it’s still just a cup regardless. Our experience of color “or anything” technically it’s a flipped orange/red cup. Pretty cool to think about. Have a great thanksgiving btw!!! Best wishes!

[Swimdeep]

Given my brain tumor removal, “feeling like myself” continues to be challenging. My brain is still rewiring itself. 🧠

[theeternal]

*Brain creates a self but that self is illusion and real self is to be realised.*

[climbing_in_the_clouds]

Ideas like this are intriguing. What a beautiful video. A similar subject is that of conscious control. Most of us assume we are steering the ship more than we actually are. When I am hungry, I consciously choose what to eat. However, I do not consciously choose when to become hungry. I do not choose when to be satiated. I do not control the digestion of the food I have ingested. I do not control the multitude of functions that occur within my body. I simply react to them and my response is what little conscious control I have. Most of what happens in my body and mind is occurring on a subconscious level. The examples and thoughts I have provided only even provide an infinitesimal insight into the ideas of what consciousness truly is.

[finaldestination]

Life is nothing but a illusion created by our minds still we fight each other on a daily basis knowing this

[silverskid]

"Controlled hallucination" is, he says, "not based on accuracy but for utility, for usefulness for staying alive." Aside from the special sense of "hallucination" (we're not talking about things that don't exist, or figments of imagination but simply our best guesses about events and their causes in a real and constraining world), the distinction between accuracy and utility is, at the very least, fuzzy since in order for my best guesses about events to have "utility" they must, in many cases though not all, have some degree of accuracy-- hence the concept you lean on, "prediction error" implying we pay for our inaccurate/incorrect inferences. If I "guess" that a berry is edible but it is poison, the problem isn't that the berry lacks "utility" but that it really is poisonous. The guess that it is edible is not simply "useless" but *inaccurate* which alone explains why it can kill the eater. Yes, some ideas (say religious ones) may have functional utility (say social cohesion) yet lack standards of accuracy. Not all ideas or judgments are truth apt, especially those in speculative metaphysics. But in a great many cases that have to do with ordinary perception, accuracy is a sine qua non, and you can't decouple utility and accuracy. Judging the speed and distance of oncoming traffic, the color of a traffic light, or even the meaning of words contained in a legal agreement-- all these judgment/"best guesses" lack utility to the extent that they are inaccurate. As you admit, entities in the world exist mind-independently, though of course they can be interpreted in various different ways. Still, despite the interpretive space open (for example, color) there are still bounds within which perception and cognition must function (as you admit when saying the inverted spectra thought experiment goes "too far"). Thus, accuracy and utility overlap, with accuracy having the more central explanatory value. These and many ordinary judgments/guesses do not lack accuracy BECAUSE they lack utility, but rather they lack utility BECAUSE they lack accuracy. Constructivism has its limits. Constructions are constrained by actual conditions. Reality testing is paramount--even if we don't have "absolute knowledge " of a mind-independent reality. Kant had already made that point which defined his Copernican Revolution. Nothing new there. We needn't have some privileged ontological perspective. BUT judgments about what is going on around or within us are knowledge-claims, and as such they are, in most cases, either more or less accurate (they track certain mind-independent actualities) or they are mistaken/erroneous (which explains how "prediction errors" can be assessed). If we jettison accuracy constraints altogether we end up with some kind of subjective idealism, or strong form of anti-realism. BTW, much of this is simply a rehash of philosophical disputes in philosophy of science and metaphysics. There isn't a lot of "neuroscience" in this particular talk.

[nousnavi]

The muddles of neuromaterialist theory of consciousness!
"We take ourselves for granted., but we shouldn't." If we were not really here, it is meaningless to say that we shouldn't take ourselves for granted.
"How things seem is not the way they are." Hasty generalization! It seems to me that you are speaking English and that's also the way it is.
And who is talking about "how your brain invents your self"? (silly mock quotes around self!) "Your" brain or "You"?
"The self is a collection of perceptions." Rehashed Buddhist metaphysical nonsense! To make this claim, there needs to be a self that is aware of ITS perceptions.
The self as hallucination? Nonsense upon stilts! Hallucination or illusion occurs only for a self. So, the self cannot itself be a hallucination or illusion.
Stop the runaway Brain fetishism!

[Odn]

To the question of are we seeing the same colour or shade of colour... I remember having seen a documentary of an African tribe who can differentiate between greens where other people cannot. They were very observant in their environment where more shades of green existed and it mattered.

[finaldestination]

You reach to the ultimate reality when you question everything.

[martinstent]

"Memory is not what the heart desires. That is only a mirror, be it clear as Kheled-zâram. Or so says the heart of Gimli the Dwarf. Elves may see things otherwise. Indeed I have heard that for them memory is more like to the waking world than to a dream. Not so for Dwarves." Not only between Elves men and dwarves does the character of memory differ. Also between humans.

[carljohnreyes]

I always believe that our brain is a transducer of the world beyond our material reality, we know that energy cannot be destroyed nor created but where do the electrical impulses inside our brain go after thoughts were produced, if we will follow that conservation of energy technically we must be able to retain all of the memories we used to have? Consciousness might be one form of energy which far exceeds the reality our physical body lives in which we uses to wonder about things beyond, just imagine how vast our thoughts are, for sure we aren't just bound in this material world. It is like our brain is limited only by physical means, death could be another way to achieve a greater consciousness.

[austinricky]

the reason we're not meant to think back isn't only because its essentially meaningless.. but also because it hinders our momentum which is only properly achieved if we forget our place in space and time.. not bowing down to our place in space and time.

[anika]

16:53 He took 'never mind' to the whole different new level😅 and I love it.
Some time ago, I've thought this way too that people have their own brain so they have their own thought. 😅

When people and I disagree with some stuff, it was just 'never mind' 😅

[rustycherkas]

"I know you think you understand what you thought I said but I'm not sure you realize that what you heard is not what I meant"
--Alan Greenspan

[sebastiencollin]

His demonstration is interresting but a little bit long too explain his point of view. I am also interrested in this specific theme, and I would be interrested in exchanging with him. This theme can be introduced by 3 ways:
-the by pass of the concepts generated by our brain
-the chart is not the land
- the vision of the fly (animal)

If you want to exchange a bit with me you will be welcome.

Sorry for my english, I am (sorry about it ) french 😄

[martinesejour]

The cup looks orange to me and not red. Is it the lighting? I would love to gain more insight into the research that's performed on anesthesia or being worked out? It's such a mystery and this is the first time I've heard a plausible explanation about this topic.

[ThisisRubbishlo]

Waking up, is like booting your computer up, awake and here I am in a moment. Self is here.

Loved this Ted Talk 👍

[zebonautsmith]

what put the personal "you" inside your body and not someone else's body?