Skip to content
Rounds
0:00 / 0:00

If Brains are Computers, Who Designs the Software? - with Daniel Dennett

The Royal Institution

1.8M subscribers • 4 videos on Rounds

YouTube
  • Recommended by 3 people, in Hacker News, across 4 different months.
  • Presented by Daniel Dennett, cognitive scientist and philosopher, as the video describes them
  • Debated among experts. Its central claim is contested, so look for the other side.

Assumes interest and some biology. Education, not medical advice.

873K views9 years ago3 recommendations

Brain and nervesNeuroscienceMemory and learning

Daniel Dennett explains how cognitive science views the brain as a computer and how education and evolution shape its cognitive software.

Cognitive science sees the brain as a sort of computer, but how does education redesign these cerebral computers? Cognitive scientist, philosopher, and expert on consciousness Daniel Dennett explains. Watch the Q&A: youtu.be/0GJa0xKKSOU Subscribe for regular science videos: bit.ly/RiSubscRibe Buy Daniel Dennet's most recent book "From Bacteria to Bach and Back: The Evolution of Minds" - geni.us/4pTW46 There is widespread agreement among researchers in cognitive science that a human brain is some kind of computer, but not much like the laptop. If we look at perceptual experience, and education in particular, as a process of redesigning our cerebral computers, how does the software get designed, and what are the limits of this design process? Daniel C Dennett finds out. Daniel C Dennett is a cognitive scientist and philosopher with a particular interest in consciousness, free will and the evolution of minds. His newest book, From bacteria to Bach and back, explores how thinking minds could have evolved due to natural selection. The Ri is on Twitter: twitter.com/ri_science and Facebook: facebook.com/royalinstitution and Tumblr: ri-science.tumblr.com/ Our editorial policy: rigb.org/home/editorial-policy Subscribe for the latest science videos: bit.ly/RiNewsletter Product links on this page may be affiliate links which means it won't cost you any extra but we may earn a small commission if you decide to purchase through the link. #PhilosophyOfMind, #DanielDennett, #ConsciousnessExplained, #BrainAsComputer, #MindAndSoftware

Why it's here

3 people recommend this

What people say. Recommended as a profound and thought-provoking lecture on consciousness, evolution, and the computational theory of mind.

13415in Hacker News • Recommends

On “Why general artificial intelligence will not be realized”

…nalist in the philosophy of mind and suspect that consciousness is an emergent property of certain computations. It might in theory even be possible to realize that by analytical insight - though probably not in practice. I'm generally not a fan of the philosophy of mind, though, because it mostly consists of speculation and intuition pumping. 1 link to this video…
View on Hacker News

rthrfrdin Hacker News • Recommends

On “Claude 3 catches researchers testing it”

I find Daniel Dennett's framing of competency vs comprehension a good place to start. He did a nice talk at the RI on it some time ago1. A previous one overlaps with similar ground2. 1 link to this video 2 link
View on Hacker News

az09mugenin Hacker News • Recommends

On “Daniel Dennett has died”

I discovered him with the excellent Royal Institution talk "If Brains are Computers, Who Designs the Software?" 0. And the quote which marked my mind is "How could a slow, mindless process build a thing that could build a thing that a slow mindless process couldn't build on it's own ?". 0 : link to this video
View on Hacker News

az09mugenin Hacker News • Recommends

On “Life evolves. So do minerals. How about everything else?”

Thanks for the link, I didn't know about that. It's kind of in the autocatalysis way, but more about "memes" in the sense of the book which introduced the term "The selfish gene" by Richard Dawkins. He says it 2 times, it's what drives his speech : At the beginning : link to this video And at the end : link to this video That's a very nice and profound speech asking good questions.
View on Hacker News

mockingbirdyin Hacker News • Mentions

On “Ant Colonies Retain Memories That Outlast the Lifespans of Individuals”

…etween ant colonies and human brains. The human consciousness emerges from this phenomenon - the biggest difference is that all our neurons work together to create a consciousness that is self-aware (actually, it's only a small part of the brain that creates "me"). Understanding ant colonies can be beneficial for understanding human consciousness. link to this video (I don't care about the computer analogies, but the concept of individual agents acting together in the brain gets across)…
View on Hacker News

az09mugenin Hacker News • Mentions

On “Life evolves. So do minerals. How about everything else?”

That article reminds me a lot this sentence from Daniel Benett : "How could a slow, mindless process build a thing that could build a thing that a slow mindless process couldn't build on it's own ?" Source : link to this video
View on Hacker News