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You Actually Share Your Brain With a Silent Stranger

CGP Grey

7M subscribers • 6 videos on Rounds

YouTube
  • Recommended by 7 people, in Hacker News, across 7 different months.
  • Presented by CGP Grey, as the video describes them
  • Debated among experts. Its central claim is contested, so look for the other side.

For anyone, no background needed. Education, not medical advice.

20M views10 years ago7 recommendations

Brain and nervesNeuroscience

CGP Grey explains how split-brain patients reveal that the two hemispheres of the brain can operate independently, suggesting we might have two minds.

Watch the other part: youtube.com/watch?v=JQVmkDUkZT4&feature=youtu.be cgpgrey.com Music: daveconservatoire.org/ - Mark Govea - Wenhao Nie - Thomas J Miller Jr MD - dedla - Robert Kunz - Daniel Slater - Saki Comandao - PervertedThomas - John Buchan - Christian Cooper - Michael Little - Ripta Pasay - Andres Villacres - rictic - Ian - Faust Fairbrook - Jason Lewandowski - Michael Mrozek - Jordan LeDoux - Chris Woodall - Nevin Spoljaric - Richard Jenkins - Chris Chapin - ChoiceMechanicalDenver.com - سليمان العقل - Tony DiLascio - Chang Wang - Kozo Ota - Tod Kurt - Phil Gardner - Jordan Melville - Martin - Steven Grimm - Joe Pantry - Benjamin Morrison - Amandeep Hayer - Splendide - Ron Bowes - Tómas Árni Jónasson - Mikko - Derek Bonner - Derek Jackson - Orbit_Junkie - Colin Millions - Muhammad Shifaz - Jim - Mark Elders - Glennon B. Nelson IV - Chris Harshman - Jose Reyes - Guillermo - Veronica Peshterianu - Paul Tomblin - Travis Wichert - chrysilis - Ryan E Manning - Erik Parasiuk - Rhys Parry - Maarten van der Blij - Kevin Anderson - Kyle Bloom - David - Ryan Nielsen - Esteban Santana Santana - Dag Viggo Lokøen - Tristan Watts-Willis - John Rogers - Leon - ken mcfarlane - Brandon Callender - Timothy Moran - Peter Lomax - Emil - Tijmen van Dien - ShiroiYami - Alex Schuldberg - Ryan Constantin - Bear - Jacob Ostling - Solon Carter - Joel Wunderle - Rescla - GhostDivision - Andrew Proue - Tor Henrik Lehne - David Palomares - Cas Eliëns - Freddi Hørlyck - David Michaels - Ernesto Jimenez - Linh - Osric Lord-Williams - Ryan - Maxime Zielony - Lachlan Holmes - John Lee - Ian N Riopel - AUFFRAY Clement - Ilan - John Bevan - Timothy Basanov Music by: davidreesmusic.com

Why it's here

7 people recommend this

What people say. Recommended as an engaging explanation of split-brain experiments and their implications for consciousness.

BoppreHin Hacker News • Recommends

On “My Subconscious Is a Better Developer Than I Am”

For mind bending check the great explanation from CGP Grey, "You are two"1, which argues the two brain hemispheres can operate independently. 1: link to this video

otto_ortegain Hacker News • Recommends

On “Split Brain Does Not Lead to Split Consciousness”

If you just learned that "Split Brain" was thing, I recommend watching this video by GPGrey, one of the best educational channels on YouTube: link to this video

glennerooin Hacker News • Recommends

On “The limits of information (2014)”

Kurzgesagt0 and CGP Grey1 did a fun little 2-part intro into "split mindedness" i.e. the idea that we may have multiple consciousnesses(?) contending for control. 0 link 1 link to this video

teddyhin Hacker News • Recommends

On “Self-distancing can help you make better decisions”

> how can there be two selfs in a single mind. Oh wow, do I have a YouTube video for you: link to this video ( You Are Two , by CGP Grey)

surroundin Hacker News • Recommends

On “A man who can read letters but not numbers exposes roots of consciousness”

…veries I’ve had about the human mind. The first is that the two halves of your brain act somewhat independently. And in rare cases, people’s left and right halves are “split” apart, and they act entirely independently - e.g. their left and their right hands will act separately, or even argue with each other. CGP Grey made a great video about this: link to this video The other is that most people have a “voice” inside their head - e.g. when they read, they hear their own voice inside their head reading; their thoughts are like sentences they “hear;” they could look in the mirror have a conversation with themselves. Some ~10% of people do not have this internal monologue. link link…

tick_tock_tickin Hacker News • Recommends

On “Spinoza’s God: Einstein believed in it, but what was it?”

Every time someone brings up consciousness I like to bring up link to this video . Split brains imply some very interesting ideas around of consciousness.

alexpotatoin Hacker News • Recommends

On “The language brain matters more for programming than the math brain? (2020)”

…e reframing the problem using a different part of your brain and the different part of your brain helps solve the problem." I'm sure some readers here will say this is preposterous and there is no such thing as having "two parts of your brain". To them I suggest watching: 1. "You are are two" (about people with their corpus callosum being severed) link to this video 2. "Conscious Ants and Human Hives" by Peter Watts link…

branchlessin Hacker News • Mentions

On “My Subconscious Is a Better Developer Than I Am”

You are two link to this video I always come up with good ideas when relaxed, usually when not working on the problem (showering / running). God why are they working us to death?!

midjjiin Hacker News • Mentions

On “Making the hard problem of consciousness easier”

Is it hard though? Or is the hard part ethics i.e. personhood, and because the terms are conflated that makes consciousness hard, since it means you cannot accept what consciousness is without needing to also define ethics. Drop the idea that consciousness is sufficient or required for personhood in favor for something more behaviourally consistent like cuteness or power, and things become clearer. There is a part of you which simulates social interaction by learning models of various other agents it has inferred the existence of. As can be expected from something which is looking for agents based on indirect clues, we know this part does struggle with accidentally assigning agency to things…

throwaway3093in Hacker News • Mentions

On “If I Know what's good for me, why am I sabotaging myself?”

Also, neurologically you are not one person. You are two: link to this video It's not hard to imagine the nearly constant competition that erupts between neural sub-networks in your brain -- their collective output signals vying to be the dominant signal. Just stand in front of a bowl of ice cream and try to predict whether you will or won't actually eat it. (Impulse control, etc) Sensory awareness is helpful towards guiding these competitions and impulses into a direction (and a longer term habit) that is more aligned with your longer-term values. Also helpful: engineering your environment. link

patmorgan23in Hacker News • Mentions

On “Decades-long bet on consciousness ends – it’s philosopher 1, neuroscientist 0”

You're probably right. We have a couple examples of this happening. There's the interesting quarks that people with split brain hemispheres experience. link to this video And dissociative identity disorder where there arguably multiple consciousnesses inhabiting the same brain. It is probably an evolutionary advantage that humans have a ( mostly) uniform singular consciousness.

teekertin Hacker News • Mentions

On “New research on anesthesia and microtubules gives new clues about consciousness”

Consciousness must be much more high level than microtubules and quantum effects. I think the split brain "experiments" (not really experiments 0, 1) are much more useful than the experiments presented in tfa. 0 link 1 link to this video