Serious Science
Serious SciencePhilosopher David Chalmers from NYU on the combination problem, dualism, and panpsychism.
Read the text version here: https://serious-science.org/the-hard-problem-of-consciousness-6131
Get a bigger picture:
1. Neurophilosophy and Free Will — Patricia Smith Churchland: https://youtu.be/su9K5cwt8Dw
2. Self-construction — Onur Güntürkün: https://youtu.be/9i_dI9mOyCc
3. Brain Imaging — Karl Friston: https://youtu.be/rgftzF6MwpI
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46 Comments
@KumarVishwajeet-g5p
02/21/2025 - 9:15 AMKeeping in mind this antagonistic fragmented world full of pain and sorrow his logical and scientific theory of hard problem of consciousness stands a chance
@filipcza
02/21/2025 - 9:15 AMIt's not a hard problem, it's impossible problem if you think inside of a box called materialistic science. Consciousness is not product of the brain, so you can poke around for eternity without success. To explain consciousness you have to broaden your perspectives to include levels beyond physical. You can get a glimpse of these levels by studying things like out of body experiences and near death experiences where brain does not function and yet, there is very lucid consciousness which can accurately report what is going on while brain is "dead".
@xxxblackvenomxxx
02/21/2025 - 9:15 AMThere's that game called "No Man's Sky" where one quote really impressed me. The game is basically about a simulated universe, where the player thinks of himself as possibly just "a function dacing in the dark". I quite liked that quote and think it fits in this line of thought very well.
@Rodrius.
02/21/2025 - 9:15 AMwho´s lila reference?
@nameless-yd6ko
02/21/2025 - 9:15 AMWhat is the Mind-Body Problem?
~~~ It is the Pit into which those who have not gotten the update sink ever deeper;
The very simple truth that
"I think, therefor YOU are!", proves that Descartes' initial search for 'Universal Truth' had failed.
He never crawled from the Pit of duality.
Thus the foundation of his (and 'western) philosophy' fails, thus… all these 'hard problems'.
Until the update.
The critically updated version of the 'Cogito' is;
"Thoughts are perceived/appear, therefore an apparent 'I' to think 'I am'!"
Thought = Ego = Duality!
Pit transcended!
'Hard problem' solved, you can go back to your own beds now, kiddies! 😉
@jordanking8692
02/21/2025 - 9:15 AMGood summary of the probem. Panpsychism and practical ideaism seem to me the most promising avenues for the study of consciousness.
@asyncasync
02/21/2025 - 9:15 AMAnother question a lot of people seems to refuse to even take seriously or misunderstand is – why does pain and pleasure motivate us? Most answer that its because they are needed for survival and evolved through evolution, but that is not what I asked, is it? Why does it work in the first place is the question. Its just information in the brain so why do we care if there is pain?
@tonymaitland
02/21/2025 - 9:15 AMI THINK (in words) THEREFORE I AM (conscious). Now explain the real hard problem of language, rather than search the cosmos for 'consciousness' (undefined).
@renierramirez9534
02/21/2025 - 9:15 AMGod the Ultimate Reality is the fundamental fact. The answer to the hard problem of consciousness
@hamza_osteoblast
02/21/2025 - 9:15 AMthe most beautiful thing about philosophers is their ability to explain your own thoughts and ideas to you better than you probably ever could. like some sort of mind-reading.
almost whatever it is you're thinking or imagining, but still seem unclear in your head. go to philosophy. and I assure you that you'd find that either someone has already done the hard work of figured it out, or at least find some sense of direction– an improved way of dealing with the problem. and specific terminologies to communicate the blurry thoughts you have inside your head.
@MaximusPeperkamp
02/21/2025 - 9:15 AMUhm…so when is Chalmers going to talk with me and have Embodied Language (EL)?
@OfCourseICan
02/21/2025 - 9:15 AMI've worked it out : and it ain't that difficult!
Consciousness is about being Conscious!
@chrislisle3101
02/21/2025 - 9:15 AMTest for sentience? When AI kills itself under the burden of living, then we will know it was sentient
@haraldericsson3052
02/21/2025 - 9:15 AMConsciousness creates the body and brain as an interface to have an experience in physicality. Like a car mechanic putting in a sensor into a motor to get data that are then processed by his experience. The body is the sensor, the observing consciousness is the experienced car mechanic.
@melpomdeun6257
02/21/2025 - 9:15 AMI just wish consciousness wasn't referred to as a problem.
@Fredoom-rights-yt5qx
02/21/2025 - 9:15 AMDachte immer das sind doch nur unsere Lernerfahrungen. Aber seid chat gpt alles weiß…also das Ding hat trotz Weltwissen kein Bewusstsein. Vielleicht wenn AI noch nen Körper und Wahrnehmung kriegt? Schwer vorstellbar. Braucht doch wohl biochemie und irgendne spezielle Anatomie, die wir noch nicht kennen. Sonst wäre KI sich längst selbst bewusst.
@rajanpradhan1399
02/21/2025 - 9:15 AMNon dual Vedanta teaches that anything which is an object is not consciousness. Even when you describe it as ‘ the hard problem of consciousness’ it becomes an object therefore from the vedantic point of view, this is not consciousness and it isn’t even a hard problem; it is actually pure, consciousness and bliss which cannot be expressed in terms of brain function. It’s best to leave it there and follow what Vedanta says or has discovered 5000 years ago.
@jondor654
02/21/2025 - 9:15 AMThe predicament of parting the veil of consciousness with tools like language that appear to be recursively entwined with the target state may elude us forever .
@WhyYoutubeWhy
02/21/2025 - 9:15 AMThis guy is making a problem out of nothing, to try and make it seems like his useless diploma serves any purpose. Why we have consciousness? Well like for everything that we have, it's because it helps us with survival and reproduction (or at least is not detrimental to our survival and repduction). Also, the subjectives experiences (which are sensatiions and thoughts related to sensations) are subjectives because of our different experiences with the environnement, which in turn affects our biochemistry differently, which is literally what we are built on. This guy just tries to get a spiritual explaination.
@jamesearlcash1758
02/21/2025 - 9:15 AM'If you look at the brain from the outside you see this extraordinary
machine' The main problem westernized people have with their
consciousness is they think like mechanical bug like machines
and not human beings. The word machine/computer goes back
to the late 1500's.
Non whites who live outside of the social construct do not have
the same problems with consciousness that westernized people
have because they do not use the Amygdala as the focal point of
their thinking like westernized people and insects do.
This form of society produces mental illnesses in the form of
delusions, illusions, hallucinations and mirages. The western
social construct is unnatural opposing nature.
The westernized mind is trained, programmed and conditioned
to think unnaturally along the lines of delusional pretenses agreed
upon, consented to and accepted as being objectively real when in
fact they are subjectively rooted in generalizations, stereotyping,
embellishments and or made up fictions that do not exist in
objective real life outside of the social construct
David looks like he's in a state of mental illness trapped in a
subjective bubble of the mind known as the western social
construct and he's way too trained, programmed and conditioned
like a mechanical worker ant machine to realize it.
@edwardlee2794
02/21/2025 - 9:15 AMHow thought provoking a talk here! Philosophy and physics in relation to probing the nature of consciousness. Maybe, just maybe, consciousness of human being, the only species, exemplifies the very nature of indeterminism of the physical universe. Without the human species, our planet can function determinants simply sticking to its natural perpetual cycles, but with human presence, the planet is entering a state of anthropocent, upending the pre-determined destiny. Even nature itself has no free will.
Just a thought provoked by Dr. Chalmers.
Thanks for the efforts and keep up the good work..
@gk10101
02/21/2025 - 9:15 AM8:41 its more fun to chase rainbows than to realize they can't be caught
@russellcook3922
02/21/2025 - 9:15 AMIf mind and matter are the two basic building blocks of the universe, does that help us approach the hard problem more productively?
@CrouchingscarabflyingJ
02/21/2025 - 9:15 AMI can answer this for all of you wondering. In fact, Quantum mechanics is finally catching up to what we've known for thousands of years. It is a great misconception that the mind is inside of the body. The body is actually inside of the mind.
@emotiveenergy4598
02/21/2025 - 9:15 AMChalmers is looking for "fundamental explanations" (@ 5:40) in this interview. And he frames many parts of this interview with questions ("why" & "what"). The "fundamental explanation" was published by Erwin Schrödinger in his 1944 paper, What Is Life? Essentially, Schrödinger claimed that all forms of life climb toward complexity. (The fossil record overwhelmingly supports this contention.) With complexity comes "knowledge" which gets encoded within brain in neural structures ("memory"). Therefore, Schrödinger's idea also implies that all forms of life "climb toward knowledge." Because of this, we ask questions like "who?" "what?" & "why?" In answering such questions, we can adapt to the environment &, hopefully, survive. Suddenly, with Schrödinger's idea we can explain the growth of science, technology, culture, civilization, psychology, neuroscience, & even philosophy. "Climbing toward complexity & knowledge" is a "fundamental explanation."
@mattkanter1729
02/21/2025 - 9:15 AMRemember :
Solipsism is not for me , nor you
@ALavin-en1kr
02/21/2025 - 9:15 AMMaterialism believes in just one dimension only. There are three: Consciousness (fundamental); Mind, elemental emerging with quantum events; plus the gross elements with their own dimension; the physical world.
@antoninkrizanic7233
02/21/2025 - 9:15 AMBrain without mind is just an organ.
@tubal1
02/21/2025 - 9:15 AMHe already gave the answer to the problem in this video with his hands. 5:37
@bretnetherton9273
02/21/2025 - 9:15 AMAwareness is known by awareness alone.
@marieunna4116
02/21/2025 - 9:15 AMThe hard problem of consciousness resolved
@brocandcara
02/21/2025 - 9:15 AMhere is my equation that could be put on a t-shirt (integrative information theory)
IQ<3EQ=Ø5
wondering what others think of it?
@AllanWilkinson-j7e
02/21/2025 - 9:15 AMThe Mind created the Brain for a purpose !!!.
@bpotter9769
02/21/2025 - 9:15 AMWonderful ❤ the missing components in this wonderful interview is – the story – (in the beginning there was the word and the word created all, incl the so called consciousness)
This story, constant narrations, we call consciousness, that is being created by words through the five senses the Language Speech Center in the left hemisphere
The above is the glue that creates a so called Experience
this glue is invisible and that is why it is never noticed
It is simply the story the narrative by the narrator Center in the left hemisphere that is creating the so-called all encompassing experience and simply by neglecting overlooking the storytelling component in which everybody including scientists believe, thus they have created the hard problem of consciousness … In actuality and in reality there is no problem at all
the imagenairy problem is that they the scientists are too much identified with the story they are too close upon it and therefore they cannot see it nor study it properly ever …
@Steven_Rowe
02/21/2025 - 9:15 AMI think about consciousness and listening to David Chalmers is great.
It always raises the question regarding the spiritual aspect.
Is conciousness a function of the brain, or does the brain make consciousness?
Is the brain simply like a radio reciever rhat receives consciousness but it filters out much of it.
I have looked at many NDE stories and especially those that have involved Dr Bruce Greyson who was a scientific sceptic.
It is one thing for a person to say they had one, it could be a dillusion, but when that person has one and can describe events taking place whilst clinically dead that were factual, then maybe this at least shows that consciousness is not of the brain.
Energy I understand cant be created or destroyed, so must be eternal whish is something nobody cant grasp.
Could it be that consciousness is an entity of rational energy?.
@RilkeForum
02/21/2025 - 9:15 AMMaybe there are no atoms of consciousness, maybe it is a field.
@RilkeForum
02/21/2025 - 9:15 AMMaybe AI will solve the problem at some point. Because maybe our brain is not capable of understanding itself.
@ObserverOne6727
02/21/2025 - 9:15 AMThere is (must be) a solution to "What is consciousness ?". Two epistemological 'puzzle pieces' are 1) thought is physically made of forces flowing through the brain's neural structures and sub-systems that include loops, comparitors, differencing and summing, and 2) existence is always and exactly now (the duration of every Now is exactly zero). This is why when being in states of flow, the sense of time disappears. Feeling conscious is 'simply' experiencing those changing, merging, and opposing forces in every moment.
After experiencing this conclusion, and with practice, one can step into this knowable state by simply choosing to BE. The causal continuum of forces (that is the entire universe) is just running; it cannot do otherwise. Enjoy the ride.
@holgerjrgensen2166
02/21/2025 - 9:15 AMHow does the physical radio, give rise to
wonderful music, and interesting conversations,
and programs.
Well, the programs is in the Consciousness,
stored in Memory, fourt Deep-Sleep, after falling at sleep.
@lkececi7513
02/21/2025 - 9:15 AMMary in the black and white room
@tenemanuheketa3483
02/21/2025 - 9:15 AMIn the widest possible sense…CONSCIOUSNESS IS UNIVERSAL EXPERIENCE OF EXISTENCE..I roto ite reo WAIRUATANGA!!!
@skeptic_al
02/21/2025 - 9:15 AMI’d be more impressed if Chalmers could say what the problem is. He switches between “how” and “why” as though they’re the same question. “Why” seems easy to me: evolutionary advantage. The same as for all attributes of life. What other “why” Do we need? That leaves “how”, which is a scientific problem. Philosophy might give us ideas of where to look, but mostly it provides pablum like panpsychism.
@nicholaswheeler507
02/21/2025 - 9:15 AMIt doesn't
@Gvarab
02/21/2025 - 9:15 AMI wrote a sci fi novel refering to the hard problem and created a false physics, connecting negative entropy and the hard problrm to parallel timellines in a three dimensional time universe.
Ungortunately in Seedish though
@beautaillefer276
02/21/2025 - 9:15 AM100 billion neurons in the brain with 60 trillion connections + the fact we don’t have a full understanding of the chem/biology in a perfect way and yet people think that the brain can’t possibly produce a conscious experience?
@jussirytkonen2871
02/21/2025 - 9:15 AMThe problem might have something to do with basic human tendency of not wanting to know in the first place. As curious as we are, and as hungry for knowledge, we are more prone to avoiding facts than facing them. That's because facing facts is not really an intellectual, abstract encounter, but a question of the everyday life & death. In reality, every bit of knowledge have to be paid for with living, loving and suffering. Otherwise it's half-baked and half-true.