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How did consciousness evolve? - with Nicholas Humphrey

The Royal Institution・30 minutes read

The speaker delves into the creation of consciousness in living brains by examining the evolution of phenomenal consciousness and exploring the distribution of sentience across the animal kingdom, with a focus on mammals and birds. Through examples of self-awareness and empathy in animals, the speaker argues for the significance of phenomenal consciousness for selfhood and individual significance.

Insights

  • The speaker's exploration of the brain as the generator of conscious feeling stems from a lineage of biophysics and physiologist background, shaping his interest in psychophysics and metaphysics.
  • The development of phenomenal consciousness is intricately linked to the internalization and stabilization of bodily responses in the brain, leading to the creation of a mathematically-complex attractor state that potentially gives rise to phenomenal qualia, crucial for selfhood and individual significance.

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Recent questions

  • What is the focus of the speaker's latest book?

    Living brains generating conscious feeling.

  • How did the speaker's interest in psychophysics and metaphysics originate?

    Stemmed from his grandfather's biophysics background.

  • What insights did the speaker gain from his research with Helen the rhesus monkey?

    Insights on blindsight and perception without visual sensation.

  • What does the speaker propose about the representation of sensations in the brain?

    Sensations are ideas represented by the brain.

  • How does the speaker link the development of phenomenal consciousness to bodily responses?

    Through internalization and stabilization of bodily responses in the brain.

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Summary

00:00

"Living Brains: Engines of Consciousness"

  • The speaker has written several books, with the latest being "Sentience," focusing on living brains generating conscious feeling.
  • The speaker's grandfather, a physiologist, gave lectures on living machinery, while the speaker delves into living brains as engines for consciousness.
  • The speaker's interest in psychophysics and metaphysics stems from his grandfather's biophysics background.
  • At 16, the speaker challenged his grandfather with a logical conundrum involving contradictory statements, leading to a discussion on metaphysics.
  • The speaker pursued psychology and brain research, pondering how the brain invents consciousness and subjective experiences.
  • The speaker discusses a rhesus monkey named Helen, who, despite losing her visual cortex, could still see using an ancient visual system.
  • The speaker's research with Helen led to insights on blindsight, where individuals lack visual sensation but can perceive objects.
  • Blindsight challenges traditional views on consciousness, prompting the speaker to question the nature of phenomenal experience.
  • The speaker critiques theories linking brain states to consciousness, proposing that sensations are ideas represented by the brain, not material entities.
  • The speaker suggests a two-stage process for representing sensations, akin to interpreting a novel, emphasizing the brain's role in creating phenomenal experiences.

17:13

Evolution of Phenomenal Consciousness in Animals

  • The evolutionary sequence from nothingness to somethingness is explored, focusing on the development of phenomenal sight in humans.
  • Sensations are described as active behavioral responses to stimuli, evolving from bodily reactions to stimuli to mental representations.
  • Sentition, a term between sensation and volition, is introduced to explain the initial evaluative responses to stimuli.
  • The responses evolve from local bodily reactions to being mediated by a central ganglion or proto-brain.
  • The concept of efference copy is introduced, allowing animals to monitor their responses to stimuli and create mental representations.
  • Sentition evolves to become internalized or privatized, leading to a feedback loop between motor and sensory regions of the brain.
  • The privatization of responses results in the creation of a mathematically-complex attractor state, potentially giving rise to phenomenal qualia.
  • The development of phenomenal consciousness is linked to the internalization and stabilization of bodily responses in the brain.
  • Phenomenal consciousness is suggested to be crucial for selfhood and individual significance, leading to a deeper understanding of one's own and others' consciousness.
  • The distribution of consciousness across the animal kingdom is discussed, suggesting that sentience may be a recent evolutionary innovation primarily found in warm-blooded animals like mammals and birds.

34:08

"Temperature's Effect on Animal Consciousness Explored"

  • Nerve cell speed in mammals triples at 40 degrees in birds, reducing feedback loop time lag and enhancing recurrent activation.
  • Speculation arises on the impact of temperature increase on attractor states and the emergence of phenomenal self.
  • The search for evidence of sentience in the animal kingdom is discussed, challenging the notion that sentience is invisible to external observers.
  • The competitive advantage of phenomenal consciousness in animals is explored, focusing on psychological effects and changes in thinking.
  • The speaker's book, "Sentience: The Invention of Consciousness," proposes various ways phenomenal consciousness manifests in behavior.
  • Film clips are shown to illustrate evidence of self-awareness and empathy in animals like chimpanzees, swans, dogs, elephants, and magpies.
  • The speaker argues that only mammals and birds exhibit selfhood, contrasting them with lobsters, lizards, and frogs.
  • The possibility of engineering phenomenal consciousness in octopuses is discussed, with doubts raised about its impact on survival.
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