Somewhere I read that we are consciousness exploring itself and I will never forget that. It helped me understand suffering in the world and changed my perspective on a life. Consciousness is seeking infinite knowledge.
This is 100% true. I was once asked by my father why has it taken me billions of years to be born. This made me ponder life and existence for decades until I realised maybe we are all part of a universal consciousness, what if we are all the same thing? Imagine you are the only person on earth, you are unique, you can feel, touch and experience the world around you but you are alone but you don’t know you are alone because you have never experienced the presence of another you, you are essentially God. Then someone else is introduced to the planet and you gain a friend but you lose a sense of specialness about you because you aren’t so alone anymore. There is another you. Imagine experiencing the journey of the new person. His journey is exactly the same as the first person, the only thing different is he doesn’t see himself as special as he isn’t alone, he sees the person in front of him as God or Father or master. As more and more people are introduced to the system both people’s feelings of specialness become more and more diluted. We are now in a world of billions of You s and we all have the illusion that we as individuals are not special but we are all the First Human. You will only experience life through your senses and I through mine but we share a universal consciousness, I am you, you are me, we are all the consciousness of the universal structure. It is a scary concept as it promotes the fact that you (the universe) will never die. Once this body you occupy dies you will be born into another one. It maybe part of a smaller or larger hierarchical structure, intelligent non intelligent being but ultimately we are all the same thing. Hope this made sense, as it is a hard subject to explain or get your head around.
i agree and i think we all move like a spiral. everything in nature is inherently cyclical, wave-like, and spiral like. look up the quaternion phi spiral interference patterns. we are manifestations of the universe experiencing itself in infinite scales and proportions and forms physically and spiritually.
Matter cannot be created nor destroyed. I imagine that the universe is working to be fully conscious. Think a rock eventually becoming a living rock creature. After this video and comment I think I might can that idea 🤯🫠😵💫
Somewhere I read that we are consciousness exploring itself and I will never forget that. It helped me understand suffering in the world and changed my perspective on a life. Consciousness is seeking infinite knowledge.
That reminds the 3 great statements of Upanishads - 1. Aham bramhasmi - I am the Universe 2. Tat twam asi - You too are the Universe. 3. Idam khalu idam bramhasmi - This (Whatever we are experiencing) is all indeed a bramha - the universe, the existence.
Consciousness And Its Intention, Are All That Was, Is, And All That Will Ever Be! It's Everything in Its Entirety! To Understand It, We Must Firstly Connect and Relate With All Things Through Communication, Until We Know The Intention and Purpose In All Subjects! This Is What Will Give Us The Answer To Everything Past, Present and Future!
That is lazy. It is the exact reason why technocrats, conservatives and facists are destroying our world with ever faster acceleration. It is why Syria is 10xVietnam x Stalingrad. It is why their is so much pain, agony and suffering in the world. Because you decided to be too lazy to defend your beliefs with energy, with truth, with stigma, with every philosophical argument you can find and with every logic argument you can present.
WOW! One of the best presentations of collective consciousness I have ever heard. Brenden, everything you said has confirmed the thoughts that I have had for years. Our earth is alive. Communication between all that exists, Altering long distant outcomes etc. My thoughts amaze even me when they happen. I was skeptical at first and ignored it, but now I can call it and my friends are even bewildered. Science may prove it someday but for now, if people just accept all possibilities... anything is possible. I have to tell everyone that stress and burdens block this universal connectivity or at least it does for me. Thanks Again
conciousness is something you can not talk about. you can point it, you can show to where it might be, but the only way to know it is to experience it. Talking belongs to the brain, to logic, to methods of thinking. conciousness awakes in silence. Brendan has done a good job, a simple aproach to a general audience in 20 minutes.
A Great Talk. (I am Prof G R C. Nair, husband of Ambika) This is also the core belief in 'Adwaita' (Non Duality) 'Vedanta' in Hinduism. One of the 4 'Maha Vakyas' (most profound statements) in the 'Vedas' of Hinduism is "Prajnanam Brahma": 'Prajnanam' is Consciousness and 'Brahma', is 'THAT' (God with no image/shape or any attribute whatsoever, the ultimate concept of one and only impersonal God in Hinduism, same as 'Allah' in Islam or Holy trinity/ Holy Ghost in Christianity). The other 3 'Maha vakyas' are 'Aham Brahmasmi' (I am THAT), 'Tat Twamasii' (Thou art THAT) and 'Ayam Atma Brahma' (My soul is THAT)
We're literally all one. Even according to physics and cosmology of a 20th century. Technically all matter existing today was a unified something back in the day.
This is what i think we have come to call god since. This continuous and infinite consciousness through everything in our universe and other possible universes and dimensions. "As above so below"
I came to that conclusion once while I was on acid actually. Maybe our universe is just one universe in a bigger system of universes that make up a more complex organism, and we don't have the capability to comprehend the bigger organism. And maybe the organisms are endless and keep getting more and more complex. In the same way that cells within our body are a system of cells that make up the more complex organism that is us and they don't have the capability to comprehend us (the system that they make up). I just wish I had a background in physics and biology to write a thesis about it and maybe it could be taken seriously, cuz if I say I was high as fuck on acid when I thought of this I'd probably get laughed at dismissed.
A wonderful study of a difficult topic delivered in a nonstop, confident freeful, manner. The road from atoms to the universe, ,the many ways leading to items like energy, processes, chemical reactions and other details which I feel most òf us did not know details of. Thanks a lot.
Here's a relevant statement by John Venn, on the Aristotelian logicians: "On the old scholastic view the limits [of definition] assigned were quite definite. Every class, except the widest, must be included in some genus, and be marked off from it by a differentia, and must therefore possess the elements of a complete definition. The point needing explanation here, however, is as to what must be reckoned as the widest class. Some writers speak as if this must always have been held to be Being in general. This however was the view of none, or next to none, of the Aristotelian logicians. They took the Categories as their standard, and looked no further upwards than to the highest class in a Category. These ten Categories were regarded as so radically distinct from each other, that it was a misapplication of the process of abstraction to attempt to bring them under one single head. Accordingly the upward limit of definition in each category was reached at the highest class but one in each category. In the other direction the limit was reached when we got down to an infima species; that is, one in which the members were separated by no essential, but only by accidental characteristics. "One other exception must also be noticed. These Categories were by no means intended, as sometimes stated, to be a ‘list of all nameable things’. On the contrary there were a number of things which were definitely excluded from any category, and which were consequently incapable of technical definition. They were generally summed up as follows:- " 'Complexum, Consignificans, Privatio, Fictum, Pars, Deus, Æquivocum, Transcendens, Ens Rationis, Sunt exlusa decem classibus ista novem.' " --John Venn. The Principles of Empirical, or Inductive, Logic. pg. 277-278
The brain is a conduit. You are seeing the areas your SOUL light up as the information is passed back and forth. The SOUL is the repository of all your input from what you experience while occupying your meat suit in this reality/timeline. It is how you can have intuition. Because you are tapped into your soul which there is only ONE soul. Each of us share and it is the UNIVERSAL MIND. You are me before my very eyes. It is why it is so important for each of us to respect each other. As our definition of "SELF" evolves we begin to understand the value of each of us and our unity and diversity. With love
These kinds of ideas are what many people are gravitating towards, especially with the decline of organized religion in the West over the last number of decades.
The" life-death relationship" reminds me of Mandalas or kids construction. The process of components coming to a form and then going back to smaller components. I loved that "visual representation" of both processes.
I understand why you say that. It is important note, however, that the various schools of religion that have appeared throughout human history are the results of different groups of humans attempting to explain the universe.
@@bradmodd7856 as inside, as outside. As up, as down. As microcosms, as macrocosm. The concept is simple. That's why people can realise god as watching over them and at the same time others realizing him or her or it inside themselves. The heart is were the whole universe resides- Rumi. As yogi bhajan said: you won't see god at all if you dont see God in all. An such things that seem normal to you, like viewing god as something above you is probably due to your upbringing, environment and culture and religion. Native people know all these stuff since ever and where never interested in scientific proof, because they just experience interconnectedness and God as real ik their every day life. I will tell you something: I experienced god, Angel's and demons and spirits since I am like 6 years old or something. It is as real as it can be. And it's not what church tells you.1🤣 And not what horror movie show. And the truth about all this is, it's a reality for millions of people which is often denied by scientists simply because they are not open for things which shake their world view. Cause it's scary to what they consider yourself to be wrong. I mean how can like thousands of people around Europe who have a near death experience and come back be just hallucinating? Their character changes often dramatically. And they get abilities like foreseeing the future or healing powers. And there is a scientific research of this still going on in Switzerland. You find it here in UA-cam. And spiritual gifts are not for chosen people. Everyone is a spiritual being making a human experience. And nowadays you can access like any knowledge how to do it. There are books, courses, mediums, religions whatever you want. And if nothing fits you pray for guidance or abilities. I mean ask and you shall receive. But most importantly you have to ask 1 question: why do I do or want that really? What do I gain from it and how will it serve everyone? There are laws in this universe. Use them wisely. But the best thing is to experience it yourself. My personal enlightenment experience was so super unusual that its really funny: I for some reason started liking mother Mary. So I prayed the rosary like mad for less than a week like 30 min to an hour. I just got a little obsessed with it.😉 was studying at that time. So one day in this week I sat in the cafeteria and suddenly out of nowhere I was in higher consciousness. It felt like I was elevated directly to heaven and was absolutely not aware of the cafeteria anymore. The thing is I saw everything in the cafeteria with my physical eyes. But my awareness expanded like in less than a second to the whole freaking universe. I'm mean like the awareness of how god views us. It was pure extacy. It was lunchtime and in the middle of the day. I was not alone. But in was aware of everything which is so overwhelming beautiful that you can't describe it. And the message I got was like: everything is fine and according to plan. Relax. Enjoy your life and always pray. You will be fine like everyone else. Then I sat there normal again. It was the most confusing moment of my life. But ever since I am addicted to that pure extacy and divine grace. What was also confusing was 1.5 years later, and I did not pray at that time, was that mother Mary talked through me to another person while I was having a phone call with him. I could not control my mouth , just said what the person needed to hear from her. In an instant he asked me if I am the goddess. My mouth replied yes and me witnessing that was really strange. I mean I was still in my body. He cried. I tell you god works in mystery. What you need to know is the place you are looking for is the place you are looking from. ( Mooji) And once you connect to what is called god and receive what he, she or it has for you, you will never suffer again. So know thyself. Enjoy the journey! 🙋🏽♀️
What a great exposition, which I have just discovered. I have felt for a long time that consciousness is much more important than the materialists would have us believe. I am not at all religious, so that is not my way of thinking. I have a science degree, and am always in favour of the Scientific Method.
The difference between a human and a plant reacting to external stimuli is that humans can make a decision. This decision making process is surely a completely physical one, of course, but it's something that we're aware of and can reflect on. Now, I'm no biologist, but I don't think a daffodil is going to think "Did I really need those nutrients? I AM on a diet." That's why I feel like Brendan's definition of consciousness is off. Humans and maybe even other animals have the ability to aware of the choices they make. Some of our "decisions" are all reactive like the plant, but we are very aware of them with deliberation. Maybe I'm getting the wrong idea. That's just how I see it. Great video regardless.
Jake Smith that’s because we have brains capable of grasping complex imaginations, such as the future, and with understanding of the future comes decision making
he was saying its all a chemical reaction before its ever a thought. he is not implying that flowers are human. but we both have chemical responses which is what gives us the consciousness.
Consciousness is a matter of definition. If in a country they use the word spoon for fork and the word fork for spoon, it would be foolish for one to say the they got it wrong if it works for them, as if there was an essential spooness for spoons and an essential forkness for forks (there is not). Here is a list of definitions of consciousness from the most holistic to the most reductionist as thought up by myself. Rather than thinking that one is true and the others are fake, one should try and entertain them all, at least as an exercise. -Everything is consciousness/the universe is consciousness. This one is held by many mystics. -All living things are conscious. This one is put forth formally by neurologists Humberto Maturana and Francisco Varela in their theory of Autopoiesis. -Consciousness requires a nervous system: a flat worm is conscious, and amoeba is not. -Consciousness requires a complex enough brain: dogs are conscious, mice are not. -Consciousness requires a complex(er) enough brain: humans are conscious, dogs are not. ¿Where do you draw the line? (not a rhetorical question). -Complex is a function of the frontal lobe. -There is no such thing as consciousness.
Good moves, in the philosophical chess game. I particularly like the early statement that a Higgs Boson did not wait around for science to declare that it existed; and then extrapolated forward, thereby undermining the need for science to declare truth in the future.
From our global brain's perspective, the purpose of our social networks is to vastly speed up the ability to get data, information, knowledge and wisdom from each other. The knitting together of these social networks is analogous to how neurons wire together in the developing brain, and in adult life as learning. I would guess that that our global brain is not yet fully self-conscious. If not, then it has to happen real soon given the ever-accelerating pace of development. Once conscious, what will it think about? It's attention can be both internal and external, though external attention is the natural place for any being to begin. It's thinking "Woah, what's happening?", and then it begins to look around and study everything it becomes aware of. I wonder if that "Woah" marks the moment of singularity? Coincidence? True by definition? Before the social networks was email. Before that, snail mail. Our networks then were knitted by books and roads, exponentially slower. In two days I will upgrade to internet speeds 7.5 times faster than I have today. This is me participating in the switching on of the global brain.
Thats right things exist even if you dont know it yet. Every child at first thinks hiding an object makes it not exist but then we turn 3 or so. The next level is knowing that just because we cant see it doesnt mean it does exist. This guy has the flow of words of a poet but the depth of thoughts of a child. Can anyone defend him? He basically says shit I've heard many times but with scary shallowness leading to gross misunderstandings but I guess people like hearing what they already heard cause it makes them feel smart. The bacteria he talks about inside us we consider an entire organ system in medical school - you are 20x more bacteria than human - our cells have mitochondria that have their own self replicating bacteria-like DNA along side our linear DNA -- now I'm rambling on like this guy :)
arxiv.org/ftp/arxiv/papers/1405/1405.7089.pdf Consciousness:*Here, *There *but *Not*Everywhere by Giulio*Tononi*and* Christof*Koch for a more rigorous examination of the phenomenon.
Over the last year to year and a half I’ve been coming to my own conclusions on this idea, but never quite yet have I found a way to articulate it and this guy put it really well. It needs some refinements still, but this could turn into a new ground breaking philosophy to explain the human state. Also, there is a lost school of thought of Pragmatism that is only more recently coming back into popularity and I believe that pragmatism may be the philosophies of philosophies in that it completely coincides with this consciousness theory in that it forces us to update our definition of reality. I don’t believe that objective reality is the only accurate description of what we find to be factual. The pragmatic definition has to also be true objectively as we are constantly updating the modes of our existence.
Beautiful amazing impressive beautiful soul. Great talk. Thank you, bless you. All your dreams come true. Humans consciousness is delayed by few coz power n status is vital.
12:13 He got the 2nd Law of Thermodynamics wrong. He changed "closed system," to "system." It only applies to closed systems. Very important. He also confuses "consciousness," with "awareness." Plants may be aware of their environment but may not conscious.
+jbrowning134 computers don't perceive, they process. Perception and acknowledgment of your experience is a better way of describing consciousness. Reactivity to external stimuli doesn't mean something is conscious of it's existence.
+Brainbuster You're taking your own quote out of context? lol You said plants may be aware of their environment, but they're not conscious. I found a lot of certainty in that statement. I believe plants do have some level of consciousness....but that's just my opinion.
This was a great talk. Thought-provoking. Inspiring even. At 8:51, he veers off track. Our solar system was formed by massive collisions of asteroids, planetoids, and even planets, so the direct comparison to electrons in an atomic system doesn't hold up even with the obvious similarities. One more thing... Science DOES have a general agreed-upon term for consciousness, yet there are many aspects to what we perceive as consciousness. In addition, there are developing understandings of that definition based on advances in science, physics, sociology, psychology and philosophy. What no one knows is exactly how it arises. What he made clear was the limitation of the term consciousness and how it should include the rest of the animal, plant, bacteria and even smaller so-called lifeforms instead of solely human consciousness. His point about consciousness being applicable to a particular system of a lifeform is on point as well. Once again, even though I'm seeing this video 5 years after it was posted, it was a great talk.
Summary: If you expand your definition of consciousness sufficiently, and your definition of who you are sufficiently, then you can conceive of yourself and all of us as one universal consciousness. A thought that appeals to those seeking a feeling of connection, and perhaps comfort in the face of death.
I think this is a better explanation and much more scientifically coherent of our fundamental interconnectedness then Eckhart Tolles talks on the Ego. If the building blocks of all life are conscious and were all 'made' of such components our sense of I as a separate entity is a powerful misperception probably brought about through our language programs.
Great Talk... and yeah the current research in noetic sciences are now showing the connections we have with one another and how environment is very responsible for the evolution of not just conciousness but also our genetics... Great talk from a very handsome intelligent man ... which makes this speaker even more conscious. ... just saying...
+Jean-Claude Paquette so many awesome people have commented under this video... I have to share my channel with ya... join the thought revolution. thx much!
Of course if we redefine the meaning of a thing (consciousness), we can attribute it to anything you want. He equates consciousness with being able to react to the environment, and completely neglects the fundamental concepts of mental representations (mental models of the world) and free-will. For me, his "incremental" argument comes to a grinding halt as soon as he tries to define consciousness in such simplistic and self-serving terms.
belasius He seemed to jump the shark with his definition of consciousness. Put that physical objects of all scale have consistent tendencies to create order is one thing, to say that this is a form of consciousness is another.
If you look into panpsychism (which some scientists are starting to believe is the best explanation of how consciousness arises) it addresses that point. Panpsychists believe that consciousness is an inherent and irreducible property of existence. There are even universal Panpsychists who believe that everything has some measure of consciousness-that it is something to be that thing. Interesting if nothing else.
I loved the talk. It started me thinking about what consciousness actually means. I would love to hear what others thought about narrowly describing consciousness as the brain’s reaction/response to stored neural patterns. Consciousness defined this way would emerge from subconsciousness which could be defined as the brain’s response to internal and external stimuli. This response would consist of immediate action that sometimes would consist of stored neural patterns known as memories. Meditation could be described as effort to behave more consciously, that is less subconsciously.
Nicely put. I found nothing to disagree with. And it brought to mind "the organism-environment-field" concept I read about in the 60's. I would only add that I think it highly likely that there is a memory component to evolutionary and universal consciousness. In other words, there is within our own unconscious the vague memory of having in some sense "been" other ancestral species from which our own species descended - not only earlier species in the humanoid line, but earlier mammals, even fish, even perhaps single-celled animals. If you have moments when you feel that it is distinctly odd to be a human being, and somewhat disquieting, it may be just in contrast with a random fleeting memory/feeling recalling the contentment experienced by an earlier species on some particular occasion. I have long suspected that our relatively recent development of huge frontal lobes has still not properly "settled in" (integrated) with the rest of our nervous system. We still have some evolving to do before we are completely whole. I hope we have enough time left before extinction to do that.
the higgs boson was predicted as part of the standard model. the last particle of the standard model. there was a hole in the model that exactly predicted the particle.
I like how Brendan Hughes describes his view...very, very much like my own view. Even his definition of consciousness is actually quite similar to my own. I define it as the ability to interact with the environment in a complex manner. Everything from rocks, to trees, to bacteria, to plants, to animals, to brains and even solar systems are interactive in varying levels of complexity. The only thing that would make more sense is if he just completely dropped the word consciousness because everything he describes are in essence interactions...some simple...some very complex. We do not live in a "conscious" universe, we live in an interactive universe. You know what the really hard problem of consciousness is? It's getting humans to stop dwelling on the silly word "consciousness". We are interactive like everything else, that is all.
So to clarify your point, the best way to describe these interactions is merely one of cause and effect, of causality, and not necessarily "consciousness"? Is there another aspect of "consciousness" that could be understood as distinct from "causality"?
I just thought of this idea. All of a sudden it came into my mind and I was like...."I wonder if there are any videos out there about it". Sure enough I am here lol
This is what I have known intuitively for yrs, but could not put into words. Thank you for posting this! There is a god and it’s Universal Consciousness. My first grade teacher at Catholic school explained this concept by using grapes on a grapevine as our being one with God. She didn’t realize her religion lesson started my agnostic belief system.
Step 1: extend the definition of consciousness to anything that reacts in any way to its environment. Step 2: observe that everything we know is subject to natural forces, hence it reacts to its environment. Step 3: conclude that everything is conscious. OMG, what a weak argument! He's just playing with words. It's depressing to think that people can actually fall for this. Perhaps it's because the speaker is handsome, looks intelligent, humane, and speaks eloquently? It might also be because he appeals to feelings rather than reason: don't you *want* to be part of something greater? Perhaps millions of years of evolution in small tribes have taught us that being excluded means death, so we yearn to be a part of something greater (a powerful tribe), we try to look as humble as possible to avoid social exclusion (eg. "we are just insignificant part of a greater consciousness"), and we follow the leader.
Currently, I believe conciousness is the awareness that these processes are happening and not the name given to the processes themselves. I was also under the impression this was the current general consensus for the definition of conciousness. This is why I have trouble understanding the concept Brendan in proposing. I understand that reactions in our brain enable us to function similarly to how particles and planets react do to their surroundings/ environments, but that does not inherently imply these systems are aware that these processes are happening. To me, it seems as though Brendan has just redefined what conciousness is. However I could be completely misunderstanding his argument, so I would be grateful if someone could help me understand this better.
+josh kiff He is trying to claim that forms of our biology like plants have consciousness.... wrong; plants don't have brains and they are purely reactionary. Genetic memory; epigenetic responses over time.... I have a series that explains this... join the thought revolution. I recommend watching the intro to my channel 1st, then the emergent consciousness series. Join the thought revolution!
As such all religious prophecy is more or less a prediction of what appears to be destruction from our individual ego but will ultimately be reunion and reordering back into oneness
'emergence'? why is this being treated as a new question? As long as man has had the ability to conceive of the question 'why?' we have been a part of that emergence.
My consciousness is knowing that I know. A plant may follow the sun, but it doesn't know that it follows the sun. Consciousness needs information and Cannot "exist" without it, but information does not need consciousness. Hope you're well Brendan. Chris Cochrane
The social network is a machine consciousness based on computer. The research engine is another kind of computer consciousness. One person has a smart phone is a component of the computer consciousness.
This is an excellent theory of consciousness. Rooting the basis for consciousness in the electron, its charge and energy-communication characteristics, is key. It is amazing to think about how many different forms of consciousness could exist at all levels of energy-organization. If this is true, then computers may well be conscious as well as plants, as well as refrigerators and tables, all in very different ways. Anthrocentrism makes it difficult to think about what it might be like to experience electron-reverberations in such forms without the corresponding sensations that come from gut feelings influenced by thoughts, memories, etc. A table may well hear the sound when you knock on it without thinking about the sound in any way, comparing it with any memory of any earlier sounds it experienced, having any feelings about the sound, etc. . . . and yet the table may experience the sound of the knock just as we do hearing it with living ears. Fascinating.
The laws of physics are not consciousness. All we know about consciousness is that it's a hard problem and a mystery, and we mere humans have to be humble about our lacking in knowledge of it. It can and is being progressively solved by professionals who work much harder than this guy to come up with answers. Even they (being the most eager to find the answers) can put such patience and care into their research. I'm no professional, but I am conscious enough to doubt that the chemical system of melted silica sand in the window in front of me could be consciously keeping itself as glass... This shit just pisses me off because these New Agers always like talking about shedding our excesses of ego and stuff - which I think is good and all, but then they'd often plunge into the woo like this guy here, clearly feeling so much pride in their claiming to just 'know' the answers for everything. Anyway my point is, the new age movement and their sages should be kept out of TED, nuff said.
The reason why I am conscious and an electron is not is because i can choose to respond or not. We have to interrupt them in order to make them collide.
You know what, i can add time dimension to his components and call this hypothesis mine, i'd call it the general hyphotesis of collective conciousness relativity, where in all conciousness, past present and future are actually one big hollistic system.
Today, there are 2 type of consciousness study; 1. The easy problem of consciousness 2. The hard problem of consciousness You are only addressing the first part.
Interesting to broaden the concept of consciousness and in the same time reduce it to navigating or relating to objects and different qualities in physics as electromagnetism and gravity. Maybe we can agree that there exist different sorts of consciousness and that their is no clear understanding of it. And that this may be interpreted individually one for every person on this planet. One example is of a person who sees himself as part of a holistic system and reacts in context with this, and a person wich refers to himself as an autonomos biological entity.
I thought I could come up with a better idea for a consciousness field. The bond breaking of organic chemistry creates quantum entanglements. The biological cell does an enormous amount of bond breaking. All biological cells create quantum entangled fields that persist after death of the biological organism. They just "float away". That is also true of human beings. The cells weave together a quantum field ghost. when the body dies, the ghost persists for days, weeks, years, centuries.
Very thought provoking idea indeed. I wonder what factor determines one to be in an microbial level consciousness vs an consciousness on a human or planetary level? There must be a determine law that puts each of us on certain level due to Karmic reasons or simply by rightful use of that gift-Consciousness.
It’s a dogmatic perspective. In an infinite time line there is room for every possible event. And the attempt to quantify is in itself an infinite path. In mathematical terms, between 1 and 2 there are infinite other numbers. Karma will emerges by the fact that whatever is that we do it echoes through eternity. Even a fart can influence a hurricane. Also known as the butterfly effect.
I've always had trouble understanding why people have such a problem with this concept. Who was it that said the simplest answer is usually the right one? I can't remember, but when I look at the hoops through which people's belief systems must go in order to avoid considering what seems to me to be perfectly obvious - that there is a universal intelligence - I flip between amusement and frustration, depending on the day. We have the quality of intelligence; other animals also have it, to varying degrees. So the concept of it is proven by virtue of our existence. What, then, is the great leap in thinking or imagination required in order to conceive of an intelligence beyond the construct of 3 dimensional time and space? It can be called anything - 'God' is just a word, after all. There is nothing personal about it. There is also everything personal about it when we are experiencing life as individuals. But for me, truth is often found in paradox so this also makes sense. It just seems to get a lot of people really riled up; this idea of "God" being real. I have the same sense of confusion around people's trouble with the idea of reincarnation. Surely the 'miracle' is that we're here at all. And since we know we are (here I mean), isn't it a much smaller jump to understand there is a continuous repetition of the experience? Although linear time is a 3 dimensional construct, so the idea of 'returning' is misleading. It's all happening 'now'. But that's another subject.
Yes. My argument to people who argue that there has to be a creator is, why believe in something so significantly much more complex then just look at evolution of the mind. Why is this complex idea of this so called god so comforting compared to emergence. The fact that we exist as one and are part of this profound chaotic beautiful universe is beyond miraculous. Yet people look for these miracles in toast.
Demention94 I don't think we quite agree (or maybe we do?). You mention that you see the world as chaotic. I see it as chaotic to us but, in reality, very ordered. Kind of like one of those expensive Turkish rugs. Look underneath (the human side) and it's a seemingly disordered mess - pieces of wool going every-which-way. But turn it over (the view from a broader Intelligence) and there is beauty and complete order, made from what looks like chaos. It's a question of perspective to me. Admittedly, that is not the best analogy. I'd love a response - it's clear that we both have pondered over this.
***** I said the universe is chaotic. (Not the world) Asteroids waiting to collide at any given moment, harsh climate conditions on most planets, black holes..etc
***** The fundamental problem with God, is the promise of life after death. This guy here tells you that just as bacteria disintegrates into inferior components upon death, so do people disintegrate into inferior components upon death. God or Buddha or Allah, do not exist. There may exist a consciousness of a higher order of organization, and we might be the "bacteria" that allows it to function. Nietzsche already defined the concept, in his Will to Power. A human is a collective of entities expressing their Will to Power. Will to Power means growth. The perfect candidate for this higher conscience whose constituent parts are the humans and other organisms on Earth, is the DNA. DNA creates us, and it programs us to do stuff to perpetuate his existence. Thus, the DNA is the Creator and Omnipotent and Immortal entity that "speaks" to us from within us. The way it "speaks" to us is the Unconscious. We are genetically programmed to survive and reproduce, love and fight, strive and achieve. These are fundamental directives to which we submit against any conscious effort of not doing so.
I came to a (possibly premature) conclusion several years ago that consciousness was the primary fundamental fabric of the universe, so I agree with what he say's here. However I think his physics were kind of weak. I think our best evidence for this idea is the quantum measurement problem. John Conway and others have produced what they call the "free will theorem" a mathematically rigorous theorem concerning the quantum measurement process.
Very few physicists actually believe that consciousness is the cause of the quantum wave function collapse (and I suspect that most of them have religious motivations). Other interpretations of the quantum measurement don't involve consciousness at all. For example, the many-worlds interpretation claims that when you measure a particle in superposed states A and B, your own atoms interact with this particle and join the state superposition. There ends up being two superposed versions of you: one that observes A, and the other that observes B. We know that small groups of particles behave like this (they join the state superposition), so this interpretation simply assumes that it is true also for large groups of particles such as your body. It is a much simpler and consistent theory than postulating the existence of a universal consciousness (which would require a proper definition anyway). Just my 2 cents. :)
13:24 "I believe that consciousness will emerge wherever and whenever complex organizing systems [/structures] and forms emerge, but it will be a consciousness of a type that is relevant to that complex system [/structure] or form ..." His views might be consistent or compatible with Galen Strawson's realistic monism... See: "why physicalism entails panpsychism"!
I AM! IS! THE CREATOR! I AM! IS! THE SINGULARITY! I AM! IS THE WAY! IT'S CREATION THAT DELIVERS! NO! That is B.S. that something always existed before WE SAY " I AM! " OUR WORD IS OUR COMMAND! CAN YOU SAY! " I AM! " ?
Moving parts, moving planets = consciousness? I don't think so. When my computer boots up, I see the screen that says "welcome." When it actually means it -- that's when I'll change my opinion.
This speech seemed more like a hypothetical thought experiment than someone trying to prove or argue a point. I would have preferred more elaboration on human collective consciousness. Nice ideas but more relevance needed I think.
Still haven't got the answer I'm looking for... if conciousness came into existence where does it originate from ?has it always existed? how could everything living become aware of self?...there's too man questions that have an answer but will remaina mystery...
Love it! I wrote a thesis in undergrad exploring the evolution of Consciousness and Memes where the summation was this, wo the (): Cycle after cycle (life) Form changes form (the world) And Spirit (consciousness) gives rise to directive action (change)
Brant Hindman Did you say wo the (): ????? Lost me there. Some use the world God, Creator, etc. ... Consciousness is what, to many spiritual teachings is, the whole enchilada. Or, put in another way, I had a friend who used to say to me,"God is everything or God is nothing." I figured that Consciousness/God is everything. There is nothing else, but Consciousness continually morphing, yet still always constant as itself ... the I AM. Talk about the ultimate Creative force and undisputed performance artist. In life, despite all the changes a person may experience in all ways, physical, mental, etc., there always is the 'I" throughout all the stages ... we are never not continuously changing form and character, and other aspects of being human. Still, there is this one thing that is constant and does not change ... that is being aware and being conscious. Or in non-duality speak: Awareness and Consciousness (both or one or the other, depending on who is speaking). I do a lot of non-duality investigation in various venues. Ciao
i think people's patronising comments about this mans thoughts are unfair. We can't dismiss any possibility based on what we know now. Surely we have learnt this lesson ?
Welcome to UA-cam. The place to go to make yourself feel superior to some of the most intelligent and accomplished people in the world by making snide comments on their TED videos.
I believe that there is nothing more powerful than an idea whose time has come, and that the universe is unfolding in mysterious ways, way beyond our limited comprehension.
So if his definition of consciousness is the ability to detect and react to things in your environment, would that include NPC’s in a video game? Or maybe even A.I. in general?
0 and consciousness are the same, they are the only inexperiencables that underlie all experience. Consciousness pervades all the universe as an empty point allowing dualistic play relative to it, as zero does. All numbers stem from the root of zero: -3, -2, -1, 0, 1, 2, 3, numbers are a representation of 0 when the positive and negative are not balanced, change the scale (perspective) and you can have numbers endlessly heading toward/ or away from zero. The whole process of existence can be regarded as balanced unbalance, unbalanced balance. Zero is infinitely vast and minuscule and through a relationship with zero all is.
This is the Universe completely and articulately explaining itself to itself, even though it already understands this state of being.
I just came to that realization by myself an hour ago truly incomprensible experience
This is exactly what it is, thanks for the insight. I hadn't thought of it this way.
Somewhere I read that we are consciousness exploring itself and I will never forget that. It helped me understand suffering in the world and changed my perspective on a life. Consciousness is seeking infinite knowledge.
Opinions opinions. Thats all people have. Each thinking they made some profound discovery. Its all been said before and said better
This is 100% true. I was once asked by my father why has it taken me billions of years to be born. This made me ponder life and existence for decades until I realised maybe we are all part of a universal consciousness, what if we are all the same thing?
Imagine you are the only person on earth, you are unique, you can feel, touch and experience the world around you but you are alone but you don’t know you are alone because you have never experienced the presence of another you, you are essentially God.
Then someone else is introduced to the planet and you gain a friend but you lose a sense of specialness about you because you aren’t so alone anymore. There is another you.
Imagine experiencing the journey of the new person. His journey is exactly the same as the first person, the only thing different is he doesn’t see himself as special as he isn’t alone, he sees the person in front of him as God or Father or master.
As more and more people are introduced to the system both people’s feelings of specialness become more and more diluted.
We are now in a world of billions of You s and we all have the illusion that we as individuals are not special but we are all the First Human.
You will only experience life through your senses and I through mine but we share a universal consciousness, I am you, you are me, we are all the consciousness of the universal structure.
It is a scary concept as it promotes the fact that you (the universe) will never die. Once this body you occupy dies you will be born into another one. It maybe part of a smaller or larger hierarchical structure, intelligent non intelligent being but ultimately we are all the same thing.
Hope this made sense, as it is a hard subject to explain or get your head around.
i agree and i think we all move like a spiral. everything in nature is inherently cyclical, wave-like, and spiral like. look up the quaternion phi spiral interference patterns. we are manifestations of the universe experiencing itself in infinite scales and proportions and forms physically and spiritually.
It's not a scary concept. I'm more intrigued by it
Matter cannot be created nor destroyed.
I imagine that the universe is working to be fully conscious. Think a rock eventually becoming a living rock creature.
After this video and comment I think I might can that idea 🤯🫠😵💫
Somewhere I read that we are consciousness exploring itself and I will never forget that. It helped me understand suffering in the world and changed my perspective on a life. Consciousness is seeking infinite knowledge.
Watched many talks, this one is one of the good ones for sure. Good job Branden
That had to be the most elegant description of death I’ve heard 😊. I wasn’t expecting this definition of consciousness.. great perspective 👍
That reminds the 3 great statements of Upanishads -
1. Aham bramhasmi - I am the Universe
2. Tat twam asi - You too are the Universe.
3. Idam khalu idam bramhasmi - This (Whatever we are experiencing) is all indeed a bramha - the universe, the existence.
"I am me as you are me and we are all togther." The Beatles
Consciousness And Its Intention, Are All That Was, Is, And All That Will Ever Be! It's Everything in Its Entirety!
To Understand It, We Must Firstly Connect and Relate With All Things Through Communication, Until We Know The Intention and Purpose In All Subjects!
This Is What Will Give Us The Answer To Everything Past, Present and Future!
I am - just am...
Being lived - by life..
Positive energy for everyone!
This video basically sums my beliefs on existence. Instead of having to explain myself if someone asks i'll just send them to this video. ;)
That is lazy. It is the exact reason why technocrats, conservatives and facists are destroying our world with ever faster acceleration. It is why Syria is 10xVietnam x Stalingrad. It is why their is so much pain, agony and suffering in the world.
Because you decided to be too lazy to defend your beliefs with energy, with truth, with stigma, with every philosophical argument you can find and with every logic argument you can present.
To be fair its a response to the worlds laziness
WOW! One of the best presentations of collective consciousness I have ever heard. Brenden, everything you said has confirmed the thoughts that I have had for years. Our earth is alive. Communication between all that exists, Altering long distant outcomes etc. My thoughts amaze even me when they happen. I was skeptical at first and ignored it, but now I can call it and my friends are even bewildered. Science may prove it someday but for now, if people just accept all possibilities... anything is possible. I have to tell everyone that stress and burdens block this universal connectivity or at least it does for me. Thanks Again
conciousness is something you can not talk about. you can point it, you can show to where it might be, but the only way to know it is to experience it. Talking belongs to the brain, to logic, to methods of thinking. conciousness awakes in silence.
Brendan has done a good job, a simple aproach to a general audience in 20 minutes.
A Great Talk. (I am Prof G R C. Nair, husband of Ambika) This is also the core belief in 'Adwaita' (Non Duality) 'Vedanta' in Hinduism. One of the 4 'Maha Vakyas' (most profound statements) in the 'Vedas' of Hinduism is "Prajnanam Brahma": 'Prajnanam' is Consciousness and 'Brahma', is 'THAT' (God with no image/shape or any attribute whatsoever, the ultimate concept of one and only impersonal God in Hinduism, same as 'Allah' in Islam or Holy trinity/ Holy Ghost in Christianity). The other 3 'Maha vakyas' are 'Aham Brahmasmi' (I am THAT), 'Tat Twamasii' (Thou art THAT) and 'Ayam Atma Brahma' (My soul is THAT)
I am currently imagining this guys bacteria holding its own ted-talk at the same time of this one.
We're literally all one. Even according to physics and cosmology of a 20th century. Technically all matter existing today was a unified something back in the day.
And apparently when it's all taken to the 'start' the amount of matter is no bigger than the size of a pea. Most of existence is space.
coming to life to experience itself. Cheers for realizing that :) Let's spread that knowledge. I think you'll enjoy my channel !
@DJ Leeman one year later and did you get your answer yet?
This is what i think we have come to call god since. This continuous and infinite consciousness through everything in our universe and other possible universes and dimensions. "As above so below"
I came to that conclusion once while I was on acid actually. Maybe our universe is just one universe in a bigger system of universes that make up a more complex organism, and we don't have the capability to comprehend the bigger organism. And maybe the organisms are endless and keep getting more and more complex. In the same way that cells within our body are a system of cells that make up the more complex organism that is us and they don't have the capability to comprehend us (the system that they make up). I just wish I had a background in physics and biology to write a thesis about it and maybe it could be taken seriously, cuz if I say I was high as fuck on acid when I thought of this I'd probably get laughed at dismissed.
hallelujah and amen!
this is what i believe in. it is called scientific pantheism.
Name Less and those universes become multivereses, each multiverse having many universes with their own laws of physics
A wonderful study of a difficult topic delivered in a nonstop, confident freeful, manner.
The road from atoms to the universe, ,the many ways leading to items like energy, processes, chemical reactions and other details which I feel most òf us did not know details of.
Thanks a lot.
Here's a relevant statement by John Venn, on the Aristotelian logicians:
"On the old scholastic view the limits [of definition] assigned were quite definite. Every class, except the widest, must be included in some genus, and be marked off from it by a differentia, and must therefore possess the elements of a complete definition. The point needing explanation here, however, is as to what must be reckoned as the widest class. Some writers speak as if this must always have been held to be Being in general. This however was the view of none, or next to none, of the Aristotelian logicians. They took the Categories as their standard, and looked no further upwards than to the highest class in a Category. These ten Categories were regarded as so radically distinct from each other, that it was a misapplication of the process of abstraction to attempt to bring them under one single head. Accordingly the upward limit of definition in each category was reached at the highest class but one in each category. In the other direction the limit was reached when we got down to an infima species; that is, one in which the members were separated by no essential, but only by accidental characteristics.
"One other exception must also be noticed. These Categories were by no means intended, as sometimes stated, to be a ‘list of all nameable things’. On the contrary there were a number of things which were definitely excluded from any category, and which were consequently incapable of technical definition. They were generally summed up as follows:-
" 'Complexum, Consignificans, Privatio, Fictum,
Pars, Deus, Æquivocum, Transcendens, Ens Rationis,
Sunt exlusa decem classibus ista novem.' "
--John Venn. The Principles of Empirical, or Inductive, Logic. pg. 277-278
A universal truth eloquently expressed.
Well spoken . This is much better then listening to materialistic scientific stories and jargons
The brain is a conduit. You are seeing the areas your SOUL light up as the information is passed back and forth. The SOUL is the repository of all your input from what you experience while occupying your meat suit in this reality/timeline. It is how you can have intuition. Because you are tapped into your soul which there is only ONE soul. Each of us share and it is the UNIVERSAL MIND. You are me before my very eyes. It is why it is so important for each of us to respect each other. As our definition of "SELF" evolves we begin to understand the value of each of us and our unity and diversity. With love
Beautiful talk. Thank you!
thank you brendan hughes sir your give very micro ditels in your video so anybody can understand. thank you once again.
These kinds of ideas are what many people are gravitating towards, especially with the decline of organized religion in the West over the last number of decades.
Namaste
यतो वाचो निवर्तन्ते। अप्राप्य मनसा सह।
Taittiriya Upanishad
Meaning : Brahman (Universal consciousness) is beyond the speech and mind.
The" life-death relationship" reminds me of Mandalas or kids construction. The process of components coming to a form and then going back to smaller components. I loved that "visual representation" of both processes.
I believe in consciences rather than modern religion. ...
You are on the right path.....
Religion is belief/culture of a certain group.
I understand why you say that. It is important note, however, that the various schools of religion that have appeared throughout human history are the results of different groups of humans attempting to explain the universe.
You should read carl Jung on synchronicity
Great understanding of universal consciousness......we are ONE and part of the whole (ONEness)
No human on this planet needs to get approvals or wait for scientists to experience an awakening of your own consciousness. God lives within us all.
what about outside us? It has been the normal view that god is watching us from outside
@@bradmodd7856 as inside, as outside. As up, as down. As microcosms, as macrocosm.
The concept is simple. That's why people can realise god as watching over them and at the same time others realizing him or her or it inside themselves.
The heart is were the whole universe resides- Rumi.
As yogi bhajan said: you won't see god at all if you dont see God in all.
An such things that seem normal to you, like viewing god as something above you is probably due to your upbringing, environment and culture and religion.
Native people know all these stuff since ever and where never interested in scientific proof, because they just experience interconnectedness and God as real ik their every day life.
I will tell you something: I experienced god, Angel's and demons and spirits since I am like 6 years old or something. It is as real as it can be. And it's not what church tells you.1🤣
And not what horror movie show. And the truth about all this is, it's a reality for millions of people which is often denied by scientists simply because they are not open for things which shake their world view. Cause it's scary to what they consider yourself to be wrong.
I mean how can like thousands of people around Europe who have a near death experience and come back be just hallucinating? Their character changes often dramatically. And they get abilities like foreseeing the future or healing powers. And there is a scientific research of this still going on in Switzerland. You find it here in UA-cam.
And spiritual gifts are not for chosen people. Everyone is a spiritual being making a human experience. And nowadays you can access like any knowledge how to do it. There are books, courses, mediums, religions whatever you want.
And if nothing fits you pray for guidance or abilities.
I mean ask and you shall receive.
But most importantly you have to ask 1 question: why do I do or want that really? What do I gain from it and how will it serve everyone?
There are laws in this universe. Use them wisely.
But the best thing is to experience it yourself.
My personal enlightenment experience was so super unusual that its really funny: I for some reason started liking mother Mary. So I prayed the rosary like mad for less than a week like 30 min to an hour. I just got a little obsessed with it.😉 was studying at that time. So one day in this week I sat in the cafeteria and suddenly out of nowhere I was in higher consciousness. It felt like I was elevated directly to heaven and was absolutely not aware of the cafeteria anymore. The thing is I saw everything in the cafeteria with my physical eyes. But my awareness expanded like in less than a second to the whole freaking universe. I'm mean like the awareness of how god views us. It was pure extacy. It was lunchtime and in the middle of the day. I was not alone. But in was aware of everything which is so overwhelming beautiful that you can't describe it. And the message I got was like: everything is fine and according to plan. Relax. Enjoy your life and always pray. You will be fine like everyone else.
Then I sat there normal again. It was the most confusing moment of my life. But ever since I am addicted to that pure extacy and divine grace.
What was also confusing was 1.5 years later, and I did not pray at that time, was that mother Mary talked through me to another person while I was having a phone call with him. I could not control my mouth , just said what the person needed to hear from her. In an instant he asked me if I am the goddess. My mouth replied yes and me witnessing that was really strange. I mean I was still in my body. He cried.
I tell you god works in mystery.
What you need to know is the place you are looking for is the place you are looking from. ( Mooji)
And once you connect to what is called god and receive what he, she or it has for you, you will never suffer again.
So know thyself.
Enjoy the journey! 🙋🏽♀️
A Ted Talk is its own brand of humor!
What a great exposition, which I have just discovered.
I have felt for a long time that consciousness is much more important than the materialists would have us believe.
I am not at all religious, so that is not my way of thinking.
I have a science degree, and am always in favour of the Scientific Method.
The difference between a human and a plant reacting to external stimuli is that humans can make a decision. This decision making process is surely a completely physical one, of course, but it's something that we're aware of and can reflect on. Now, I'm no biologist, but I don't think a daffodil is going to think "Did I really need those nutrients? I AM on a diet." That's why I feel like Brendan's definition of consciousness is off. Humans and maybe even other animals have the ability to aware of the choices they make. Some of our "decisions" are all reactive like the plant, but we are very aware of them with deliberation.
Maybe I'm getting the wrong idea. That's just how I see it. Great video regardless.
Jake Smith that’s because we have brains capable of grasping complex imaginations, such as the future, and with understanding of the future comes decision making
he was saying its all a chemical reaction before its ever a thought. he is not implying that flowers are human. but we both have chemical responses which is what gives us the consciousness.
Consciousness is a matter of definition. If in a country they use the word spoon for fork and the word fork for spoon, it would be foolish for one to say the they got it wrong if it works for them, as if there was an essential spooness for spoons and an essential forkness for forks (there is not). Here is a list of definitions of consciousness from the most holistic to the most reductionist as thought up by myself. Rather than thinking that one is true and the others are fake, one should try and entertain them all, at least as an exercise.
-Everything is consciousness/the universe is consciousness. This one is held by many mystics.
-All living things are conscious. This one is put forth formally by neurologists Humberto Maturana and Francisco Varela in their theory of Autopoiesis.
-Consciousness requires a nervous system: a flat worm is conscious, and amoeba is not.
-Consciousness requires a complex enough brain: dogs are conscious, mice are not.
-Consciousness requires a complex(er) enough brain: humans are conscious, dogs are not. ¿Where do you draw the line? (not a rhetorical question).
-Complex is a function of the frontal lobe.
-There is no such thing as consciousness.
Santiago Diazgranados actually dogs are conscious.. If they weren’t they wouldn’t respond to your commands,etc
Alan Watts?
Good moves, in the philosophical chess game. I particularly like the early statement that a Higgs Boson did not wait around for science to declare that it existed; and then extrapolated forward, thereby undermining the need for science to declare truth in the future.
From our global brain's perspective, the purpose of our social networks is to vastly speed up the ability to get data, information, knowledge and wisdom from each other. The knitting together of these social networks is analogous to how neurons wire together in the developing brain, and in adult life as learning. I would guess that that our global brain is not yet fully self-conscious. If not, then it has to happen real soon given the ever-accelerating pace of development. Once conscious, what will it think about? It's attention can be both internal and external, though external attention is the natural place for any being to begin. It's thinking "Woah, what's happening?", and then it begins to look around and study everything it becomes aware of. I wonder if that "Woah" marks the moment of singularity? Coincidence? True by definition? Before the social networks was email. Before that, snail mail. Our networks then were knitted by books and roads, exponentially slower. In two days I will upgrade to internet speeds 7.5 times faster than I have today. This is me participating in the switching on of the global brain.
Thats right things exist even if you dont know it yet. Every child at first thinks hiding an object makes it not exist but then we turn 3 or so. The next level is knowing that just because we cant see it doesnt mean it does exist. This guy has the flow of words of a poet but the depth of thoughts of a child. Can anyone defend him? He basically says shit I've heard many times but with scary shallowness leading to gross misunderstandings but I guess people like hearing what they already heard cause it makes them feel smart. The bacteria he talks about inside us we consider an entire organ system in medical school - you are 20x more bacteria than human - our cells have mitochondria that have their own self replicating bacteria-like DNA along side our linear DNA -- now I'm rambling on like this guy :)
arxiv.org/ftp/arxiv/papers/1405/1405.7089.pdf Consciousness:*Here, *There *but *Not*Everywhere by Giulio*Tononi*and* Christof*Koch for a more rigorous examination of the phenomenon.
Perfectly put!
Excellent..... thanks.
Over the last year to year and a half I’ve been coming to my own conclusions on this idea, but never quite yet have I found a way to articulate it and this guy put it really well. It needs some refinements still, but this could turn into a new ground breaking philosophy to explain the human state. Also, there is a lost school of thought of Pragmatism that is only more recently coming back into popularity and I believe that pragmatism may be the philosophies of philosophies in that it completely coincides with this consciousness theory in that it forces us to update our definition of reality. I don’t believe that objective reality is the only accurate description of what we find to be factual. The pragmatic definition has to also be true objectively as we are constantly updating the modes of our existence.
Shaivism?
Beautiful amazing impressive beautiful soul. Great talk. Thank you, bless you. All your dreams come true. Humans consciousness is delayed by few coz power n status is vital.
12:13 He got the 2nd Law of Thermodynamics wrong.
He changed "closed system," to "system."
It only applies to closed systems. Very important.
He also confuses "consciousness," with "awareness."
Plants may be aware of their environment but may not conscious.
Thank god I'm not the only one that had an issue with these errors.
+jbrowning134 computers don't perceive, they process. Perception and acknowledgment of your experience is a better way of describing consciousness. Reactivity to external stimuli doesn't mean something is conscious of it's existence.
H
Shawn Thompson
I said, "may be... not conscious."
Where do you find certainty in my statement?
+Brainbuster You're taking your own quote out of context? lol You said plants may be aware of their environment, but they're not conscious. I found a lot of certainty in that statement. I believe plants do have some level of consciousness....but that's just my opinion.
Excellent.. explained beautifully in plain language.. thanks 🙏.
I’d say artificial intelligence is going to be the next holistic step up from our consciousness that we become a component of.
Now we've got LaMDA :)
Thank you for this good speach.
This was a great talk. Thought-provoking. Inspiring even. At 8:51, he veers off track. Our solar system was formed by massive collisions of asteroids, planetoids, and even planets, so the direct comparison to electrons in an atomic system doesn't hold up even with the obvious similarities. One more thing...
Science DOES have a general agreed-upon term for consciousness, yet there are many aspects to what we perceive as consciousness. In addition, there are developing understandings of that definition based on advances in science, physics, sociology, psychology and philosophy. What no one knows is exactly how it arises. What he made clear was the limitation of the term consciousness and how it should include the rest of the animal, plant, bacteria and even smaller so-called lifeforms instead of solely human consciousness. His point about consciousness being applicable to a particular system of a lifeform is on point as well.
Once again, even though I'm seeing this video 5 years after it was posted, it was a great talk.
Yusef Endure Whats the definition then?:)
Lots of negative comments but just so yall know I approve of this guy's message
Summary: If you expand your definition of consciousness sufficiently, and your definition of who you are sufficiently, then you can conceive of yourself and all of us as one universal consciousness.
A thought that appeals to those seeking a feeling of connection, and perhaps comfort in the face of death.
I think this is a better explanation and much more scientifically coherent of our fundamental interconnectedness then Eckhart Tolles talks on the Ego. If the building blocks of all life are conscious and were all 'made' of such components our sense of I as a separate entity is a powerful misperception probably brought about through our language programs.
Great Talk... and yeah the current research in noetic sciences are now showing the connections we have with one another and how environment is very responsible for the evolution of not just conciousness but also our genetics... Great talk from a very handsome intelligent man ... which makes this speaker even more conscious. ... just saying...
+Jean-Claude Paquette so many awesome people have commented under this video... I have to share my channel with ya... join the thought revolution. thx much!
Of course if we redefine the meaning of a thing (consciousness), we can attribute it to anything you want. He equates consciousness with being able to react to the environment, and completely neglects the fundamental concepts of mental representations (mental models of the world) and free-will. For me, his "incremental" argument comes to a grinding halt as soon as he tries to define consciousness in such simplistic and self-serving terms.
belasius He seemed to jump the shark with his definition of consciousness. Put that physical objects of all scale have consistent tendencies to create order is one thing, to say that this is a form of consciousness is another.
If you look into panpsychism (which some scientists are starting to believe is the best explanation of how consciousness arises) it addresses that point. Panpsychists believe that consciousness is an inherent and irreducible property of existence. There are even universal Panpsychists who believe that everything has some measure of consciousness-that it is something to be that thing. Interesting if nothing else.
The observer is the projector.
Creation Delivers.
Deep and profound! A nice way to sum up quantum entanglement
Very well put together
I loved the talk. It started me thinking about what consciousness actually means. I would love to hear what others thought about narrowly describing consciousness as the brain’s reaction/response to stored neural patterns. Consciousness defined this way would emerge from subconsciousness which could be defined as the brain’s response to internal and external stimuli. This response would consist of immediate action that sometimes would consist of stored neural patterns known as memories.
Meditation could be described as effort to behave more consciously, that is less subconsciously.
Brilliant!
! I love that 😍
Here,there and everywhere.- The Beatles
This is some amazing insight
Consciousness is the symptom or the aura of the soul . The soul is eternal.
Nicely put. I found nothing to disagree with. And it brought to mind "the organism-environment-field" concept I read about in the 60's. I would only add that I think it highly likely that there is a memory component to evolutionary and universal consciousness. In other words, there is within our own unconscious the vague memory of having in some sense "been" other ancestral species from which our own species descended - not only earlier species in the humanoid line, but earlier mammals, even fish, even perhaps single-celled animals. If you have moments when you feel that it is distinctly odd to be a human being, and somewhat disquieting, it may be just in contrast with a random fleeting memory/feeling recalling the contentment experienced by an earlier species on some particular occasion. I have long suspected that our relatively recent development of huge frontal lobes has still not properly "settled in" (integrated) with the rest of our nervous system. We still have some evolving to do before we are completely whole. I hope we have enough time left before extinction to do that.
Does anyone know where i can find more writing/ work by Brendan Hughes?
the higgs boson was predicted as part of the standard model. the last particle of the standard model. there was a hole in the model that exactly predicted the particle.
I like how Brendan Hughes describes his view...very, very much like my own view. Even his definition of consciousness is actually quite similar to my own. I define it as the ability to interact with the environment in a complex manner. Everything from rocks, to trees, to bacteria, to plants, to animals, to brains and even solar systems are interactive in varying levels of complexity.
The only thing that would make more sense is if he just completely dropped the word consciousness because everything he describes are in essence interactions...some simple...some very complex. We do not live in a "conscious" universe, we live in an interactive universe.
You know what the really hard problem of consciousness is? It's getting humans to stop dwelling on the silly word "consciousness". We are interactive like everything else, that is all.
So to clarify your point, the best way to describe these interactions is merely one of cause and effect, of causality, and not necessarily "consciousness"? Is there another aspect of "consciousness" that could be understood as distinct from "causality"?
Brilliant.
Religions have been pointing to this conclusion forever
Now science is
That's lovely I'll finally be able to realize myself
I just thought of this idea. All of a sudden it came into my mind and I was like...."I wonder if there are any videos out there about it". Sure enough I am here lol
My late cousin, Louis F. Wilson, wrote a book called A UNIVERSAL PATTERN OF CONSCIOUSNESS (1994 Christopher Publishing House)
This is what I have known intuitively for yrs, but could not put into words. Thank you for posting this! There is a god and it’s Universal Consciousness. My first grade teacher at Catholic school explained this concept by using grapes on a grapevine as our being one with God. She didn’t realize her religion lesson started my agnostic belief system.
Step 1: extend the definition of consciousness to anything that reacts in any way to its environment.
Step 2: observe that everything we know is subject to natural forces, hence it reacts to its environment.
Step 3: conclude that everything is conscious.
OMG, what a weak argument! He's just playing with words. It's depressing to think that people can actually fall for this. Perhaps it's because the speaker is handsome, looks intelligent, humane, and speaks eloquently? It might also be because he appeals to feelings rather than reason: don't you *want* to be part of something greater? Perhaps millions of years of evolution in small tribes have taught us that being excluded means death, so we yearn to be a part of something greater (a powerful tribe), we try to look as humble as possible to avoid social exclusion (eg. "we are just insignificant part of a greater consciousness"), and we follow the leader.
Currently, I believe conciousness is the awareness that these processes are happening and not the name given to the processes themselves. I was also under the impression this was the current general consensus for the definition of conciousness. This is why I have trouble understanding the concept Brendan in proposing.
I understand that reactions in our brain enable us to function similarly to how particles and planets react do to their surroundings/ environments, but that does not inherently imply these systems are aware that these processes are happening.
To me, it seems as though Brendan has just redefined what conciousness is. However I could be completely misunderstanding his argument, so I would be grateful if someone could help me understand this better.
josh kiff "Consciousness is the awareness of, and/or ability to respond to, changes/processes" isn't that what Brendan said? (4 mins)
+josh kiff He is trying to claim that forms of our biology like plants have consciousness.... wrong; plants don't have brains and they are purely reactionary. Genetic memory; epigenetic responses over time.... I have a series that explains this... join the thought revolution. I recommend watching the intro to my channel 1st, then the emergent consciousness series.
Join the thought revolution!
Now you understand; God is the collective union of souls.
And that collective union was infinitely fractured at the moment of the big bang.
As such all religious prophecy is more or less a prediction of what appears to be destruction from our individual ego but will ultimately be reunion and reordering back into oneness
'emergence'? why is this being treated as a new question?
As long as man has had the ability to conceive of the question 'why?' we have been a part of that emergence.
My consciousness is knowing that I know. A plant may follow the sun, but it doesn't know that it follows the sun. Consciousness needs information and Cannot "exist" without it, but information does not need consciousness. Hope you're well Brendan. Chris Cochrane
The social network is a machine consciousness based on computer. The research engine is another kind of computer consciousness. One person has a smart phone is a component of the computer consciousness.
This is an excellent theory of consciousness. Rooting the basis for consciousness in the electron, its charge and energy-communication characteristics, is key. It is amazing to think about how many different forms of consciousness could exist at all levels of energy-organization.
If this is true, then computers may well be conscious as well as plants, as well as refrigerators and tables, all in very different ways. Anthrocentrism makes it difficult to think about what it might be like to experience electron-reverberations in such forms without the corresponding sensations that come from gut feelings influenced by thoughts, memories, etc. A table may well hear the sound when you knock on it without thinking about the sound in any way, comparing it with any memory of any earlier sounds it experienced, having any feelings about the sound, etc. . . . and yet the table may experience the sound of the knock just as we do hearing it with living ears. Fascinating.
The laws of physics are not consciousness. All we know about consciousness is that it's a hard problem and a mystery, and we mere humans have to be humble about our lacking in knowledge of it. It can and is being progressively solved by professionals who work much harder than this guy to come up with answers. Even they (being the most eager to find the answers) can put such patience and care into their research.
I'm no professional, but I am conscious enough to doubt that the chemical system of melted silica sand in the window in front of me could be consciously keeping itself as glass...
This shit just pisses me off because these New Agers always like talking about shedding our excesses of ego and stuff - which I think is good and all, but then they'd often plunge into the woo like this guy here, clearly feeling so much pride in their claiming to just 'know' the answers for everything. Anyway my point is, the new age movement and their sages should be kept out of TED, nuff said.
Excellent!x
The reason why I am conscious and an electron is not is because i can choose to respond or not. We have to interrupt them in order to make them collide.
Ruskie choice is an illusion
You know what, i can add time dimension to his components and call this hypothesis mine, i'd call it the general hyphotesis of collective conciousness relativity, where in all conciousness, past present and future are actually one big hollistic system.
Time is an illusion created by the brain. 🤯
Today, there are 2 type of consciousness study;
1. The easy problem of consciousness
2. The hard problem of consciousness
You are only addressing the first part.
Universal Consciousness is perturbations off the Inertial plane, from Counterspace into Space. Information into fractals.
Electrons are vortexes.
Interesting to broaden the concept of consciousness and in the same time reduce it to navigating or relating to objects and different qualities in physics as electromagnetism and gravity. Maybe we can agree that there exist different sorts of consciousness and that their is no clear understanding of it. And that this may be interpreted individually one for every person on this planet. One example is of a person who sees himself as part of a holistic system and reacts in context with this, and a person wich refers to himself as an autonomos biological entity.
Well done
same conclusions as I've come to, especially the comment about getting over ourselves.
Great talk, very enjoyable and very thought provoking !
I thought I could come up with a better idea for a consciousness field. The bond breaking of organic chemistry creates quantum entanglements. The biological cell does an enormous amount of bond breaking. All biological cells create quantum entangled fields that persist after death of the biological organism. They just "float away". That is also true of human beings. The cells weave together a quantum field ghost. when the body dies, the ghost persists for days, weeks, years, centuries.
Very thought provoking idea indeed. I wonder what factor determines one to be in an microbial level consciousness vs an consciousness on a human or planetary level? There must be a determine law that puts each of us on certain level due to Karmic reasons or simply by rightful use of that gift-Consciousness.
It’s a dogmatic perspective. In an infinite time line there is room for every possible event. And the attempt to quantify is in itself an infinite path. In mathematical terms, between 1 and 2 there are infinite other numbers. Karma will emerges by the fact that whatever is that we do it echoes through eternity. Even a fart can influence a hurricane. Also known as the butterfly effect.
I've always had trouble understanding why people have such a problem with this concept. Who was it that said the simplest answer is usually the right one? I can't remember, but when I look at the hoops through which people's belief systems must go in order to avoid considering what seems to me to be perfectly obvious - that there is a universal intelligence - I flip between amusement and frustration, depending on the day. We have the quality of intelligence; other animals also have it, to varying degrees. So the concept of it is proven by virtue of our existence. What, then, is the great leap in thinking or imagination required in order to conceive of an intelligence beyond the construct of 3 dimensional time and space? It can be called anything - 'God' is just a word, after all. There is nothing personal about it. There is also everything personal about it when we are experiencing life as individuals. But for me, truth is often found in paradox so this also makes sense. It just seems to get a lot of people really riled up; this idea of "God" being real. I have the same sense of confusion around people's trouble with the idea of reincarnation. Surely the 'miracle' is that we're here at all. And since we know we are (here I mean), isn't it a much smaller jump to understand there is a continuous repetition of the experience? Although linear time is a 3 dimensional construct, so the idea of 'returning' is misleading. It's all happening 'now'. But that's another subject.
Yes. My argument to people who argue that there has to be a creator is, why believe in something so significantly much more complex then just look at evolution of the mind. Why is this complex idea of this so called god so comforting compared to emergence. The fact that we exist as one and are part of this profound chaotic beautiful universe is beyond miraculous. Yet people look for these miracles in toast.
Demention94 I don't think we quite agree (or maybe we do?). You mention that you see the world as chaotic. I see it as chaotic to us but, in reality, very ordered. Kind of like one of those expensive Turkish rugs. Look underneath (the human side) and it's a seemingly disordered mess - pieces of wool going every-which-way. But turn it over (the view from a broader Intelligence) and there is beauty and complete order, made from what looks like chaos. It's a question of perspective to me. Admittedly, that is not the best analogy.
I'd love a response - it's clear that we both have pondered over this.
***** I said the universe is chaotic. (Not the world) Asteroids waiting to collide at any given moment, harsh climate conditions on most planets, black holes..etc
***** The fundamental problem with God, is the promise of life after death. This guy here tells you that just as bacteria disintegrates into inferior components upon death, so do people disintegrate into inferior components upon death. God or Buddha or Allah, do not exist. There may exist a consciousness of a higher order of organization, and we might be the "bacteria" that allows it to function.
Nietzsche already defined the concept, in his Will to Power. A human is a collective of entities expressing their Will to Power. Will to Power means growth.
The perfect candidate for this higher conscience whose constituent parts are the humans and other organisms on Earth, is the DNA. DNA creates us, and it programs us to do stuff to perpetuate his existence. Thus, the DNA is the Creator and Omnipotent and Immortal entity that "speaks" to us from within us. The way it "speaks" to us is the Unconscious. We are genetically programmed to survive and reproduce, love and fight, strive and achieve. These are fundamental directives to which we submit against any conscious effort of not doing so.
Demention94 I don't believe that either. But I'm tremendously grateful we are still in a position to disagree. Cheers.
I came to a (possibly premature) conclusion several years ago that consciousness was the primary fundamental fabric of the universe, so I agree with what he say's here. However I think his physics were kind of weak.
I think our best evidence for this idea is the quantum measurement problem. John Conway and others have produced what they call the "free will theorem" a mathematically rigorous theorem concerning the quantum measurement process.
Very few physicists actually believe that consciousness is the cause of the quantum wave function collapse (and I suspect that most of them have religious motivations). Other interpretations of the quantum measurement don't involve consciousness at all. For example, the many-worlds interpretation claims that when you measure a particle in superposed states A and B, your own atoms interact with this particle and join the state superposition. There ends up being two superposed versions of you: one that observes A, and the other that observes B. We know that small groups of particles behave like this (they join the state superposition), so this interpretation simply assumes that it is true also for large groups of particles such as your body. It is a much simpler and consistent theory than postulating the existence of a universal consciousness (which would require a proper definition anyway).
Just my 2 cents. :)
I love lamp
and i like pizza
I like trains
13:24 "I believe that consciousness will emerge wherever and whenever complex organizing systems [/structures] and forms emerge, but it will be a consciousness of a type that is relevant to that complex system [/structure] or form ..."
His views might be consistent or compatible with Galen Strawson's realistic monism... See: "why physicalism entails panpsychism"!
Electrons are just energy states around an atomic nucleus. The particle aspect is simply a equivalence of energy and mass.
I AM! IS! THE CREATOR!
I AM! IS! THE SINGULARITY!
I AM! IS THE WAY!
IT'S CREATION THAT DELIVERS!
NO! That is B.S. that something always existed before WE SAY " I AM! "
OUR WORD IS OUR COMMAND!
CAN YOU SAY! " I AM! " ?
Moving parts, moving planets = consciousness? I don't think so. When my computer boots up, I see the screen that says "welcome." When it actually means it -- that's when I'll change my opinion.
i think should go further and go past just living things. ALL matter is consciousness
This speech seemed more like a hypothetical thought experiment than someone trying to prove or argue a point.
I would have preferred more elaboration on human collective consciousness.
Nice ideas but more relevance needed I think.
+Gino Garzolini just incase my last comment got marked as spam..... check my playlist on emergent consciousness.
+Beyond Psychology Awesome I will! thanks :)
Gino Garzolini no, ty ;-)
Still haven't got the answer I'm looking for... if conciousness came into existence where does it originate from ?has it always existed? how could everything living become aware of self?...there's too man questions that have an answer but will remaina mystery...
Life/existence is consciousness in action. Just a thought.
Love it! I wrote a thesis in undergrad exploring the evolution of Consciousness and Memes where the summation was this, wo the ():
Cycle after cycle (life)
Form changes form (the world)
And Spirit (consciousness) gives rise to directive action (change)
Brant Hindman Did you say wo the (): ????? Lost me there.
Some use the world God, Creator, etc. ... Consciousness is what, to many spiritual teachings is, the whole enchilada. Or, put in another way, I had a friend who used to say to me,"God is everything or God is nothing." I figured that Consciousness/God is everything. There is nothing else, but Consciousness continually morphing, yet still always constant as itself ... the I AM. Talk about the ultimate Creative force and undisputed performance artist.
In life, despite all the changes a person may experience in all ways, physical, mental, etc., there always is the 'I" throughout all the stages ... we are never not continuously changing form and character, and other aspects of being human. Still, there is this one thing that is constant and does not change ... that is being aware and being conscious. Or in non-duality speak: Awareness and Consciousness (both or one or the other, depending on who is speaking). I do a lot of non-duality investigation in various venues. Ciao
Heliotropism. May seem picky, but it’s quite a big difference from holotropism.
i think people's patronising comments about this mans thoughts are unfair. We can't dismiss any possibility based on what we know now. Surely we have learnt this lesson ?
Welcome to UA-cam. The place to go to make yourself feel superior to some of the most intelligent and accomplished people in the world by making snide comments on their TED videos.
thank you sir which book have to read about consciousness to eagy to understand.
I believe that there is nothing more powerful than an idea whose time has come, and that the universe is unfolding in mysterious ways, way beyond our limited comprehension.
So if his definition of consciousness is the ability to detect and react to things in your environment, would that include NPC’s in a video game? Or maybe even A.I. in general?
0 and consciousness are the same, they are the only inexperiencables that underlie all experience. Consciousness pervades all the universe as an empty point allowing dualistic play relative to it, as zero does. All numbers stem from the root of zero: -3, -2, -1, 0, 1, 2, 3, numbers are a representation of 0 when the positive and negative are not balanced, change the scale (perspective) and you can have numbers endlessly heading toward/ or away from zero. The whole process of existence can be regarded as balanced unbalance, unbalanced balance. Zero is infinitely vast and minuscule and through a relationship with zero all is.