Post: WEEK 4

Week 4

 Patricia Churchland Interview

                       During the interview Patricia Churchland talks about how she was selected to present information to the Dalai Lama. While explaining concepts to journalist Bill Moyers, she mentioned that the Dalai Lama has no dogma. He would not believe something just because someone told him to believe. Patricia says he was willing to change his mind depending on the strength of the evidence presented. Although viewed as a religious figure, he bases his belief on evidence, not stories.
                       One thing I took away from the interview with Patricia Churchland is that life is complex as she talks about life whether dead or alive. I think many religions emphasize the “soul” and how God influences us. What really influences is a complex mixture of proteins, neurons, and matter is our minds which are our brains. I believe that we are more than just brains and that our minds are cable of doing great things.

 Brain Burn

                           Consciousness is literally a virtual simulator and with it human kind is able to live longer. The video Brain Burn talks about how the mind can literally paint a visual image of a certain out come. I think of little kids pretending to be super heroes and creating vivid scenarios on their life as a hero. Our consciousness is very important because it allows us to play out events before they happen, which is how some of us make decisions.
                           I really enjoyed this video it makes me think of pictures because when I look at them I like to think about what may be going on in the image. The video states that when someone is not conscious they are no longer able to use their mind to imagine. I find it ironic that they call it UNCONSCIOUS when a person is not conscious because they are no longer able to use their conscious thoughts.

A Glorious Piece of Meat

                             The video A Glorious piece of Meat starts off with this statement " And if it turns out that you are just stuff, that your brain is just meat, then wanting to be different isn't going to change it," Patricia Smith Churchland. I didn't get what the statement meant until listening further into the video, the film speaks about involuntary movement in the human body. The ability to open and close our eyes is controlled by our brains but there are some areas that we don't have control over, the beating of our heart, digesting food, or pumping blood throughout our veins.
                              A Glorious Piece of Meat suggests maybe we don't have control of ourselves after all; our brain is doing most of the work not us. "Consciousness talks about neurons, neurons don't talk about consciousness," this relates back to the idea about what our bodies do but we do necessarily control what they do.

 Radiance without an Edge

                            When told to rember the excact moment I was born my immediate assumtion is that it was nearly imposible to do so. I already knew that no person on earth would know remmeber the very moments on entering this world because at birth the brian is not strong enough to store such information. The video then states that remmebering death is essentially the same way. What I find it confuseing is how do we know what we are going through when we are dead when we are still alive?
                            The video says that we should not fear death but we should fear life. This got me thinking, why should we fear life, maybe because of the unknown but death is unknown as well. Many people belive in religion and some may not but what about those such as myself who belive in a certain life after death, the truth is no one will ever know until they reach that point.


 Consciousness as a mobius strip


                          Consciousness as a mobius strip is about our consciousness being endless and impossible.  When trying to explain what consciousness, it is nearly impossible. If someone asked me how to describe what being conscious is like, the best I could say would be being aware of everything happening around you. Even then, that is a vague answer and someone would have a hard time trying to understand what consciousness really is.
                           The idea of our consciousness being compared to a mobius strip is a great analogy. A mobius strip, as explained in the film is a strip that has an endless surface as you contort it or run along it. Our minds, in the same way are endless. The way we may see something, may not be the same way someone else sees the same thing. For example, if I think of a flower as just a plant, someone else may think of it as a beautiful colored symbol of love or romance. This is the mind contorting our idea of something, which can be endless depending on the circumstances.

 A Disneyland Consciousness

                            1960 was the era in which Disneyland was created. The video speaks about our consciousness and how it can alter our way of thinking whether it’s while dreaming, imagining, or simply just fooling our mind in to thinking something is real. An elderly woman was attending a Disney performance about Abraham Lincoln when she felt the need to approach him, as she got closer to actor she was astonished to find that it was indeed a robot.
                             After watching the film my perception changed on how my consciousness perceives things. Colin McGinn states that consciousness is a mystery that is essentially non solvable. I agree with Colin, I don't think anyone will ever know why and how we perceive things. I think of magic it’s simply just thinking the mind into believing something amazing is happening but in reality it’s just the magician performing an illusion in front of our eyes.