How Much Do We Actually Know About Consciousness? - Patrick House - #551

About this episode

Patrick House is a neuroscientist and writer whose research focuses on free will and how mind-control parasites alter their host's behaviour. If it wasn't for us experiencing it, the universe would give us no indication that consciousness even exists. The most fundamental part of human experience has many proposed explanations, but just how well-grounded are these, and what are we missing? Expect to learn why removing parts of the brain change some aspects of the self but not all of them, what it's like for animals who can put half of their brain to sleep at once, how the brain is intimately linked with timekeeping, why almost all explanations of consciousness are unsatisfactory, what the future of brain-research looks like and much more... Sponsors: Get 10% discount & free shipping on the best Ketone Drink at https://ketone-iq.com/ (use code MW10) Get 83% discount & 3 months free from Surfshark VPN at https://surfshark.deals/MODERNWISDOM (use code MODERNWISDOM) Get 15% discount on the amazing 6 Minute Diary at https://bit.ly/diarywisdom (use code MW15) (USA - https://amzn.to/3b2fQbR and use 15MINUTES) Timestamps: (00:00) Intro (00:18) Do Deep Thinkers Suffer More? (08:38) The Gradient Descent of a Single Cell (18:38) Why is Consciousness Research So Difficult? (29:35) The End Result of Consciousness (34:34) How the Brain is Similar to an iPhone (42:06) Animals Who Sleep While Their Brain is Awake (47:00) Conversations as Health-Checks for the Brain (57:57) The Analogy of the Pinball Machine (1:05:18) Adaptive Functionality of the Brain (1:10:43) Patrick’s Favourite Explanation of Consciousness (1:20:42) Where to Find Patrick Extra Stuff: Follow Patrick on Twitter - https://mobile.twitter.com/patrick__house  Buy Patrick's Book - https://amzn.to/3zyGYbF  Get my free Reading List of 100 books to read before you die → https://chriswillx.com/books/ To support me on Patreon (thank you): https://www.patreon.com/modernwisdom - Episodes You Might Enjoy: This Is How To Master Your Life - David Goggins - #577: ⁠⁠⁠lnkfi.re/SN-Goggins⁠⁠⁠ How To Destroy Your Negative Beliefs - Dr Jordan Peterson - #712: ⁠⁠⁠lnkfi.re/SN-Peterson⁠⁠⁠ The Secret Tools To Hack Your Brain - Dr Andrew Huberman - #700: ⁠⁠⁠lnkfi.re/SN-Huberman⁠⁠ Get in touch. Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/chriswillx Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/chriswillx YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/modernwisdompodcast Email: https://chriswillx.com/contact/  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices