Wednesday, May 22, 2013

Post Lecture Laziness- Consciousness Copout

Last night, I headed down to the beautiful Bell House in the Gowanus section of Brooklyn for the latest Secret Science Club lecture, featuring Dr Heather Berlin of Mount Sinai School of Medicine. Dr Berlin's talk was focused on consciousness. John Searle defined consciousness as "what goes away when you fall into a deep, dreamless sleep", another definition is "what if feels like to be you" Dr Berlin attended a conference in which the consensus was that consciousness is "first person subjective experience".

I have to confess, I forgot to bring my notebook to the lecture (and I drank a whole lot of beer, and I have to deal with a lot of people going in and out of the workplace tonight, so my attention is focused elsewhere)- luckily, I found a video of Dr Berlin's presentation which is virtually identical to last night's lecture. Crack open a beer and watch Dr Berlin lecture on perception, subliminal stimuli, and dissociation:





For those pressed for time, here is a short version of the talk:





One amazing bit of data from her lecture is that the unconscious tends to play more of a role in major decision making than in minor decision making- buying a phone tends to be more of a "conscious" choice, while buying a house tends to be more of a "gut" decision. In my gut, I know that I am slacking off in the recap of yet another top-notch Secret Science Club lecture.

12 comments:

anne said...

looked in on the guy doing the intro just a min. of ..before i go off to bedding here , of why anne would never follow ..clap/is different -no deep sleep ,always fly dreaming /awake .. off to fl y

Big Bad Bald Bastard said...

Good night, anne! There's plenty of time tomorrow to watch- Dr Berlin was a very entertaining speaker.

Smut Clyde said...

Consciousness sounds like it would be a nice thing to have.

ifthethunderdontgetya™³²®© said...

It's 8 AM, but if B^4 says it's beer time...
~

mikey said...

Think I'll finish my coffee first.

I actually have a great deal to say about consciousness but it's too bloody hard to spell...

Big Bad Bald Bastard said...

Consciousness sounds like it would be a nice thing to have.

Clydishness seems like a good alternative.

It's 8 AM, but if B^4 says it's beer time...

Thunder gets it!

I actually have a great deal to say about consciousness but it's too bloody hard to spell...

Cut and paste is your friend!

anne said...

bald, i'll put it on now while i wipe up ..sort / still behind on a few things now way back here .. read alou d please ..on .. ./ and still trying to pi' ce tog ether why this ..it's a small wor ld of gather off from io z/j and blackd' happens as it does .. to l a bouf,new z , if, sub, ran' graves and so on .. . (and of those that i know best of this off from -davidly, just in mccarthy now wade on his needing to come here , abon./ john, ..and ashley a boy /sed'/ i see that you are all good bright ,different from one another but communicating well ,of not too different , .. but of what brings you all together , /and of my own here ... from a very different wor ld of my closest friends from all over the globe being very different from here /this .. but still here i am looking in quickly on your very grounded minds /minding ..away from my nearest and dearest for a while ..of mostly off line in living they are ..of like myself ..but not physically disabled like their dear friend anne who needs to be in a little more because of ,so they come to visit here in my not being able to leave ont. , and we s'ail mail , but mostly they are off line in living / so here i am reading little bits of ..from you , pleasant funny grounded ..of sway ,said not spoc k / also my friends here in my neighbourhood are also mostly off line , they have jobs relating to film, small communicating with wording small gestures mus ic , and eau docs,live in the houses/flats around me here ,all i know with no doubt is that i am a go between ,middling,in some way ..towards

anne said...

put it on .. but first more .. talk talk ..love .. need treeeee s

anne said...

and ..talk talk ..is a reminder that the coolest guys ..are kind of funny looking ..lovely .. .

Big Bad Bald Bastard said...

i see that you are all good bright ,different from one another but communicating well ,of not too different , .. but of what brings you all together , /and of my own here ... from a very different wor ld of my closest friends from all over the globe being very different from here /this

Thanks for the compliment, anne!

put it on .. but first more .. talk talk ..love .. need treeeees

I find some "green time" to be important- enjoy the trees.

anne said...

the ..talk talk ..was the band .. . they are a ..in the trees band to me .. stayed in that ..in the trees for hours today so still no looking at this lecture ..off to sleep fly ag . /and yes i clearly enjoy all of your quick amusing comments .. all of you,

Big Bad Bald Bastard said...

the ..talk talk ..was the band ..

I remember them well.