David Eagleman

Okay, here's where I think the role of consciousness is, is in mediating this. And this is what we've gotten better and better at. And so when we have rivaling networks in a novel context... Well, that would be a novel context, right?

And now here's the thing, rats and cats have cortex, but what we have that they are not so good at is the ability to mediate well, such that we don't get stuck in the middle of the maze, but we can make a decision about, we can actually weigh in and say, okay, you know what? I'm not going to get stuck with these two networks. I'm going to decide on something.

And now here's the thing, rats and cats have cortex, but what we have that they are not so good at is the ability to mediate well, such that we don't get stuck in the middle of the maze, but we can make a decision about, we can actually weigh in and say, okay, you know what? I'm not going to get stuck with these two networks. I'm going to decide on something.

And now here's the thing, rats and cats have cortex, but what we have that they are not so good at is the ability to mediate well, such that we don't get stuck in the middle of the maze, but we can make a decision about, we can actually weigh in and say, okay, you know what? I'm not going to get stuck with these two networks. I'm going to decide on something.

This is what I think consciousness is about. It's the higher level abstraction that allows you to say, okay, look, This isn't something that's automated. This is, you know, this is a new situation I'm in. I don't know what to do here. And then the CEO, you know, gets called up. And yeah, there's like a large, you take a large company, the CEO can't possibly know what's happening in the company.

This is what I think consciousness is about. It's the higher level abstraction that allows you to say, okay, look, This isn't something that's automated. This is, you know, this is a new situation I'm in. I don't know what to do here. And then the CEO, you know, gets called up. And yeah, there's like a large, you take a large company, the CEO can't possibly know what's happening in the company.

This is what I think consciousness is about. It's the higher level abstraction that allows you to say, okay, look, This isn't something that's automated. This is, you know, this is a new situation I'm in. I don't know what to do here. And then the CEO, you know, gets called up. And yeah, there's like a large, you take a large company, the CEO can't possibly know what's happening in the company.

There's, you know, 100,000 employees, right? Yeah. The CEO's job fundamentally is to wait for the phone to ring and say, hey, there's trouble here. There's something going on that we don't know what to do. The CEO makes a decision. And also, of course, to do future planning. Yes. Consciousness is essentially about that.

There's, you know, 100,000 employees, right? Yeah. The CEO's job fundamentally is to wait for the phone to ring and say, hey, there's trouble here. There's something going on that we don't know what to do. The CEO makes a decision. And also, of course, to do future planning. Yes. Consciousness is essentially about that.

There's, you know, 100,000 employees, right? Yeah. The CEO's job fundamentally is to wait for the phone to ring and say, hey, there's trouble here. There's something going on that we don't know what to do. The CEO makes a decision. And also, of course, to do future planning. Yes. Consciousness is essentially about that.

Yeah, that's right. That's right. And so I think what I suggested in Incognito is that maybe we can look at the way that animals resolve conflict or don't, like the poor rat that gets stuck in the middle, and we can use that as at least a rough metric for the degree of consciousness that an animal has. Because the assertion there is that...

Yeah, that's right. That's right. And so I think what I suggested in Incognito is that maybe we can look at the way that animals resolve conflict or don't, like the poor rat that gets stuck in the middle, and we can use that as at least a rough metric for the degree of consciousness that an animal has. Because the assertion there is that...

Yeah, that's right. That's right. And so I think what I suggested in Incognito is that maybe we can look at the way that animals resolve conflict or don't, like the poor rat that gets stuck in the middle, and we can use that as at least a rough metric for the degree of consciousness that an animal has. Because the assertion there is that...

You know, consciousness allows you to mediate these things and figure out a path forward there.

You know, consciousness allows you to mediate these things and figure out a path forward there.

You know, consciousness allows you to mediate these things and figure out a path forward there.

Yeah. The difficulty with the consciousness question, of course, as we know, is there's no single spot in the brain that is consciousness. And so when I think about rivaling networks, I tend to think about them rivaling directly with one another. You're, of course, totally correct that For example, visual attention can amplify certain things.

Yeah. The difficulty with the consciousness question, of course, as we know, is there's no single spot in the brain that is consciousness. And so when I think about rivaling networks, I tend to think about them rivaling directly with one another. You're, of course, totally correct that For example, visual attention can amplify certain things.

Yeah. The difficulty with the consciousness question, of course, as we know, is there's no single spot in the brain that is consciousness. And so when I think about rivaling networks, I tend to think about them rivaling directly with one another. You're, of course, totally correct that For example, visual attention can amplify certain things.

It's like coming from visual cortex, you can pay auditory attention to something or something like that.