The Reith Lectures 2003: The Emerging Mind

[Soubrette]

We are on the threshold of understanding what makes us tick, according to neuroscientist Vilanyanur Ramachandran, whose five Reith Lectures reveal a scientist willing to ask big questions about what it is to be human.
(taken from The Radio Times 29Mar-4Apr)

It's on Wednesday 8:00pm 2nd April on Radio 4

For those who won't catch it - here is a link:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/reith2003/

Although I've posted here because it fits nicely into some of the subjects we've been talking about - this could equally go into science (or links:p) as the lecturer this year believes that our mind stems from brain function.

Sou

[Julia]

Sou! What an interesting link. I want to go back and read
more of the lectures. However, I got very caught up doing the
illussion experiments. I'm still dizzy!

[Soubrette]

Originally posted by Julia
Sou! What an interesting link. I want to go back and read
more of the lectures. However, I got very caught up doing the
illussion experiments. I'm still dizzy!

Thanks Julia :)

Yeah - I went there and didn't emerge for an hour and a half :p

Sou

[Lucifuge Rofocale]

Bump......because this thread deserves it!

[Lucifuge Rofocale]

Bump again. Don't forget, the first lecture is today!

[Soubrette]

First lecture is up and the transcript plus recording available.

The Reith Lectures 2003 (http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/reith2003/reith2003_lecture1_qanda.shtml)

It was very interesting and there was even a question in the Q&A section about consciousness and if you can be conscious of your conscious.

I hope Win catches this though - the recommended reading for the series.

here (http://www.open2.net/forum/thread.jsp?forum=12&thread=401&tstart=0&trange=15) well it made me laugh heartily :)

Sou

[Julia]

Sou,
Wonderful lecture. I enjoyed it very much. A point of great
interest was the phantom limb. My son was in a terrible
accident in Thailand while he was rock climbing. By the time
we got him back here, it was too late to save his leg. We
have had many conversations about his phantom leg, and I am
anxious to forward him this.
Looking forward to reading more. I hope others here take the time to check it out.

[MRC_Hans]

Great subject, Sou, thank you!

Hans

[Soubrette]

Originally posted by Julia
Sou,
Wonderful lecture. I enjoyed it very much. A point of great
interest was the phantom limb. My son was in a terrible
accident in Thailand while he was rock climbing. By the time
we got him back here, it was too late to save his leg. We
have had many conversations about his phantom leg, and I am
anxious to forward him this.
Looking forward to reading more. I hope others here take the time to check it out.

On the subject of phantom limbs there are some great articles by Oliver Sachs. The phantom limbs discussed in the radio show were shown in quite a negative light but he (Oliver Sachs) has said that phantom limbs are often needed by amputees in order to animate their prostheses.

Also I watched a documentary where a painter would paint people and their phantom limbs :) What surprised me about this is that often these phantom limbs were not invisible facsimiles of their original limb - they often looked quite bizarre. In one picture a lady who had her arm amputated at the elbow, described her phantom limb as a small cylinder (which was her forearm) with a normal hand on the end. It's fascinating :)

Another thing that interested me about the radio show was the guy who suffered from Capras Syndrome which resulted in him thinking his mother was an imposter who looked exactly like her. What wasn't picked up in the show but I wondered was, if he had the syndrome explained to him - would he still suffer from the same delusion? I mean he would emotionally - but could he intellectually overcome the idea his mother was an imposter? So he would see her and emotionally think she was an imposter but know that emotion to be false. If that makes any kind of sense :)

Glad you both like it Julia and MRC :)

Sou

[Julia]

Funny, Sou, I was wondering something along the same line.
If it was only the one area of his brain changed, wouldn't his
other intellectual reasoning abilities be enough for him to recog-
nize his seeing her as an imposter, was only due to what had
been changed? (LOL - If that makes any sense.)

[INRM]

So, would you say this is 100% conclusive proof that consciousness is entirely a product of the brain and nothing else?

I'd say in some articles it's damn near 100% conclusive proof that consciousness is a product of the brain, and 96% on others.

What are your views?

-INRM

[INRM]

So... does anyone want to discuss this further?

Would anyone say here that this drives the nail in the coffin on the materialism/dualism debate?

-INRM

[Mercutio]

Ramachadan (sp?) was also the subject of a NOVA program on PBS. That video is available, and is just amazing.

video & transcript (http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/mind/)

[Lucifuge Rofocale]

Originally posted by INRM
So... does anyone want to discuss this further?

Would anyone say here that this drives the nail in the coffin on the materialism/dualism debate?

-INRM

I say it....now and before.

Dualism is dead. (in fact that is the title of a thread I started months ago)

[INRM]

Originally posted by Lucifuge Rofocale


I say it....now and before.

Dualism is dead. (in fact that is the title of a thread I started months ago)

Okay, 100% for Lucifuge.

How about everybody else.

-INRM