Episode 109: Michael Graziano
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Your Brain’s Models are Never Accurate
Brains arrive at the conclusion that they have an internal, subjective experience of things — an experience that is non-physical and inexplicable. How can such a thing be studied scientifically?
That is just part of the mission behind Michael Graziano’s lab. He is a professor of neuroscience and psychology at Princeton University, and the author of “The Intelligent Movement Machine: An Ethological Perspective on the Primate Motor System”, “God Soul Mind Brain: A Neuroscientist's Reflections on the Spirit World”, and “Rethinking Consciousness: A Scientific Theory of Subjective Experience”, to name a few.
Michael and Greg dive into consciousness, what we mean when we talk about schemas, how we inhabit our bodies, and the sophisticated attention that makes humans what we are.
Episode Quotes:
Theory of preserving bodies in the future:
“It is kind of assumed in the futurism world, assumed that technology is forever and the human body is fragile. And so what you want to do is upload yourself into a machine or put your body into a robot and then you'll live forever or whatever the fantasy is. It is true that the exact opposite is what actually happens. That a human body, if taken care of properly lives 90 to 100 years. And your typical machine lasts 10 years. So actually the approach to technology would have to change also. If you want this kind of longevity that people are looking for. Because the machine world is actually not a long lived world. Machines break a lot faster than biological bodies break, at least right now they do.”
Question of consciousness:
“I think I'm a little unusual. Because most people think the question of consciousness is a question of philosophy. And it is that partly. I think it's a question of technology and the immediate near term future of technology. That's what the question of consciousness really is right now.”
Humans & theory of mind:
“There are different views on this, here's what I think. Humans are hyper social. Our success as a species, our world dominance, rests entirely on our amazing, intuitive ability to guess what someone else is thinking. So theory of mind or building models of other people's minds. Without that, we're nothing, we're just separate animals. With that, we’re civilization.”
How the brain constructs models:
“There are different views on this, here's what I think. Humans are hyper social. Our success as a species, our world dominance, rests entirely on our amazing, intuitive ability to guess what someone else is thinking. So theory of mind or building models of other people's minds. Without that, we're nothing, we're just separate animals. With that, we’re civilization.”
Show Links:
Guest Profile:
Faculty Profile at Princeton Neuroscience Institute
His work:
Rethinking Consciousness: A Scientific Theory of Subjective Experience
The Intelligent Movement Machine: An Ethological Perspective on the Primate Motor System
God Soul Mind Brain: A Neuroscientist's Reflections on the Spirit World
The Spaces Between Us: A Story of Neuroscience, Evolution, and Human NatureConsciousness and the Social Brain