1 00:00:05,120 --> 00:00:08,719 Speaker 1: When you make a choice, who exactly is doing the choosing? 2 00:00:09,280 --> 00:00:11,960 Speaker 1: Is there someone in your head but it's not you? 3 00:00:12,600 --> 00:00:15,040 Speaker 1: What is a chicken sexer? And what do they have 4 00:00:15,120 --> 00:00:18,319 Speaker 1: to do with British plane spotters during World War Two? 5 00:00:19,239 --> 00:00:24,639 Speaker 1: Do we have free will or don't we? Welcome to 6 00:00:24,760 --> 00:00:28,560 Speaker 1: enter cosmos with me, David Eagleman, I'm a neuroscientist at 7 00:00:28,560 --> 00:00:31,480 Speaker 1: Stanford and one of my big interests has always been 8 00:00:31,600 --> 00:00:35,159 Speaker 1: understanding all the stuff we do that we don't have 9 00:00:35,320 --> 00:00:38,160 Speaker 1: access to why we did it, or the stuff we 10 00:00:38,320 --> 00:00:41,040 Speaker 1: believe is true, but we don't have access to why 11 00:00:41,120 --> 00:00:49,199 Speaker 1: we believe it. So this is going to be a 12 00:00:49,240 --> 00:00:53,160 Speaker 1: two parter. In today's episode, I'm going to dive into 13 00:00:53,200 --> 00:00:56,160 Speaker 1: all the things that your brain is doing around the 14 00:00:56,280 --> 00:01:00,960 Speaker 1: clock that the conscious you has no insight into and 15 00:01:01,000 --> 00:01:05,600 Speaker 1: really no acquaintance with all this activity that lives within 16 00:01:06,040 --> 00:01:09,800 Speaker 1: what we call the unconscious brain. You're only conscious of 17 00:01:09,840 --> 00:01:13,560 Speaker 1: a tiny bit of what's happening under the hood. So 18 00:01:13,600 --> 00:01:16,839 Speaker 1: today we're going to see how all this unconscious activity 19 00:01:17,240 --> 00:01:20,160 Speaker 1: drives so much more of your life than you would 20 00:01:20,160 --> 00:01:23,200 Speaker 1: have imagined. And then in the next episode, I'll talk 21 00:01:23,240 --> 00:01:27,520 Speaker 1: about what all this means for our legal system. If 22 00:01:27,560 --> 00:01:31,399 Speaker 1: your behavior and your choices are driven by parts of 23 00:01:31,440 --> 00:01:34,960 Speaker 1: your brain that you have little or no control over, 24 00:01:35,560 --> 00:01:38,400 Speaker 1: what does that mean if you commit a crime, can 25 00:01:38,440 --> 00:01:41,240 Speaker 1: you help that you did it? Did you have a 26 00:01:41,480 --> 00:01:45,520 Speaker 1: choice or does your brain get formed by your genetics 27 00:01:45,520 --> 00:01:48,080 Speaker 1: and your childhood experience, neither of which you had any 28 00:01:48,200 --> 00:01:51,320 Speaker 1: choice over? So what does that all mean for the 29 00:01:51,400 --> 00:01:55,360 Speaker 1: notion of fault and blame worthiness in our legal system? 30 00:01:56,040 --> 00:01:58,400 Speaker 1: What would that mean for our courts? Because you can't 31 00:01:58,440 --> 00:02:00,360 Speaker 1: just let everyone off the hook, even if they didn't 32 00:02:00,400 --> 00:02:03,120 Speaker 1: have a choice and who they are right. So next 33 00:02:03,120 --> 00:02:06,520 Speaker 1: week we'll dive into what happens at the intersection of 34 00:02:06,640 --> 00:02:10,400 Speaker 1: neuroscience and the legal system and how we can build 35 00:02:10,400 --> 00:02:14,080 Speaker 1: a system moving forward that gets bad actors off the 36 00:02:14,120 --> 00:02:19,840 Speaker 1: street and is compatible with insights of modern neuroscience. So 37 00:02:19,919 --> 00:02:24,360 Speaker 1: let's start at the beginning. Ours is an incredible story. 38 00:02:24,360 --> 00:02:26,680 Speaker 1: As far as anyone can tell. We are the only 39 00:02:26,800 --> 00:02:31,040 Speaker 1: species on the planet that has grown so complex that 40 00:02:31,080 --> 00:02:36,040 Speaker 1: we have thrown ourselves headlong into this game of reverse 41 00:02:36,080 --> 00:02:40,799 Speaker 1: engineering ourselves. Imagine that you plugged some peripheral devices into 42 00:02:40,840 --> 00:02:45,440 Speaker 1: your laptop and it began to control those and removed 43 00:02:45,480 --> 00:02:48,640 Speaker 1: its own cover and pointed its webcam at its own 44 00:02:48,680 --> 00:02:53,440 Speaker 1: circuitry and tried to figure out how it runs. That's us, 45 00:02:53,520 --> 00:02:57,720 Speaker 1: that's our species. And what we have discovered by peering 46 00:02:57,840 --> 00:03:03,440 Speaker 1: into the skull ranks some among our most significant intellectual developments. 47 00:03:03,440 --> 00:03:07,480 Speaker 1: What we found is that all the facets of our behavior, 48 00:03:08,040 --> 00:03:14,280 Speaker 1: our thoughts, our experiences, these are inseparably yoked to this vast, 49 00:03:14,560 --> 00:03:19,760 Speaker 1: wet chemical electrical network called the nervous system. And this 50 00:03:19,880 --> 00:03:24,880 Speaker 1: machinery is totally alien to us, and yet somehow it 51 00:03:25,240 --> 00:03:30,840 Speaker 1: is us. When we look at the brain, this is 52 00:03:30,960 --> 00:03:35,520 Speaker 1: the most complex device we have ever found in our universe. 53 00:03:36,240 --> 00:03:39,840 Speaker 1: The human brain is made up of eighty six billion 54 00:03:40,480 --> 00:03:46,120 Speaker 1: specialized cells called neurons, and each neuron is as complicated 55 00:03:46,240 --> 00:03:50,440 Speaker 1: as the city of New York. Every neuron contains the 56 00:03:50,640 --> 00:03:54,760 Speaker 1: entire human genome, and it's trafficking millions of proteins around 57 00:03:54,800 --> 00:03:58,360 Speaker 1: inside it. And every neuron is connected to about ten 58 00:03:58,400 --> 00:04:01,040 Speaker 1: thousand of its neighbors. So that means you have something 59 00:04:01,080 --> 00:04:06,160 Speaker 1: like five hundred trillion connections in your brain. So that 60 00:04:06,200 --> 00:04:08,880 Speaker 1: means if you took a cubic centimeter of your brain 61 00:04:09,000 --> 00:04:12,600 Speaker 1: and you examined that there are as many connections in 62 00:04:12,640 --> 00:04:16,920 Speaker 1: there as there are stars in the Milky Way galaxy. 63 00:04:17,000 --> 00:04:19,800 Speaker 1: It's totally impossible for any of us to understand a 64 00:04:19,920 --> 00:04:24,200 Speaker 1: system of this complexity. But one thing is clear. This 65 00:04:24,520 --> 00:04:30,839 Speaker 1: three pounds of wet biological stuff is you. All your thoughts, 66 00:04:30,960 --> 00:04:35,279 Speaker 1: your hopes, your fears, the agony and the ecstasy. It's 67 00:04:35,320 --> 00:04:39,520 Speaker 1: all happening right inside here in your brain, in the 68 00:04:39,600 --> 00:04:42,240 Speaker 1: darkness of your skull. So, in other words, it's not 69 00:04:42,279 --> 00:04:45,760 Speaker 1: that you have a brain, it's that you are your brain. 70 00:04:49,560 --> 00:04:52,640 Speaker 1: So how do we know this, Well, imagine you were 71 00:04:52,640 --> 00:04:54,600 Speaker 1: to get in a car accident and you hurt the 72 00:04:54,720 --> 00:04:57,840 Speaker 1: tip of your pinky. You'd be sad about that, but 73 00:04:57,880 --> 00:05:01,160 Speaker 1: you wouldn't be any different as a person. But if 74 00:05:01,200 --> 00:05:04,320 Speaker 1: you were to damage an equivalently sized little chunk of 75 00:05:04,400 --> 00:05:08,640 Speaker 1: brain tissue, that can change you entirely. That can change 76 00:05:08,640 --> 00:05:13,120 Speaker 1: your decision making or your appetite for risk, or your 77 00:05:13,160 --> 00:05:18,440 Speaker 1: ability to see colors or name animals, or understand music, 78 00:05:19,200 --> 00:05:22,640 Speaker 1: or read signals from your body, or to understand the 79 00:05:22,680 --> 00:05:25,880 Speaker 1: concept of a mirror, or one hundred other things that 80 00:05:25,920 --> 00:05:28,440 Speaker 1: we see every day in the clinics when people get 81 00:05:28,480 --> 00:05:33,480 Speaker 1: brain damage due to strokes or tumors or traumatic brain injury. 82 00:05:33,960 --> 00:05:37,719 Speaker 1: Now here's the surprise. Almost all of this machinery of 83 00:05:37,800 --> 00:05:42,240 Speaker 1: you runs under the hood, meaning you don't even have 84 00:05:42,440 --> 00:05:45,240 Speaker 1: access to it or have any acquaintance with it. So 85 00:05:45,320 --> 00:05:48,320 Speaker 1: think about moving your arm to get your coffee mug 86 00:05:48,440 --> 00:05:51,839 Speaker 1: to your mouth. That feels very simple, but it's actually 87 00:05:51,920 --> 00:05:56,600 Speaker 1: underpinned by a lightning storm of brain activity. Literally, hundreds 88 00:05:56,680 --> 00:06:00,680 Speaker 1: of millions of neurons are popping off the chattering with 89 00:06:00,760 --> 00:06:05,120 Speaker 1: these electrical spikes between tens or hundreds of times per 90 00:06:05,200 --> 00:06:09,120 Speaker 1: second to allow you to grip the cup see the 91 00:06:09,200 --> 00:06:12,960 Speaker 1: cup arranger. Grip on the handle, lift it with the 92 00:06:13,080 --> 00:06:16,520 Speaker 1: right strength, bring it to your mouth, position it against 93 00:06:16,600 --> 00:06:21,600 Speaker 1: your lower lip tilted, take a sip. Okay. The remarkable 94 00:06:21,600 --> 00:06:25,279 Speaker 1: thing is you don't have any awareness of all these 95 00:06:25,480 --> 00:06:30,279 Speaker 1: microscopic neurons and their massive dialogue that they're chattering away in. 96 00:06:30,720 --> 00:06:33,400 Speaker 1: And by massive, I mean every neuron in your head 97 00:06:33,440 --> 00:06:37,160 Speaker 1: is shooting off these little electrical spikes tens or hundreds 98 00:06:37,160 --> 00:06:41,839 Speaker 1: of times per second every second of your life. And 99 00:06:41,920 --> 00:06:46,240 Speaker 1: multiply that times these eighty six billion neurons. If you 100 00:06:46,440 --> 00:06:51,760 Speaker 1: represented each spike by a single photon of light, the 101 00:06:51,839 --> 00:06:55,279 Speaker 1: action inside your skull at any moment would be blinding. 102 00:06:55,680 --> 00:06:57,640 Speaker 1: But the thing I want to zoom into today is 103 00:06:57,640 --> 00:07:01,120 Speaker 1: that you don't have any awareness of this, any insight 104 00:07:01,360 --> 00:07:05,479 Speaker 1: or consciousness of all the action going on. The only 105 00:07:05,560 --> 00:07:08,359 Speaker 1: thing you know is whether you spilled the coffee on 106 00:07:08,400 --> 00:07:12,720 Speaker 1: yourself or not. That's it. All the action is happening 107 00:07:12,800 --> 00:07:15,680 Speaker 1: at the level of billions of biological cells, and you 108 00:07:15,720 --> 00:07:18,200 Speaker 1: don't even know how you do it. Now, it's not 109 00:07:18,400 --> 00:07:21,320 Speaker 1: just your cup of coffee. It's everything in your life. 110 00:07:21,720 --> 00:07:24,880 Speaker 1: It's how you drive a car, it's how you recognize 111 00:07:24,880 --> 00:07:28,520 Speaker 1: a friend's face, it's how you get a joke, it's 112 00:07:28,560 --> 00:07:32,520 Speaker 1: how you fall in love. These are all underpinned by 113 00:07:32,560 --> 00:07:38,000 Speaker 1: massive storms of electrochemical activity inside the darkness of your skull. 114 00:07:38,560 --> 00:07:42,560 Speaker 1: So the conscious you is really the smallest part of 115 00:07:42,600 --> 00:07:45,400 Speaker 1: what your brain is up to. Here's an example that 116 00:07:45,480 --> 00:07:47,560 Speaker 1: got me thinking about this. When I was young. There 117 00:07:47,640 --> 00:07:51,400 Speaker 1: was an old experiment at the University of Chicago. And 118 00:07:51,480 --> 00:07:55,720 Speaker 1: in this experiment, men were asked to rate how attractive 119 00:07:55,800 --> 00:08:00,720 Speaker 1: they found photographs of different women's faces. So the photographs 120 00:08:00,720 --> 00:08:03,560 Speaker 1: were eight by ten photos and they would flip through 121 00:08:03,560 --> 00:08:06,600 Speaker 1: them and they would rank each women from one to ten. Now, 122 00:08:06,680 --> 00:08:11,239 Speaker 1: unbeknown to the men, in half the photographs, the eyes 123 00:08:11,360 --> 00:08:14,280 Speaker 1: were dilated, and in the other half of the photographs 124 00:08:14,320 --> 00:08:16,640 Speaker 1: the eyes were normal. So the result turned out to 125 00:08:16,680 --> 00:08:20,120 Speaker 1: me that the men were consistently more attracted to the 126 00:08:20,160 --> 00:08:24,640 Speaker 1: women with dilated eyes. But the important point is that 127 00:08:24,680 --> 00:08:28,680 Speaker 1: the men had no insight into their decision making. None 128 00:08:28,720 --> 00:08:31,640 Speaker 1: of them said, oh, I noticed that her pupils were 129 00:08:31,680 --> 00:08:35,439 Speaker 1: two millimeters larger than her pupils, And presumably none of 130 00:08:35,440 --> 00:08:38,960 Speaker 1: the men knew that dilated eyes is a biological sign 131 00:08:39,240 --> 00:08:44,360 Speaker 1: of reciprocal attraction. But their brains knew it, and here 132 00:08:44,400 --> 00:08:48,280 Speaker 1: they were making the right sorts of decisions, as carved 133 00:08:48,320 --> 00:08:52,040 Speaker 1: by millions of years of natural selection, without having any 134 00:08:52,040 --> 00:08:55,400 Speaker 1: idea why they were making those decisions. They simply felt 135 00:08:55,600 --> 00:08:59,480 Speaker 1: more drawn towards some women than others for reasons they 136 00:08:59,520 --> 00:09:03,480 Speaker 1: couldn't put finger on. So who was doing the choosing. 137 00:09:03,880 --> 00:09:07,520 Speaker 1: It wasn't really like the men were choosing, but instead 138 00:09:07,559 --> 00:09:12,040 Speaker 1: it was a choice of successful neural programs that had 139 00:09:12,080 --> 00:09:15,560 Speaker 1: been burned deep into the circuitry over the course of 140 00:09:15,760 --> 00:09:20,680 Speaker 1: hundreds of thousands of generations. Brains are in the business 141 00:09:20,840 --> 00:09:25,720 Speaker 1: of gathering information and steering behavior appropriately, and it doesn't 142 00:09:25,760 --> 00:09:29,360 Speaker 1: matter whether consciousness is involved in the decision making, and 143 00:09:29,480 --> 00:09:32,320 Speaker 1: most of the time it's not. This is true whether 144 00:09:32,320 --> 00:09:36,400 Speaker 1: we're talking about dilated eyes, or the sting of jealousy, 145 00:09:36,640 --> 00:09:40,520 Speaker 1: or the pull of attraction, or your love of sugary 146 00:09:40,600 --> 00:09:43,920 Speaker 1: cookies or the great idea that popped into your head 147 00:09:44,000 --> 00:09:48,439 Speaker 1: last week. For all of these, consciousness is the smallest 148 00:09:48,600 --> 00:09:51,960 Speaker 1: player in the operations of your brain. Your brain runs 149 00:09:52,360 --> 00:09:57,400 Speaker 1: mostly on autopilot, and your conscious mind has very little 150 00:09:57,520 --> 00:10:01,840 Speaker 1: access to the giant and mista furious factory that runs 151 00:10:01,880 --> 00:10:04,400 Speaker 1: below it. And when you start looking around, you see 152 00:10:04,480 --> 00:10:07,199 Speaker 1: evidence of this all around you. So think of when 153 00:10:07,240 --> 00:10:10,280 Speaker 1: your foot gets halfway to the break of your car 154 00:10:10,400 --> 00:10:14,040 Speaker 1: before you consciously realize that a truck is backing out 155 00:10:14,080 --> 00:10:16,480 Speaker 1: of a driveway on the road ahead of you, or 156 00:10:16,960 --> 00:10:20,480 Speaker 1: when you notice your name spoken in a conversation across 157 00:10:20,520 --> 00:10:23,000 Speaker 1: the room that you thought you weren't listening to. You 158 00:10:23,040 --> 00:10:25,800 Speaker 1: see this when you're in a conversation and you don't 159 00:10:25,840 --> 00:10:28,080 Speaker 1: know the words that are going to spill out of 160 00:10:28,080 --> 00:10:32,079 Speaker 1: your mouth, You the conscious you just sits in the 161 00:10:32,120 --> 00:10:37,240 Speaker 1: back seat and waits to see what comes pouring out. Now, 162 00:10:37,360 --> 00:10:40,760 Speaker 1: the brain is massively complex, but that doesn't mean that 163 00:10:40,800 --> 00:10:45,679 Speaker 1: it's incomprehensible. Our neural circuits were carved by natural selection 164 00:10:46,240 --> 00:10:50,440 Speaker 1: to solve problems that our ancestors faced during our species 165 00:10:50,480 --> 00:10:55,960 Speaker 1: evolutionary history. So your brain has been molded by evolutionary pressures, 166 00:10:56,080 --> 00:10:59,640 Speaker 1: just like your spleen and your eyes have, and so 167 00:11:00,080 --> 00:11:05,600 Speaker 1: has your consciousness. Consciousness developed because it was advantageous, but 168 00:11:06,440 --> 00:11:11,000 Speaker 1: only advantageous in limited amounts. So why do we have 169 00:11:11,080 --> 00:11:14,800 Speaker 1: consciousness at all? Well, think of this as an analogy. 170 00:11:14,840 --> 00:11:18,280 Speaker 1: Look at all the activity that's happening in the nation 171 00:11:18,559 --> 00:11:23,560 Speaker 1: at any moment. You've got factories going and telecommunication lines 172 00:11:23,600 --> 00:11:27,800 Speaker 1: and businesses shipping product and people eating, and police chasing 173 00:11:27,840 --> 00:11:32,360 Speaker 1: criminals and schools running and lovers rendezvousing, and everyone's doing 174 00:11:32,360 --> 00:11:35,440 Speaker 1: their thing, teachers and athletes and doctors. There's a ton 175 00:11:35,520 --> 00:11:39,480 Speaker 1: of action going on in the nation. Now, you want 176 00:11:39,520 --> 00:11:41,640 Speaker 1: to know what's happening in the nation, but you can't 177 00:11:41,880 --> 00:11:45,679 Speaker 1: possibly take in all this information at once. It's too 178 00:11:45,800 --> 00:11:48,240 Speaker 1: much to be useful even if you could take it in. 179 00:11:48,960 --> 00:11:51,400 Speaker 1: So what you want is a summary. So you go 180 00:11:51,520 --> 00:11:55,120 Speaker 1: to a news website and you won't be surprised that 181 00:11:55,200 --> 00:11:58,320 Speaker 1: none of the details are listed there, because really you 182 00:11:58,440 --> 00:12:00,800 Speaker 1: just want to know the bottom line. You want to 183 00:12:00,840 --> 00:12:04,480 Speaker 1: know that Congress just signed a law that affects you, 184 00:12:04,600 --> 00:12:07,480 Speaker 1: But you don't have interest in the detailed history of 185 00:12:07,520 --> 00:12:09,200 Speaker 1: the bill, and you don't want to know all the 186 00:12:09,200 --> 00:12:12,600 Speaker 1: details of the food supply of the nation. You only 187 00:12:12,640 --> 00:12:15,800 Speaker 1: want to be alerted if there's something that affects you. 188 00:12:15,800 --> 00:12:18,959 Speaker 1: You don't care how the garbage is produced and packed away. 189 00:12:19,320 --> 00:12:21,920 Speaker 1: You only care if it's going to end up in 190 00:12:21,960 --> 00:12:26,000 Speaker 1: your backyard. That's what you get from reading the news headlines. 191 00:12:26,640 --> 00:12:30,880 Speaker 1: Your conscious mind gives you the headlines. Your brain is 192 00:12:31,000 --> 00:12:34,240 Speaker 1: buzzing with activity around the clock, and just like the nation, 193 00:12:34,720 --> 00:12:37,920 Speaker 1: everything is happening locally. You've got groups of neurons that 194 00:12:37,960 --> 00:12:41,840 Speaker 1: are making decisions and sending out messages to other groups. 195 00:12:42,400 --> 00:12:46,760 Speaker 1: And out of these local interactions emerge larger coalitions. And 196 00:12:46,800 --> 00:12:49,960 Speaker 1: by the time you read a mental headline, all the 197 00:12:50,000 --> 00:12:54,199 Speaker 1: important action has already transpired, all the deals are done. 198 00:12:54,360 --> 00:12:59,320 Speaker 1: You have shockingly little access to what happened behind the 199 00:12:59,400 --> 00:13:03,480 Speaker 1: scenes to lead you up to this moment. Entire political 200 00:13:03,520 --> 00:13:08,560 Speaker 1: movements have gained ground up support and become unstoppable before 201 00:13:08,559 --> 00:13:11,559 Speaker 1: you ever catch wind of them as a feeling or 202 00:13:11,600 --> 00:13:14,760 Speaker 1: an intuition or a thought. That strikes you. You're the 203 00:13:14,880 --> 00:13:19,680 Speaker 1: last one to hear the information. But strangely, you're an 204 00:13:19,760 --> 00:13:23,840 Speaker 1: odd kind of newsreader because you read the headline and 205 00:13:23,920 --> 00:13:26,200 Speaker 1: you take credit for the idea as though you thought 206 00:13:26,200 --> 00:13:28,840 Speaker 1: of it first. Just think about when you have an 207 00:13:28,920 --> 00:13:31,840 Speaker 1: idea and you say, oh, I just thought of something. 208 00:13:32,480 --> 00:13:35,480 Speaker 1: It wasn't exactly you that thought of it. Your brain's 209 00:13:35,520 --> 00:13:39,560 Speaker 1: been working on that behind the scenes for hours or 210 00:13:39,720 --> 00:13:46,440 Speaker 1: days or weeks, consolidating information, evaluating options, and eventually it 211 00:13:46,600 --> 00:13:49,320 Speaker 1: serves something up to your conscious mind and you say, oh, 212 00:13:49,440 --> 00:13:53,080 Speaker 1: I'm a genius, but it wasn't really you. Right, you're 213 00:13:53,200 --> 00:13:59,040 Speaker 1: taking credit without considering the vast hidden machinery behind the scenes. 214 00:14:00,000 --> 00:14:03,520 Speaker 1: So the conscious you, which is the part that flickers 215 00:14:03,559 --> 00:14:05,800 Speaker 1: to life when you wake up in the morning, that's 216 00:14:05,880 --> 00:14:08,800 Speaker 1: the smallest bit of what's going on in your brain. 217 00:14:09,200 --> 00:14:12,800 Speaker 1: It's a broom closet in the mansion of the brain. 218 00:14:13,520 --> 00:14:16,520 Speaker 1: Most of what you think and do and believe is 219 00:14:16,679 --> 00:14:19,640 Speaker 1: generated by functions of your brain to which you have 220 00:14:19,720 --> 00:14:24,720 Speaker 1: no access. So the conscious mind is like a stowaway 221 00:14:25,160 --> 00:14:28,760 Speaker 1: on a transatlantic steamship that's taking credit for the whole 222 00:14:28,840 --> 00:14:34,440 Speaker 1: journey without acknowledging all the massive engineering that's underfoot, and 223 00:14:34,480 --> 00:14:36,720 Speaker 1: it kind of has to be that way because really 224 00:14:36,760 --> 00:14:41,080 Speaker 1: the conscious mind is acting like the CEO of an 225 00:14:41,280 --> 00:14:44,520 Speaker 1: enormous organization. So think if you're the CEO of some 226 00:14:45,320 --> 00:14:49,600 Speaker 1: huge international company, you can't possibly get involved with all 227 00:14:49,640 --> 00:14:54,480 Speaker 1: the little tasks of knowing what software version is on employees' computers, 228 00:14:55,120 --> 00:14:57,760 Speaker 1: or where the food for the cafeteria is coming from, 229 00:14:58,280 --> 00:15:01,360 Speaker 1: or where the truck tires are being ordered from. The 230 00:15:01,480 --> 00:15:05,200 Speaker 1: organization is just way too big. So your job as 231 00:15:05,200 --> 00:15:07,880 Speaker 1: the CEO is to kick your feet up on the 232 00:15:07,960 --> 00:15:10,960 Speaker 1: desk and wait for the phond erring if there's a problem. 233 00:15:11,440 --> 00:15:14,920 Speaker 1: And this is essentially what the conscious mind is doing. 234 00:15:29,800 --> 00:15:33,360 Speaker 1: So who exactly deserves the credit for the great idea 235 00:15:33,400 --> 00:15:35,720 Speaker 1: that you have? This is a tough one that people 236 00:15:35,720 --> 00:15:39,280 Speaker 1: have been wrestling with for ages. I was recently reading 237 00:15:39,360 --> 00:15:43,680 Speaker 1: about the mathematician James Clerk Maxwell, who in eighteen sixty 238 00:15:43,680 --> 00:15:48,960 Speaker 1: two developed a set of Sweet equations to unify electricity 239 00:15:49,000 --> 00:15:53,480 Speaker 1: with magnetism. But on his deathbed he said that quote 240 00:15:53,840 --> 00:15:58,960 Speaker 1: something within him unquote discovered the famous equations, not him. 241 00:15:59,640 --> 00:16:03,440 Speaker 1: He had admitted that he had no idea how ideas 242 00:16:03,600 --> 00:16:07,080 Speaker 1: actually came to him. They simply came to him. The 243 00:16:07,160 --> 00:16:11,480 Speaker 1: author William Blake wrote the long poem Milton, and later 244 00:16:11,720 --> 00:16:15,960 Speaker 1: he said, quote, I have written this poem from immediate dictation, 245 00:16:16,200 --> 00:16:20,600 Speaker 1: twelve or sometimes twenty lines at a time, without premeditation, 246 00:16:20,880 --> 00:16:25,680 Speaker 1: and even against my will unquote. Or the novelist Kurtis 247 00:16:25,680 --> 00:16:27,800 Speaker 1: said that he had written one of his novellas with 248 00:16:28,040 --> 00:16:31,800 Speaker 1: practically no conscious input, as though he were holding a 249 00:16:31,840 --> 00:16:35,280 Speaker 1: pen that moved on its own. Or think about the 250 00:16:35,400 --> 00:16:39,320 Speaker 1: British poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge. He started to use opium 251 00:16:39,400 --> 00:16:42,440 Speaker 1: in seventeen ninety six, and originally it was for relief 252 00:16:42,480 --> 00:16:45,640 Speaker 1: from toothaches, but after a while he was addicted and 253 00:16:45,680 --> 00:16:49,920 Speaker 1: he wrote his famous poem Kubla Khan on an opium high. 254 00:16:50,600 --> 00:16:54,080 Speaker 1: Now we give credit for that poem to Coleridge because 255 00:16:54,080 --> 00:16:56,480 Speaker 1: it came from his brain and no one else's right, 256 00:16:57,160 --> 00:17:01,000 Speaker 1: But he couldn't get hold of those words while so, so, 257 00:17:01,400 --> 00:17:04,960 Speaker 1: who exactly does credit for the poem belong to? As 258 00:17:05,000 --> 00:17:08,800 Speaker 1: Carl Jung said, in each of us there is another 259 00:17:09,320 --> 00:17:12,879 Speaker 1: whom we do not know, Or as Pink Floyd put it, 260 00:17:13,280 --> 00:17:17,160 Speaker 1: there's someone in my head, but it's not me. Almost 261 00:17:17,240 --> 00:17:21,120 Speaker 1: everything in your mental life is not under your conscious control. 262 00:17:21,480 --> 00:17:24,639 Speaker 1: And the truth is it's better that way. Consciousness can 263 00:17:24,680 --> 00:17:28,280 Speaker 1: take all the credit it wants, but it's best left 264 00:17:28,359 --> 00:17:31,159 Speaker 1: at the sidelines for most of the decision making that 265 00:17:31,200 --> 00:17:34,800 Speaker 1: cranks along in your brain. When your conscious mind messes 266 00:17:34,800 --> 00:17:38,879 Speaker 1: with details that it doesn't understand, the whole operation runs 267 00:17:38,960 --> 00:17:42,879 Speaker 1: less effectively. So if you play the piano, you know 268 00:17:42,960 --> 00:17:44,879 Speaker 1: that if you start to think about where your fingers 269 00:17:44,880 --> 00:17:47,919 Speaker 1: are going, you're dead. You can't do it anymore. Or 270 00:17:47,920 --> 00:17:49,639 Speaker 1: here's something to try. I want you to try this. 271 00:17:49,760 --> 00:17:53,840 Speaker 1: Take two dry erase markers and go stand in front 272 00:17:53,920 --> 00:17:56,199 Speaker 1: of the dry erase port. And what I want you 273 00:17:56,240 --> 00:17:59,240 Speaker 1: to do is write your signature with your right hand 274 00:17:59,280 --> 00:18:02,399 Speaker 1: at the same time that you're writing it backwards with 275 00:18:02,480 --> 00:18:04,840 Speaker 1: your left hand. So you're writing your signature and its 276 00:18:05,000 --> 00:18:09,160 Speaker 1: mirror reverse at the same time. So go ahead, try 277 00:18:09,160 --> 00:18:11,160 Speaker 1: this for a moment if you are near a dry 278 00:18:11,200 --> 00:18:15,200 Speaker 1: erase board, and you'll quickly find that there's only one 279 00:18:15,280 --> 00:18:18,439 Speaker 1: way you can do it, and that is if you 280 00:18:18,720 --> 00:18:22,240 Speaker 1: don't think about it at all. The moment you start 281 00:18:22,280 --> 00:18:25,560 Speaker 1: thinking about what a backwards letter looks like, the whole 282 00:18:25,600 --> 00:18:28,840 Speaker 1: thing fails. You stumble, and you stutter along and you 283 00:18:28,920 --> 00:18:31,920 Speaker 1: just can't do it. But you actually can't do this 284 00:18:32,640 --> 00:18:35,080 Speaker 1: if you simply don't think about it, if you just 285 00:18:35,600 --> 00:18:38,560 Speaker 1: zen out and let your hands do the work. So 286 00:18:38,600 --> 00:18:42,080 Speaker 1: you can only do it if you exclude conscious thought. 287 00:18:42,760 --> 00:18:46,160 Speaker 1: Here's another example. Pretend you're driving, and what I want 288 00:18:46,200 --> 00:18:48,000 Speaker 1: you to do is actually put your hands up on 289 00:18:48,280 --> 00:18:50,800 Speaker 1: an imaginary steering wheel in front of you. So put 290 00:18:50,840 --> 00:18:53,160 Speaker 1: your hands there, and if you're in a car while 291 00:18:53,160 --> 00:18:56,120 Speaker 1: listening to this podcast, don't do this, okay. So imagine 292 00:18:56,119 --> 00:18:58,479 Speaker 1: with your hands on the imaginary steering wheel that you 293 00:18:58,560 --> 00:19:01,200 Speaker 1: are in the center lane going thirty miles an hour, 294 00:19:01,480 --> 00:19:03,840 Speaker 1: and I want you to make a lane change into 295 00:19:03,880 --> 00:19:06,560 Speaker 1: your right lane. So go ahead and turn the wheel 296 00:19:06,640 --> 00:19:09,560 Speaker 1: in the way that you would to make a lane change. Now, 297 00:19:09,600 --> 00:19:12,960 Speaker 1: if you're like essentially everybody who I've ever tried this with, 298 00:19:13,280 --> 00:19:15,520 Speaker 1: what you do is you turn your wheel to the 299 00:19:15,600 --> 00:19:18,359 Speaker 1: right and then back to center. Is that what you did, Okay? 300 00:19:18,520 --> 00:19:21,880 Speaker 1: So that turns your car to the right, and now 301 00:19:21,920 --> 00:19:24,360 Speaker 1: you bump over the sidewalk and you crash into the buildings. 302 00:19:24,880 --> 00:19:27,280 Speaker 1: The way you make a lane change is by turning 303 00:19:27,359 --> 00:19:30,200 Speaker 1: the steering wheel to the right, then back through the center, 304 00:19:30,240 --> 00:19:32,280 Speaker 1: and just as far to the left and then you're 305 00:19:32,320 --> 00:19:34,920 Speaker 1: back to the center again. So if you're in a car, 306 00:19:35,000 --> 00:19:37,720 Speaker 1: pay attention to how you're doing this, and you'll see 307 00:19:38,160 --> 00:19:40,560 Speaker 1: that's how you make a lane change, and you do 308 00:19:40,640 --> 00:19:44,000 Speaker 1: it every day and you have no idea how you're 309 00:19:44,000 --> 00:19:47,960 Speaker 1: doing it. Why. It's because your unconscious brain is taking 310 00:19:47,960 --> 00:19:51,000 Speaker 1: care of all the details for you and you don't 311 00:19:51,040 --> 00:19:53,960 Speaker 1: even have access to what you're doing. So you can 312 00:19:54,000 --> 00:19:57,840 Speaker 1: do lots of things well with no consciousness involved. When 313 00:19:57,960 --> 00:19:59,840 Speaker 1: I was younger, I used to play baseball and my 314 00:20:00,040 --> 00:20:02,240 Speaker 1: coach would always say to us, I want you guys 315 00:20:02,280 --> 00:20:05,160 Speaker 1: to think out there. And I would say to him, actually, 316 00:20:05,440 --> 00:20:07,560 Speaker 1: you don't want us to think out there. You want 317 00:20:07,640 --> 00:20:10,399 Speaker 1: us to train a sufficient number of hours so that 318 00:20:10,440 --> 00:20:13,200 Speaker 1: we automatize all these behaviors and then we go out 319 00:20:13,240 --> 00:20:15,600 Speaker 1: there and perform. But the last thing you want us 320 00:20:15,640 --> 00:20:18,400 Speaker 1: doing out there is thinking, because we would never connect 321 00:20:18,680 --> 00:20:20,640 Speaker 1: the bat with the ball or catch the pop fly. 322 00:20:21,240 --> 00:20:22,720 Speaker 1: But he never believed me, so I had to go 323 00:20:22,760 --> 00:20:25,479 Speaker 1: become a neuroscientist and write books to convince him that 324 00:20:25,720 --> 00:20:30,280 Speaker 1: consciousness typically doesn't even get invited to the party. And 325 00:20:30,320 --> 00:20:33,840 Speaker 1: by the way, when consciousness does get any insight, it's 326 00:20:33,880 --> 00:20:37,840 Speaker 1: always the last one to hear the information. So think 327 00:20:37,840 --> 00:20:41,400 Speaker 1: about hitting a baseball. In twenty ten, the Guinness Book 328 00:20:41,400 --> 00:20:45,359 Speaker 1: of World Records clocked a fastball from the Cincinnati pitcher 329 00:20:45,480 --> 00:20:48,040 Speaker 1: or all this Chapman, at one hundred and five point 330 00:20:48,040 --> 00:20:50,960 Speaker 1: eight miles per hour. So if you work the numbers, 331 00:20:51,040 --> 00:20:53,800 Speaker 1: what you see is that Chapman's pitch left the mound 332 00:20:53,840 --> 00:20:57,040 Speaker 1: and cross the home plate in four tenths of a second, 333 00:20:57,280 --> 00:21:01,359 Speaker 1: four hundred milliseconds. What that means is there's just enough 334 00:21:01,400 --> 00:21:04,639 Speaker 1: time for light signals from the baseball to reach the 335 00:21:04,680 --> 00:21:08,240 Speaker 1: batter's eye work through the circuitry of the retina. Activate 336 00:21:08,320 --> 00:21:12,760 Speaker 1: these successions of cells along the loopy super highways of 337 00:21:12,800 --> 00:21:15,439 Speaker 1: the visual system at the back of the head, cross 338 00:21:15,560 --> 00:21:19,439 Speaker 1: the vast territories to the motor areas, and modify the 339 00:21:19,480 --> 00:21:23,720 Speaker 1: contraction of the muscles swinging the bat. And amazingly, this 340 00:21:24,000 --> 00:21:27,359 Speaker 1: entire sequence is possible in less than four tenths of 341 00:21:27,400 --> 00:21:30,280 Speaker 1: a second. Otherwise no one would ever hit a fastball. 342 00:21:30,359 --> 00:21:34,920 Speaker 1: But the surprising part is that conscious awareness takes longer 343 00:21:34,960 --> 00:21:38,320 Speaker 1: than that, at least half a second, so the ball 344 00:21:38,440 --> 00:21:43,000 Speaker 1: travels too rapidly for batters to be consciously aware of it. 345 00:21:43,400 --> 00:21:46,080 Speaker 1: And when I was playing baseball, my experience of hitting 346 00:21:46,160 --> 00:21:49,280 Speaker 1: the ball was always this. I would stand there ready 347 00:21:49,320 --> 00:21:53,479 Speaker 1: to swing, and then I would become consciously aware that 348 00:21:53,560 --> 00:21:55,600 Speaker 1: I had hit the ball and it was flying away 349 00:21:55,600 --> 00:21:57,600 Speaker 1: from me, and then I would say to myself, you 350 00:21:57,720 --> 00:22:00,320 Speaker 1: hit the ball, Now drop the bat and run. But 351 00:22:00,400 --> 00:22:03,359 Speaker 1: the actual moment of hitting the ball with the bat 352 00:22:03,480 --> 00:22:07,760 Speaker 1: was always moving way ahead of my slow consciousness, which 353 00:22:07,840 --> 00:22:10,000 Speaker 1: was the last one on the ladder to get any 354 00:22:10,040 --> 00:22:13,080 Speaker 1: of the news of what was transpiring. And all. This 355 00:22:13,119 --> 00:22:15,679 Speaker 1: is the case because you don't need to be consciously 356 00:22:15,720 --> 00:22:20,840 Speaker 1: aware to perform sophisticated motor acts. You can notice this 357 00:22:20,880 --> 00:22:24,399 Speaker 1: when you begin to duck from a snapping tree branch 358 00:22:24,520 --> 00:22:27,800 Speaker 1: before you are aware that is coming towards you, or 359 00:22:27,840 --> 00:22:30,879 Speaker 1: you're already jumping up by the time you realize that 360 00:22:30,920 --> 00:22:33,640 Speaker 1: your cell phone is ringing across the room. So these 361 00:22:33,720 --> 00:22:37,879 Speaker 1: examples about writing your signature backward, or changing lanes, or 362 00:22:37,960 --> 00:22:42,359 Speaker 1: hitting a baseball, these are a few among thousands. You 363 00:22:42,440 --> 00:22:46,240 Speaker 1: are not consciously aware of the vast majority of your 364 00:22:46,280 --> 00:22:49,840 Speaker 1: brain's ongoing activities, and nor would you want to be. 365 00:22:50,320 --> 00:22:55,000 Speaker 1: It would interfere with the brain's well oiled processes. The 366 00:22:55,040 --> 00:22:57,240 Speaker 1: best way to mess up your piano piece is to 367 00:22:57,280 --> 00:23:00,240 Speaker 1: concentrate on your fingers. The best way to get out 368 00:23:00,280 --> 00:23:03,359 Speaker 1: of breath is to think about your breathing. The best 369 00:23:03,400 --> 00:23:05,919 Speaker 1: way to miss your golf ball is to think too 370 00:23:06,000 --> 00:23:08,640 Speaker 1: much about your swing. And by the way, this wisdom 371 00:23:08,720 --> 00:23:12,159 Speaker 1: is apparent even to children. We find it immortalized in 372 00:23:12,280 --> 00:23:16,280 Speaker 1: poems like the Puzzled Centipede, which goes like this. A 373 00:23:16,359 --> 00:23:21,159 Speaker 1: centipede was happy quite until a frog in fun said, 374 00:23:21,440 --> 00:23:25,760 Speaker 1: pray tell which leg comes? After which this raised her 375 00:23:25,800 --> 00:23:29,160 Speaker 1: mind to such a pitch she lay distracted in the ditch, 376 00:23:29,720 --> 00:23:34,240 Speaker 1: not knowing how to run. So this ability to remember 377 00:23:34,480 --> 00:23:38,080 Speaker 1: how to do motor acts like changing lanes is called 378 00:23:38,400 --> 00:23:43,560 Speaker 1: procedural memory, and it's a type of implicit memory. Implicit 379 00:23:43,600 --> 00:23:46,600 Speaker 1: means that your brain holds the knowledge of something that 380 00:23:46,640 --> 00:23:51,000 Speaker 1: your conscious mind can't access, like riding a bike, or 381 00:23:51,080 --> 00:23:54,400 Speaker 1: tying your shoes, or typing on a keyboard, or steering 382 00:23:54,440 --> 00:23:57,119 Speaker 1: your car into a parking space while you're talking on 383 00:23:57,160 --> 00:24:00,560 Speaker 1: your cell phone. These are all examples of implicit memory. 384 00:24:01,000 --> 00:24:05,160 Speaker 1: You can execute these actions easily enough without having any 385 00:24:05,200 --> 00:24:08,120 Speaker 1: idea of exactly how you do it. You would be 386 00:24:08,200 --> 00:24:13,840 Speaker 1: totally unable to describe the perfectly timed choreography with which 387 00:24:13,880 --> 00:24:17,760 Speaker 1: your muscles contract and relax as you do these things, 388 00:24:17,840 --> 00:24:21,120 Speaker 1: or as you navigate around other people in a cafeteria 389 00:24:21,160 --> 00:24:23,760 Speaker 1: while you're holding a tray. But you don't have any 390 00:24:23,800 --> 00:24:26,800 Speaker 1: trouble doing any of these things. This is the gap 391 00:24:27,320 --> 00:24:30,720 Speaker 1: between what your unconscious brain can do and what you 392 00:24:30,760 --> 00:24:34,920 Speaker 1: can access consciously. To the extent that consciousness is useful, 393 00:24:35,440 --> 00:24:39,320 Speaker 1: it's useful in small quantities and for very particular kinds 394 00:24:39,320 --> 00:24:42,240 Speaker 1: of tasks. It's easy enough to understand why you wouldn't 395 00:24:42,240 --> 00:24:45,639 Speaker 1: want to be consciously aware of the intricacies of your 396 00:24:45,720 --> 00:24:48,480 Speaker 1: muscle movement, but this can be a little less intuitive 397 00:24:48,520 --> 00:24:53,000 Speaker 1: when applied to your perceptions and thoughts and beliefs, which 398 00:24:53,080 --> 00:24:56,880 Speaker 1: are also the final products of the activity of billions 399 00:24:56,880 --> 00:25:00,000 Speaker 1: of nerve cells. For a good example of this, can 400 00:25:00,040 --> 00:25:04,200 Speaker 1: consider chicken sexers. So what is a chicken sexer? Well, 401 00:25:04,520 --> 00:25:09,960 Speaker 1: when little chicken hatchlings are born, large commercial hatcheries divide 402 00:25:10,000 --> 00:25:13,560 Speaker 1: them up into males and females, and this practice of 403 00:25:13,600 --> 00:25:17,320 Speaker 1: figuring out which is which, of distinguishing the two genders, 404 00:25:17,520 --> 00:25:21,560 Speaker 1: this is known as chicken sexing. Now the hatcheries divide 405 00:25:21,560 --> 00:25:25,600 Speaker 1: them up because the two genders get different feeding programs. 406 00:25:25,680 --> 00:25:29,400 Speaker 1: The females who will eventually lay eggs are highly valued, 407 00:25:29,880 --> 00:25:32,640 Speaker 1: but sadly, most of the males are disposed of because 408 00:25:32,640 --> 00:25:35,399 Speaker 1: they don't produce eggs, and only a few males are 409 00:25:35,520 --> 00:25:39,080 Speaker 1: kept in fatten for meat. So anyway, the job of 410 00:25:39,119 --> 00:25:42,439 Speaker 1: the chicken sexor is to pick up each hatchling and 411 00:25:42,520 --> 00:25:46,000 Speaker 1: quickly determine its sex in order to choose the correct 412 00:25:46,119 --> 00:25:49,119 Speaker 1: bin to put it in. The problem is that this 413 00:25:49,320 --> 00:25:54,920 Speaker 1: task is famously difficult because female and male chicks look 414 00:25:55,200 --> 00:26:01,040 Speaker 1: exactly alike, well almost exactly. So the Japanese invented a 415 00:26:01,240 --> 00:26:04,400 Speaker 1: method of sexing chicks known as vent sexing, by which 416 00:26:04,760 --> 00:26:08,560 Speaker 1: expert chicken sexers could rapidly figure out the sex of 417 00:26:08,680 --> 00:26:12,400 Speaker 1: one day old hatchlings. So, beginning in the nineteen thirties, 418 00:26:12,680 --> 00:26:16,520 Speaker 1: poultry breeders from around the world traveled to the zen 419 00:26:16,640 --> 00:26:20,520 Speaker 1: Nippon Chick Sexing School in Japan to learn the technique. 420 00:26:21,080 --> 00:26:25,160 Speaker 1: The mystery was that no one could explain exactly how 421 00:26:25,200 --> 00:26:28,480 Speaker 1: it was done. It was somehow based on very subtle 422 00:26:28,680 --> 00:26:33,480 Speaker 1: visual cues, but the professional chick sexors could not report 423 00:26:33,560 --> 00:26:37,199 Speaker 1: what those cues were. Instead, they would look at the 424 00:26:37,280 --> 00:26:40,840 Speaker 1: chicks rear end where the vent is and simply seem 425 00:26:41,000 --> 00:26:44,119 Speaker 1: to know the correct bin to put it in. And 426 00:26:44,280 --> 00:26:48,520 Speaker 1: this is how the professionals taught the students. The master 427 00:26:48,600 --> 00:26:52,399 Speaker 1: would stand over the apprentice and watch the student would 428 00:26:52,640 --> 00:26:55,840 Speaker 1: pick up a chick, examine its rear, and put it 429 00:26:55,880 --> 00:26:58,120 Speaker 1: in one bin or the other, and the master would 430 00:26:58,119 --> 00:27:03,159 Speaker 1: give feedback yes or no. And after weeks on end 431 00:27:03,240 --> 00:27:07,320 Speaker 1: of this activity, the student's brain was trained up to 432 00:27:07,960 --> 00:27:12,880 Speaker 1: masterful levels that were totally unconscious. They could tell the 433 00:27:12,920 --> 00:27:15,280 Speaker 1: sects of the chicken, but they had no idea how 434 00:27:15,280 --> 00:27:19,040 Speaker 1: they were doing it. Meanwhile, a similar story was unfolding 435 00:27:19,040 --> 00:27:21,240 Speaker 1: on the other side of the world during World War Two. 436 00:27:22,080 --> 00:27:25,879 Speaker 1: Under a constant threat of bombings, the British had to 437 00:27:25,920 --> 00:27:30,240 Speaker 1: figure out how to distinguish incoming aircraft quickly and accurately. 438 00:27:30,800 --> 00:27:34,320 Speaker 1: Which aircraft were British planes coming home and which were 439 00:27:34,680 --> 00:27:37,680 Speaker 1: German planes coming to bomb. So, as it turns out, 440 00:27:37,720 --> 00:27:42,640 Speaker 1: there were several airplane enthusiasts who proved to be excellent spotters, 441 00:27:43,119 --> 00:27:47,760 Speaker 1: so the military eagerly employed their services. These spotters were 442 00:27:47,800 --> 00:27:52,000 Speaker 1: so valuable that the government quickly tried to enlist more spotters, 443 00:27:52,520 --> 00:27:54,600 Speaker 1: but they turned out to be very rare and difficult 444 00:27:54,640 --> 00:27:58,119 Speaker 1: to find. So what did the government do. They tried 445 00:27:58,160 --> 00:28:02,639 Speaker 1: to get the spotters to sit down and train other spotters, 446 00:28:02,960 --> 00:28:05,879 Speaker 1: but that turned out to be a total fail because 447 00:28:05,960 --> 00:28:10,800 Speaker 1: the spotters tried to explain their strategies but failed. No 448 00:28:10,840 --> 00:28:13,720 Speaker 1: one got it, not even the spotters themselves. Just like 449 00:28:13,760 --> 00:28:17,960 Speaker 1: the chicken sextors, the spotters had no idea how they 450 00:28:18,000 --> 00:28:21,760 Speaker 1: did what they did. They simply saw the right answer. 451 00:28:22,560 --> 00:28:25,520 Speaker 1: But with a little ingenuity, the British finally figured out 452 00:28:25,720 --> 00:28:29,679 Speaker 1: how to successfully train new spotters, and it was just 453 00:28:29,760 --> 00:28:33,840 Speaker 1: by trial and error feedback. So the novice would hazard 454 00:28:33,840 --> 00:28:35,640 Speaker 1: a guess and say I think that's a British plane 455 00:28:35,680 --> 00:28:37,959 Speaker 1: or I think that's a German plane, and the expert 456 00:28:37,960 --> 00:28:42,280 Speaker 1: would say yes or no, and eventually the novices became 457 00:28:42,600 --> 00:28:50,200 Speaker 1: like their mentors, vessels of this mysterious, ineffable expertise. So 458 00:28:50,240 --> 00:28:53,720 Speaker 1: there can be a really large gap between knowledge that 459 00:28:53,800 --> 00:29:12,680 Speaker 1: your brain has and your conscious awareness. So when we 460 00:29:12,800 --> 00:29:17,000 Speaker 1: examine skills that aren't available to introspection, like making a 461 00:29:17,080 --> 00:29:20,280 Speaker 1: lane change, or hitting the baseball or chicken sexing, the 462 00:29:20,320 --> 00:29:24,560 Speaker 1: first surprise is that your brain's unconscious memory for something 463 00:29:24,640 --> 00:29:29,200 Speaker 1: your implicit memory is totally separable from things that you 464 00:29:29,280 --> 00:29:33,720 Speaker 1: can talk about consciously or your explicit memory. You can 465 00:29:33,840 --> 00:29:39,040 Speaker 1: damage one without hurting the other. So, for example, sometimes 466 00:29:39,080 --> 00:29:41,920 Speaker 1: a person will get brain damage and get what's called 467 00:29:42,240 --> 00:29:48,080 Speaker 1: antaro grade amnesia, which means they can't consciously recall new 468 00:29:48,120 --> 00:29:51,560 Speaker 1: experiences in their lives. If you spend an afternoon trying 469 00:29:51,600 --> 00:29:55,280 Speaker 1: to teach a person like this the video game Tetris, 470 00:29:55,600 --> 00:29:57,400 Speaker 1: they'll tell you the next day that they have no 471 00:29:57,720 --> 00:30:00,760 Speaker 1: recollection of the experience. They've never seen this deo game before, 472 00:30:01,040 --> 00:30:02,880 Speaker 1: and most likely they don't have any idea who you 473 00:30:02,920 --> 00:30:06,040 Speaker 1: are either. But if you look at their performance on 474 00:30:06,120 --> 00:30:08,360 Speaker 1: the game the next day, you'll find that they have 475 00:30:08,680 --> 00:30:13,040 Speaker 1: improved exactly as much as a person without amnesia. In 476 00:30:13,120 --> 00:30:17,600 Speaker 1: other words, their brains have learned the game implicitly. The 477 00:30:17,760 --> 00:30:21,240 Speaker 1: knowledge is there, it's just that it's not accessible to 478 00:30:21,320 --> 00:30:24,680 Speaker 1: their consciousness. By the way, it's an interesting side note. 479 00:30:24,840 --> 00:30:28,000 Speaker 1: If you wake up an amnestic patient during the night 480 00:30:28,120 --> 00:30:31,280 Speaker 1: after they've played Tetris, they'll report to you that they 481 00:30:31,280 --> 00:30:34,640 Speaker 1: were dreaming of colorful falling blocks, but they have no 482 00:30:34,680 --> 00:30:38,240 Speaker 1: idea why. And of course it's not just checking sexors 483 00:30:38,240 --> 00:30:44,080 Speaker 1: and plane spotters and people with amnesia who enjoy unconscious learning. Essentially, 484 00:30:44,280 --> 00:30:49,040 Speaker 1: everything about your interaction with the world rests on this process. 485 00:30:49,640 --> 00:30:52,480 Speaker 1: You probably would have a difficult time putting into words 486 00:30:53,040 --> 00:30:57,120 Speaker 1: the characteristics of your father's walk, or the shape of 487 00:30:57,120 --> 00:31:00,040 Speaker 1: his nose, or the way that he laughs. When you 488 00:31:00,080 --> 00:31:02,920 Speaker 1: see someone who walks or looks or laughs like him, 489 00:31:03,240 --> 00:31:06,640 Speaker 1: you know it immediately. Now, I want to return to 490 00:31:06,640 --> 00:31:08,920 Speaker 1: this point that I mentioned at the beginning, which is 491 00:31:08,920 --> 00:31:12,640 Speaker 1: that you are your brain and this is why things 492 00:31:12,720 --> 00:31:16,200 Speaker 1: like brain damage can change you. But you don't need 493 00:31:16,280 --> 00:31:18,760 Speaker 1: brain damage to prove this to yourself. Just look at 494 00:31:19,040 --> 00:31:22,440 Speaker 1: the ways that you change when your biology changes. So 495 00:31:22,600 --> 00:31:27,640 Speaker 1: consider alcohol. You pour these invisibly small ethanol molecules into 496 00:31:27,640 --> 00:31:31,040 Speaker 1: your system, and that alters your perception and your behavior. 497 00:31:31,560 --> 00:31:35,800 Speaker 1: Your social inhibitions are lower, you feel freer, you think 498 00:31:35,880 --> 00:31:39,200 Speaker 1: your funnier at parties, you do more adventurous things. It's 499 00:31:39,400 --> 00:31:42,480 Speaker 1: just a molecule of a particular shape that interacts with 500 00:31:42,520 --> 00:31:46,320 Speaker 1: the membranes of your neurons. But it very slightly changes 501 00:31:46,360 --> 00:31:50,400 Speaker 1: the way that information flows through these giant networks, and 502 00:31:50,480 --> 00:31:54,920 Speaker 1: so who you are becomes slightly different. And drugs of 503 00:31:54,960 --> 00:31:59,360 Speaker 1: all sorts influence our behavior this is obvious with narcotics. 504 00:31:59,440 --> 00:32:03,000 Speaker 1: They slightly tweak the behavior of the network. And now 505 00:32:03,040 --> 00:32:06,560 Speaker 1: you're talking to silver leprechauns. And I'll give you another 506 00:32:06,600 --> 00:32:11,640 Speaker 1: interesting example of the influence of molecules. Take the professional 507 00:32:11,680 --> 00:32:15,680 Speaker 1: wrestler Chris Benoit, who was this giant muscley guy who 508 00:32:15,720 --> 00:32:18,920 Speaker 1: had a world heavyweight championship. And he went home one 509 00:32:19,000 --> 00:32:21,880 Speaker 1: night in two thousand and seven and he murdered his 510 00:32:22,000 --> 00:32:25,040 Speaker 1: wife and his son and he hung himself from one 511 00:32:25,040 --> 00:32:28,760 Speaker 1: of the pulleys of his weight machines. Now, at the autopsy, 512 00:32:28,800 --> 00:32:31,560 Speaker 1: they figured out he was on massive doses of the 513 00:32:31,600 --> 00:32:36,320 Speaker 1: steroid testosterone and other anabolic steroids, and these can cause 514 00:32:36,360 --> 00:32:40,600 Speaker 1: paranoia and violent outbursts, and it's known as roid rage. 515 00:32:41,200 --> 00:32:44,200 Speaker 1: You change the exact balance of chemicals under the hood, 516 00:32:44,640 --> 00:32:48,200 Speaker 1: and you change your decision making you change who you are. 517 00:32:48,920 --> 00:32:51,520 Speaker 1: And by the way, these kinds of changes and who 518 00:32:51,560 --> 00:32:55,640 Speaker 1: you are, these applied to prescription medications as well. Some 519 00:32:55,800 --> 00:32:59,640 Speaker 1: years ago, physicians began noticing that some of their patients 520 00:32:59,640 --> 00:33:04,640 Speaker 1: who had Parkinson's disease were becoming compulsive gamblers, and they 521 00:33:04,640 --> 00:33:08,280 Speaker 1: were blowing their families money in Las Vegas or Atlantic 522 00:33:08,360 --> 00:33:13,120 Speaker 1: City or online poker. Now, Parkinson's disease involves a decrease 523 00:33:13,240 --> 00:33:16,920 Speaker 1: in a neurotransmitter called dopamine, and so the medications to 524 00:33:17,000 --> 00:33:20,800 Speaker 1: help that they crank up dopamine levels and that makes 525 00:33:20,840 --> 00:33:24,720 Speaker 1: the tremors and the rigidity go away. But dopamine also 526 00:33:24,800 --> 00:33:28,240 Speaker 1: plays a second role in your brain, not just involving 527 00:33:28,240 --> 00:33:32,320 Speaker 1: how your muscles work, but also in your reward systems. 528 00:33:32,680 --> 00:33:35,440 Speaker 1: So it turns out that by ratcheting up the level 529 00:33:35,480 --> 00:33:39,240 Speaker 1: of dopamine it was changing the decision making of the patients. 530 00:33:39,560 --> 00:33:42,800 Speaker 1: It gave them a much bigger appetite for risk taking, 531 00:33:43,120 --> 00:33:46,440 Speaker 1: and one of the ways this expresses itself is with gambling. 532 00:33:46,720 --> 00:33:50,440 Speaker 1: So nowadays these Parkinson's medications come with a warning on 533 00:33:50,520 --> 00:33:53,520 Speaker 1: the label that if you notice an increase in gambling 534 00:33:53,640 --> 00:33:56,840 Speaker 1: or other risk taking behavior, then the dosage should be 535 00:33:56,880 --> 00:34:00,320 Speaker 1: turned down. So what's clear is that the soul I'm 536 00:34:00,320 --> 00:34:04,640 Speaker 1: total of your neurochemistry, whether from alcohol or drugs, or abuse, 537 00:34:04,760 --> 00:34:09,719 Speaker 1: or steroids or clinical medications, whatever, these modify your behavior. 538 00:34:10,400 --> 00:34:14,160 Speaker 1: So nowadays, what this all means is that when we 539 00:34:14,200 --> 00:34:18,640 Speaker 1: talk about morality and decision making, what we're really talking 540 00:34:18,680 --> 00:34:22,279 Speaker 1: about is the neural basis of this and this leads 541 00:34:22,360 --> 00:34:27,160 Speaker 1: us to the very deep question about freewill. Is the 542 00:34:27,239 --> 00:34:30,680 Speaker 1: mind separate from the brain or are they the same thing? 543 00:34:31,280 --> 00:34:33,640 Speaker 1: And because of all the cases we have of brain 544 00:34:33,680 --> 00:34:36,960 Speaker 1: damage and narcotics and disease states, and how people's behavior 545 00:34:37,400 --> 00:34:41,520 Speaker 1: changes when their brain changes, it's a very reasonable hypothesis 546 00:34:41,840 --> 00:34:45,400 Speaker 1: that you do not have free will. You are your brain. 547 00:34:45,960 --> 00:34:50,600 Speaker 1: And although it's a mind bogglingly complex system, it's nonetheless 548 00:34:50,920 --> 00:34:55,760 Speaker 1: a machine, a giant machine whose complexity we could never capture, 549 00:34:55,800 --> 00:34:58,600 Speaker 1: but a machine nonetheless. As far as we can tell, 550 00:34:58,640 --> 00:35:01,640 Speaker 1: every neuron that we measure is driven by the activity 551 00:35:01,640 --> 00:35:03,880 Speaker 1: of other neurons, and those are driven by the activity 552 00:35:03,920 --> 00:35:06,440 Speaker 1: of other neurons. So it's not even clear where that 553 00:35:06,520 --> 00:35:10,040 Speaker 1: extra bit of free will would even live, what would 554 00:35:10,080 --> 00:35:13,520 Speaker 1: make the whole machine not a machine. So try this. 555 00:35:13,760 --> 00:35:17,400 Speaker 1: Whatever your sexual orientation is, go ahead and switch it. 556 00:35:17,480 --> 00:35:19,919 Speaker 1: So if you're straight, become gay, and if you're gay, 557 00:35:19,960 --> 00:35:23,920 Speaker 1: go become straight. Go ahead, I'll wait, Okay, good luck, right, 558 00:35:24,000 --> 00:35:27,319 Speaker 1: Because free will isn't really what you might into it. 559 00:35:27,320 --> 00:35:29,960 Speaker 1: It's not like you just make a decision about something 560 00:35:30,040 --> 00:35:33,360 Speaker 1: consciously and then that's where things go. And this is 561 00:35:33,400 --> 00:35:36,319 Speaker 1: the same with addictions and cravings and temptations. You can't 562 00:35:36,360 --> 00:35:38,680 Speaker 1: just say, look, I'm the kind of person who doesn't 563 00:35:38,840 --> 00:35:41,520 Speaker 1: like cookies or sex or food or whatever, and then 564 00:35:41,560 --> 00:35:44,440 Speaker 1: that's how things go. There's a lot running under the 565 00:35:44,480 --> 00:35:48,879 Speaker 1: hood that you have no access to and no acquaintance with. Now. 566 00:35:48,960 --> 00:35:51,279 Speaker 1: I'm going to cover the free will question in much 567 00:35:51,280 --> 00:35:54,400 Speaker 1: more depth in future episodes, but for now, I just 568 00:35:54,400 --> 00:35:56,000 Speaker 1: want to say it's a bit of a difficult one 569 00:35:56,040 --> 00:35:58,799 Speaker 1: to answer. Do we have absolutely no free will? Do 570 00:35:58,840 --> 00:36:00,640 Speaker 1: we have a little bit of it? I think it's 571 00:36:00,640 --> 00:36:03,240 Speaker 1: fair to say that most neuroscientists land on the position 572 00:36:03,280 --> 00:36:06,000 Speaker 1: that we probably have none. Because every neuron in the 573 00:36:06,040 --> 00:36:08,479 Speaker 1: brain is driven by other neurons, then it's not clear 574 00:36:08,520 --> 00:36:10,600 Speaker 1: where you get the extra bit. I just want a 575 00:36:10,640 --> 00:36:13,320 Speaker 1: flag that, given the available data, I think it's probably 576 00:36:13,360 --> 00:36:15,759 Speaker 1: too early for us to conclude on this point with 577 00:36:15,880 --> 00:36:19,759 Speaker 1: absolute certainty, because our science is still quite young. But 578 00:36:19,840 --> 00:36:23,680 Speaker 1: what is absolutely clear is that if we have any 579 00:36:23,760 --> 00:36:27,000 Speaker 1: free will at all, it is just a bit player 580 00:36:27,200 --> 00:36:31,280 Speaker 1: in the system. The unconscious brain is the one in charge, 581 00:36:31,320 --> 00:36:34,880 Speaker 1: and the conscious you is not driving the boat. So 582 00:36:35,040 --> 00:36:37,319 Speaker 1: even if there is just a little bit of free will, 583 00:36:37,719 --> 00:36:40,560 Speaker 1: just about everything you think and do and act and 584 00:36:40,600 --> 00:36:44,160 Speaker 1: believe is generated by parts of your brain that are 585 00:36:44,280 --> 00:36:48,000 Speaker 1: doing their own thing. Okay, so let's wrap up. What 586 00:36:48,040 --> 00:36:51,000 Speaker 1: we've done in this episode is set up some foundational 587 00:36:51,080 --> 00:36:55,040 Speaker 1: issues about how little we have access to what's running 588 00:36:55,080 --> 00:36:58,279 Speaker 1: in our brains, all the activity that determines who we 589 00:36:58,320 --> 00:37:01,839 Speaker 1: are and how we act what we believe. So join 590 00:37:01,920 --> 00:37:05,160 Speaker 1: me next week for part two, where we'll ask how 591 00:37:05,239 --> 00:37:09,640 Speaker 1: all this could or should affect the legal system. If 592 00:37:09,640 --> 00:37:12,120 Speaker 1: we don't have free will or very little of it, 593 00:37:12,480 --> 00:37:16,120 Speaker 1: what does that mean for the notion of culpability? In 594 00:37:16,200 --> 00:37:19,200 Speaker 1: what sense are we responsible for our actions when there's 595 00:37:19,200 --> 00:37:23,360 Speaker 1: so much running under the hood and so little conscious choice. 596 00:37:23,600 --> 00:37:26,960 Speaker 1: We can't not take bad actors off the street, but 597 00:37:27,040 --> 00:37:31,239 Speaker 1: how do we reconcile these two fields of neuroscience and 598 00:37:31,360 --> 00:37:38,960 Speaker 1: legal theory. To find out more and to share your thoughts, 599 00:37:38,960 --> 00:37:42,399 Speaker 1: head to Eagleman dot com, slash Podcasts, and you can 600 00:37:42,400 --> 00:37:46,239 Speaker 1: also watch full episodes of Inner Cosmos on YouTube at 601 00:37:46,360 --> 00:37:53,160 Speaker 1: inner cosmospod subscribe to see new episodes every week until then. 602 00:37:53,280 --> 00:38:01,960 Speaker 1: This is David Eagleman signing off from the Inner Cosmos