WEBVTT - From the Vault: Star Wars Alien Necropsy, Part 2 0:00:05.720 --> 0:00:08.520 Hey, welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind. My name 0:00:08.560 --> 0:00:12.080 is Robert Lamb and I'm Joe McCormick, and it's Saturday. 0:00:12.119 --> 0:00:14.080 Time to go into the vault for an older episode 0:00:14.080 --> 0:00:17.599 of the show. Today it is the Star Wars Alien 0:00:17.640 --> 0:00:22.560 Necropsy Part two, originally published May six. We hope you 0:00:22.640 --> 0:00:27.760 enjoy This facility is a mess, totally not up to 0:00:27.800 --> 0:00:31.360 Imperial standards. He says that it's due to his haste. 0:00:31.440 --> 0:00:35.400 He could perform tidier necropsies of the alien species requested, 0:00:35.440 --> 0:00:39.760 but it would require more time. Lord Veda has absolutely 0:00:39.800 --> 0:00:43.880 forbidden a third episode. The analysis needs to be completed today. 0:00:44.320 --> 0:00:47.080 The surgical droid is requesting that we each hold a 0:00:47.120 --> 0:00:50.440 flap of tissue. I am just here to supervise. Doesn't 0:00:50.440 --> 0:00:53.599 he have extra arms for precisely this reason? Those are 0:00:53.640 --> 0:01:01.640 for waving around all right? Then? My welcome to stot 0:01:01.680 --> 0:01:10.880 to Blow Your Mind, a production of My Heart Radio. Hey, 0:01:11.040 --> 0:01:13.000 welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind. My name is 0:01:13.080 --> 0:01:15.679 Robert Lamb and I'm Joe McCormick, and we're back with 0:01:15.800 --> 0:01:19.560 part two of our Star Wars Alien Necropsys. Uh So 0:01:19.600 --> 0:01:22.000 in the last episode. If you haven't heard that, yeah, 0:01:22.000 --> 0:01:24.039 you should probably just go listen to that one first 0:01:24.080 --> 0:01:26.600 where we discuss what we're doing here and then and 0:01:26.640 --> 0:01:28.759 then come back and rejoin us for this one. But hey, 0:01:28.880 --> 0:01:31.319 if if you're all caught up here, we are again. 0:01:31.560 --> 0:01:35.000 And the last time we talked about some aliens from 0:01:35.000 --> 0:01:38.080 the Star Wars galaxy. We talked about some vacuum dwellers 0:01:38.120 --> 0:01:41.480 like the Exo Gorth and the myn Ox and compared 0:01:41.560 --> 0:01:45.880 that to some real world biology, both both definite and hypothetical. 0:01:46.440 --> 0:01:49.600 And we also talked about the Jedi toe Gruda, a 0:01:49.680 --> 0:01:53.280 powerful and honorable species of alien with some with awesome 0:01:53.280 --> 0:01:55.520 stuff on their heads. But but we're back again, and 0:01:55.840 --> 0:01:58.560 I think it's heads up first again today, isn't it? 0:01:58.560 --> 0:02:01.000 It is? And I'm glad as you mentioned the Togruto 0:02:01.080 --> 0:02:04.080 because because basically it comes down to this situation where 0:02:04.400 --> 0:02:08.840 you have various scenes in Star Wars Cantina scenes, Jedi 0:02:08.919 --> 0:02:12.239 Council scenes, etcetera, where part of the fund is like, wow, 0:02:12.280 --> 0:02:15.080 look at the alien diversity and look at all the 0:02:15.120 --> 0:02:18.720 strange things going on with with morphology, with with these 0:02:18.760 --> 0:02:22.600 aliens heads and bodies. But of course, if we're looking 0:02:22.639 --> 0:02:26.320 at things from a biological standpoint, things are shaped certain 0:02:26.360 --> 0:02:29.040 ways for a reason. Things have evolved into different forms 0:02:29.040 --> 0:02:31.760 for a reason. And those strange heads you see just 0:02:31.800 --> 0:02:34.160 filling up the space. If we were, if we were 0:02:34.200 --> 0:02:37.200 to look at them with scientific scrutiny, and you know, 0:02:37.280 --> 0:02:39.799 and also lean into the uh, you know two, into 0:02:39.840 --> 0:02:42.480 the imagination, into the fantasy of that. You know, all 0:02:42.520 --> 0:02:45.800 these things have a purpose, and and we can we 0:02:45.840 --> 0:02:48.400 can turn, of course, to to Cannon and to the 0:02:48.400 --> 0:02:50.440 fiction itself to get some of those answers. But then 0:02:50.480 --> 0:02:53.120 a lot of the fun is an extrapolating and saying 0:02:53.480 --> 0:02:55.800 what else could it be used for? Or if the 0:02:55.840 --> 0:02:58.880 thing they're telling me is true, what are the ramifications, 0:02:58.919 --> 0:03:02.320 often the unexplored ramifications of that right? What can you 0:03:02.960 --> 0:03:08.040 deduce about the ancestral environment of the creature that confronts 0:03:08.120 --> 0:03:10.359 Luke in the moss ize lye cantina with the weird 0:03:10.400 --> 0:03:14.440 little lobes on his chin. I actually know the answer 0:03:14.440 --> 0:03:16.760 to that one. I think that was that one has 0:03:16.760 --> 0:03:20.359 been described in Cannon. I think it's cannon anyway as 0:03:20.400 --> 0:03:24.160 being um like a a surgical It's like a self 0:03:24.200 --> 0:03:28.160 surgical addict. So that so all those weird features are 0:03:28.320 --> 0:03:31.160 at least partially the result of self surgery. I think 0:03:31.200 --> 0:03:33.240 that's right. Could be wrong on that. We might have 0:03:33.280 --> 0:03:34.840 to take that out if I'm wrong, but but I 0:03:34.840 --> 0:03:37.640 believe that's the case. That is not the answer I expect. Wait, 0:03:37.680 --> 0:03:39.680 are you talking about the guy who talks to Luke 0:03:39.800 --> 0:03:41.600 or just the guy who grunt? No, I meant the 0:03:41.600 --> 0:03:43.840 guy who grunts at him, who has the weird little 0:03:43.920 --> 0:03:48.839 kind of like the butt on his mouth or chin area. Yes, um, 0:03:48.960 --> 0:03:50.840 I don't know as much about those guys, but but 0:03:50.960 --> 0:03:53.040 they are. They are described at length in some of 0:03:53.040 --> 0:03:55.720 the books that, uh, that I've looked at. One of 0:03:55.720 --> 0:03:57.920 which I want to go ahead and mention is Star 0:03:57.960 --> 0:04:02.720 Wars Alien Archive, which is just a wonderful illustrated tone 0:04:02.920 --> 0:04:05.520 of Aliens from all I think, all the Star Wars 0:04:05.520 --> 0:04:09.800 movies up through Solo, and it had just wonderful illustrations, 0:04:10.280 --> 0:04:12.640 nice little rite ups about them. It's one of these 0:04:12.680 --> 0:04:15.119 books that, um, that I got from my my son 0:04:15.960 --> 0:04:19.279 sometime last year early last year, and we've already like 0:04:19.320 --> 0:04:22.200 worn it out, their pages falling out of it. You know, 0:04:22.240 --> 0:04:23.760 anytime you get the book out, you have to like 0:04:24.120 --> 0:04:26.880 reinsert different parts of it that have come come apart. 0:04:27.160 --> 0:04:28.760 It's a it's seen a lot of a lot of 0:04:28.760 --> 0:04:32.120 wear and tear and love, so I highly recommend that one. Yeah. 0:04:32.160 --> 0:04:34.840 I think we've talked too many times before about our 0:04:34.880 --> 0:04:38.480 our love for the illustrated encyclopedias of fictional worlds, and 0:04:38.480 --> 0:04:41.680 and this is a great one. But the the first 0:04:41.720 --> 0:04:44.400 selection I want to make here today is Um is 0:04:44.440 --> 0:04:47.240 not a creature from a cantina. It is that, in fact, 0:04:47.240 --> 0:04:50.400 a creature from UH that we first encounter in the 0:04:50.480 --> 0:04:55.840 Jedi Council scenes in UH Star Wars The Phantom Menace. Now, 0:04:55.880 --> 0:04:58.200 I don't know if you remember these these guys are 0:04:58.240 --> 0:05:01.440 not are really there's mainly one that we encounter, but 0:05:01.520 --> 0:05:05.839 the species they're known as the Serians. Oh, this is 0:05:05.880 --> 0:05:08.120 the guy who looks like a wizard but with a 0:05:08.279 --> 0:05:11.279 tower head. So it's almost as if the Tower of 0:05:11.360 --> 0:05:16.440 Eisngard has been incorporated into Sorrowman's skull. Yes, these uh 0:05:16.600 --> 0:05:19.680 these were a bipedal largely humanoid species were told their 0:05:19.720 --> 0:05:22.520 native to the planet Syria, and they're most notable for 0:05:22.560 --> 0:05:27.640 their enlarged, vaguely conical craniums, though they lack the pronounced 0:05:27.680 --> 0:05:33.200 cone heads of the Remulachians of cone Head's fame. Um 0:05:33.279 --> 0:05:36.159 we're told that they have two hearts, the second of 0:05:36.160 --> 0:05:39.400 which is said to supply extra blood and oxygen to 0:05:39.480 --> 0:05:44.440 their most curious uh neurobiology. And that is a binary brain. 0:05:45.080 --> 0:05:49.320 Oh okay, I can see why this caught your attention. Yes, 0:05:49.520 --> 0:05:52.200 So what is meant by a binary brain? Well? In 0:05:52.480 --> 0:05:55.560 uh again the excellent illustrated Star Wars Alien Archive, it 0:05:55.640 --> 0:05:58.680 is said that the Syrian binary brain is quote able 0:05:58.720 --> 0:06:02.159 to process many things the same time, sort through data quickly, 0:06:02.440 --> 0:06:06.200 and also consider two sides of the same arguments simultaneously 0:06:07.400 --> 0:06:11.040 parallel processing. Yeah, and it's also been suggested I think 0:06:11.160 --> 0:06:13.839 in perhaps this is like an extended universe, you know, 0:06:13.920 --> 0:06:17.120 novelization thing. But it's been suggested that this sort of 0:06:17.160 --> 0:06:20.919 brain structure allows at least certain members of of of 0:06:20.960 --> 0:06:25.400 the Syrian species, especially like four sensitive individuals, to explore 0:06:25.440 --> 0:06:27.680 both the light and the dark side of the force 0:06:27.960 --> 0:06:31.520 in ways that are maybe somewhat safer compared to just 0:06:31.640 --> 0:06:34.520 normal dabbling in the dark side. Oh. I see. So 0:06:34.560 --> 0:06:37.839 the understanding is that normally, if you are to explore 0:06:37.880 --> 0:06:41.080 the dark side, it's kind of not possible to just 0:06:41.240 --> 0:06:44.400 do that as a curiosity like learning the dark side 0:06:44.520 --> 0:06:48.760 necessarily will corrupt and contaminate your brain. And so if 0:06:48.800 --> 0:06:51.120 you have a divided mind like this, maybe you can 0:06:51.160 --> 0:06:54.120 sort of quarantine the half of your brain that does 0:06:54.200 --> 0:06:56.800 get corrupted with that so that it doesn't spread to 0:06:56.839 --> 0:06:59.359 the other half. Is that what you're saying? That is what? 0:06:59.440 --> 0:07:01.520 That is what I've leaeve The argument is I haven't 0:07:01.560 --> 0:07:04.680 actually read anything um or viewed anything where they get 0:07:04.680 --> 0:07:06.920 into that, but certainly if anyone out there has, if 0:07:06.920 --> 0:07:10.520 you're familiar with with whatever novelization or or novel or 0:07:10.560 --> 0:07:12.320 comic this happens to be from, I'd love to hear 0:07:12.400 --> 0:07:15.520 a little bit more. Now. The most famous and recognizable 0:07:15.600 --> 0:07:19.680 Serian is, without a doubt, Jedi Master Kai Adimundi, hero 0:07:19.840 --> 0:07:22.000 general of the Clone Wars who fought alongside the likes 0:07:22.040 --> 0:07:25.120 of Anakin, Skywalker and Obi Wan Kenobi. He fought at 0:07:25.120 --> 0:07:28.000 the first and second battles of Genosis and perished during 0:07:28.040 --> 0:07:31.840 the invasion of the Ghetto with the twenty one Novocore 0:07:32.240 --> 0:07:37.080 when Supreme Chancellor Palpatine initiated Order sixty six. He's skilled 0:07:37.080 --> 0:07:40.120 with a lightsaber. He was a skilled force combatant, but 0:07:40.200 --> 0:07:42.800 he was equally known and respected for his logic and 0:07:42.840 --> 0:07:45.840 tactics that big brain of his Yeah, that would make sense. 0:07:45.880 --> 0:07:48.280 I seem to recall his death scene. I think it's 0:07:48.280 --> 0:07:51.600 in Revenge of the Sith. He's like running across a 0:07:52.280 --> 0:07:54.560 is it across a bridge or something? Yeah, I think 0:07:54.560 --> 0:07:56.720 it's a bridge battle and all the Clone Troopers start 0:07:56.800 --> 0:07:59.760 shooting him in the back. Yeah. Yeah, so so he 0:08:00.040 --> 0:08:03.480 track definitely goes down. But so you don't see a 0:08:03.520 --> 0:08:06.040 lot of him in the live action stuff, but um 0:08:06.240 --> 0:08:08.400 and in those prequel films, he was played by an 0:08:08.400 --> 0:08:11.760 actor by the name of Silas Carson under heavy um 0:08:12.040 --> 0:08:15.400 effects makeup. But in the Clone Wars animated series, the 0:08:15.400 --> 0:08:18.720 main one, he was voiced by British Israeli actor Brian George, 0:08:18.720 --> 0:08:20.560 who does a great job with him, and they have 0:08:20.560 --> 0:08:23.240 a little more time to flesh him out. And in 0:08:23.360 --> 0:08:27.360 the two thousand three Clone Wars series from Ghindi Tartakowski, 0:08:28.040 --> 0:08:30.440 you don't have um, you don't really have a lot 0:08:30.440 --> 0:08:32.280 of character development there, but you have a lot of action. 0:08:32.360 --> 0:08:36.760 That's a very action centric series. And in that um 0:08:36.760 --> 0:08:39.760 Master Mundi is an absolute shirt ripping beast, Like he's 0:08:39.840 --> 0:08:42.880 running around with head bandaged and his shirt torn open, 0:08:42.920 --> 0:08:45.200 with all these muscles and he's just like you know, 0:08:45.280 --> 0:08:48.600 killing the thousands of droids. It's it's pretty fun. So 0:08:48.640 --> 0:08:53.320 he's like your Hunter from the Future mode. Yeah, just slaying. 0:08:53.720 --> 0:08:55.720 But you know, okay, it's impressive that he can do 0:08:55.720 --> 0:08:57.480 stuff with the lightsaber and then he can go into 0:08:57.520 --> 0:09:00.520 beast mode. But the main thing we're gonna talk about 0:09:00.559 --> 0:09:03.679 here is this idea of a binary brain. And as 0:09:03.679 --> 0:09:06.640 far as I know, there's no definitive word on the 0:09:06.679 --> 0:09:10.520 exact structure of the Syrian brain or brains, but I 0:09:10.520 --> 0:09:13.040 think there are essentially a couple of ways to look 0:09:13.080 --> 0:09:16.680 at what might be going on inside that skull of theirs. Okay, 0:09:16.800 --> 0:09:19.720 let's let's hear it. What's the first option? Okay, first 0:09:19.720 --> 0:09:22.280 option would be just, of course, a supersized brain that 0:09:22.440 --> 0:09:27.760 enables this binary mental process, composed of two lobes like ours, 0:09:27.880 --> 0:09:29.560 or maybe more lobes. I don't know, you know, when 0:09:29.559 --> 0:09:32.839 you're getting into an unknown alien brain, who's to say, right, 0:09:33.720 --> 0:09:37.600 And Syrian brain evolution could certainly follow the ice cream 0:09:37.600 --> 0:09:41.240 scoop model of human brain evolution. I think we've discussed 0:09:41.240 --> 0:09:43.920 this in the show before. But as explained by Kyle 0:09:44.480 --> 0:09:47.600 Moon Kittrick in a two thousand ten Discover Magazine article, 0:09:47.679 --> 0:09:51.120 quote evolution built our brain by taking simpler brains and 0:09:51.200 --> 0:09:54.560 just piling more brains on top, like adding scoops of 0:09:54.600 --> 0:09:59.720 ice cream to an ice cream cone. Yeah. I think 0:09:59.720 --> 0:10:01.920 that's a good way of thinking about it. I mean, obviously, 0:10:02.040 --> 0:10:04.439 we always want to be careful not to oversimplify the 0:10:04.480 --> 0:10:06.439 way we think about the structures of the brain, because 0:10:06.440 --> 0:10:10.320 brains are complex and and all that, But in rough terms, 0:10:10.360 --> 0:10:12.640 I think that is sort of true. Like at the 0:10:12.760 --> 0:10:15.680 lower levels of the brain you have um the more 0:10:15.760 --> 0:10:18.640 sort of automatic processes of the body, and the more 0:10:19.440 --> 0:10:22.679 base level things like emotional type reactions. And then when 0:10:22.679 --> 0:10:25.320 you get further and further into the younger parts of 0:10:25.320 --> 0:10:29.080 the brain, younger in an evolutionary sense, towards the top 0:10:29.120 --> 0:10:30.760 and front of the brain, you get these you know, 0:10:30.840 --> 0:10:34.800 these core texes, which are very involved in executive function 0:10:34.920 --> 0:10:36.840 and a lot of the things we think of as 0:10:37.120 --> 0:10:42.520 higher level thinking and behavior. Yeah, Son Gentric describes like 0:10:42.600 --> 0:10:45.280 the first the first layer is actually the cone, and 0:10:45.320 --> 0:10:48.160 that's the nervous jellyfish cone. And then you get your 0:10:48.200 --> 0:10:51.280 instinctive lizard scoop pile on top of that, then the 0:10:51.320 --> 0:10:54.800 memory mouse scoop, then the thinking, the thinking ape scoop 0:10:55.000 --> 0:10:57.200 on top of that. So each layer brings with it 0:10:57.720 --> 0:11:00.640 great pros that enable the human brain to funct and evolved, 0:11:00.760 --> 0:11:03.320 but also arguably certain cons. And that's one of the 0:11:03.360 --> 0:11:06.719 things they get into in this article. But for our purposes, yeah, 0:11:06.720 --> 0:11:09.320 I think you could look at these arian the brain 0:11:09.440 --> 0:11:13.360 as essentially a human level brain with additional scoops cowering 0:11:13.400 --> 0:11:17.920 atop the rest of the cone, enabling this vastly increased functionality. 0:11:18.240 --> 0:11:20.440 Now you might think, well, what would the cons of 0:11:20.480 --> 0:11:23.080 having higher brain function be? And I would just say, like, 0:11:23.640 --> 0:11:26.720 I'm not aware of any reptiles that really get bogged 0:11:26.720 --> 0:11:31.800 down in rumination. Yeah, yeah, um, and I and I 0:11:31.840 --> 0:11:34.440 really hope certainly a Jedi master wouldn't have Like a 0:11:34.520 --> 0:11:36.439 Jedi masters have to deal with the dark side too. 0:11:36.440 --> 0:11:38.160 I mean that's kind of the thing, right, Like higher 0:11:38.200 --> 0:11:40.640 cognition means you're open to the dark set. Correct me 0:11:40.679 --> 0:11:42.400 if I'm wrong. But I seem to recall in the 0:11:42.400 --> 0:11:46.920 prequels that a lot of Jedi training is about purging emotions, 0:11:47.040 --> 0:11:49.199 or at least certain kinds of emotions, maybe not to 0:11:49.240 --> 0:11:53.320 the full Spock extent, but at least like not letting 0:11:53.400 --> 0:11:57.840 impulsive emotional reactions guide you're thinking to be clear and 0:11:57.920 --> 0:11:59.960 to be you know, to to be able to use 0:12:00.080 --> 0:12:03.080 was clear thinking in your mind when when our our 0:12:03.160 --> 0:12:06.720 natural tendency would be to get hot headed, right uh. Yeah. 0:12:06.800 --> 0:12:11.600 And then there's a lot of Buddhist uh uh Buddhism 0:12:11.600 --> 0:12:13.800 in there as well, dealing with like the idea of 0:12:13.840 --> 0:12:18.120 avoiding attachments and all. So we see that doesn't necessarily 0:12:18.120 --> 0:12:21.000 work out all that well for those who aspire to it, 0:12:21.440 --> 0:12:24.400 right in those films. But but even like in terms 0:12:24.440 --> 0:12:27.040 of like confronting the dark side though, like that's always 0:12:27.080 --> 0:12:29.599 been a part of the uh of the of the 0:12:29.640 --> 0:12:31.920 Star Wars world, I mean, back the Empire. When Luke 0:12:31.960 --> 0:12:34.400 goes into that swamp and he's completing his training, like 0:12:34.400 --> 0:12:36.560 one of the things he does is the encounters that 0:12:36.559 --> 0:12:38.959 that vision of of Darth Vader that is also a 0:12:39.080 --> 0:12:41.600 vision of himself, right, I mean, I think we're supposed 0:12:41.600 --> 0:12:44.679 to take that as like Luke is being confronted by 0:12:44.880 --> 0:12:47.880 the possibility of what would happen if he himself were 0:12:47.920 --> 0:12:50.080 seduced by the dark Side, which of course he does. 0:12:50.240 --> 0:12:53.240 He does play pretty dangerous in the movies, right, he 0:12:53.280 --> 0:12:58.000 gets close. Yeah. Yeah, anyway, that's Basically, this is like 0:12:58.120 --> 0:13:00.720 one idea of looking at this big just one big 0:13:00.760 --> 0:13:03.760 brain in there, so it's like built up level by level, 0:13:03.840 --> 0:13:08.040 and maybe the additional brains are are something like what 0:13:08.080 --> 0:13:10.480 you would put even on top of our neo cortex. 0:13:10.559 --> 0:13:14.280 Maybe like they've got like a neo neo cortex or something. Yeah, 0:13:14.800 --> 0:13:18.800 now another interpretation, and I think a more exotic one 0:13:18.800 --> 0:13:22.400 and also maybe maybe more fun, maybe more sci fi fantasy, 0:13:22.960 --> 0:13:26.079 but also one that I think I've seen visually represented somewhere. 0:13:26.120 --> 0:13:27.439 I tried to hunt it down to see if I 0:13:27.440 --> 0:13:30.119 get because I would have put it in our inside 0:13:30.160 --> 0:13:32.120 of our notes if I could, but I couldn't find it. 0:13:32.160 --> 0:13:34.240 But I think I've seen this represented visibly. And that 0:13:34.320 --> 0:13:38.480 is the idea that Serian's actually have two brains inside 0:13:38.520 --> 0:13:41.080 their skull, one positioned right on top of the other, 0:13:41.360 --> 0:13:44.920 just straight up two brains inside their heads. So that 0:13:45.040 --> 0:13:46.920 means one of the brains is closer to the heart. 0:13:47.200 --> 0:13:49.199 Maybe that makes it easier to get blood flow to 0:13:49.280 --> 0:13:51.800 that one. Well, that's why they have two hearts, Joe. 0:13:52.520 --> 0:13:55.480 So the idea is that that second heart is I 0:13:55.520 --> 0:13:58.280 guess powering the second brain or enabling just enough blood 0:13:58.280 --> 0:14:02.160 flow to get up there to to work with both brains. Um. 0:14:02.280 --> 0:14:05.080 So I want to stress I'm not talking two brains 0:14:05.120 --> 0:14:07.120 here in the sense that the human brain consists of 0:14:07.120 --> 0:14:11.680 two hemispheres connected by the corpus colalsum, but two separate brains, 0:14:11.679 --> 0:14:16.400 perhaps each consisting of two hemispheres each. And uh, I 0:14:16.679 --> 0:14:20.200 should also add that that some descriptions refer to Syrian 0:14:20.240 --> 0:14:22.640 brains in a way that does seem to indicate two brains. 0:14:23.200 --> 0:14:25.440 And again, they do have two hard so I guess 0:14:25.440 --> 0:14:28.480 the duplicity seems to to work out here. So of 0:14:28.520 --> 0:14:31.760 these two I tend to lean more towards the actual 0:14:31.800 --> 0:14:35.240 two brains inside their their heads. Uh. So, I guess 0:14:35.280 --> 0:14:37.360 another you could do a third option that would be 0:14:37.360 --> 0:14:39.520 a variation on idea number two, and that would be 0:14:39.560 --> 0:14:42.280 that they just have a very large humanoid brain, but 0:14:42.360 --> 0:14:46.360 the hemispheres are not connected by something like the corpus colossum. 0:14:46.360 --> 0:14:48.960 Oh no, that's very interesting. I want to say some things, 0:14:48.960 --> 0:14:50.440 but I also don't want to preempt you because I 0:14:50.440 --> 0:14:52.200 know you're going to get into talking about split brain 0:14:52.240 --> 0:14:56.000 experiments here. Oh yeah, okay, but yeah, so the corpus colosum, 0:14:56.000 --> 0:14:58.720 at least we know in the human brain enables a 0:14:58.880 --> 0:15:02.560 large amount of community cation between the hemispheres, and in 0:15:02.640 --> 0:15:05.880 cases where the corpus colossum in humans has been severed, 0:15:06.240 --> 0:15:08.800 often a person can still live their life, like you 0:15:08.840 --> 0:15:12.440 can function with your brain hemispheres severed, and you can 0:15:12.480 --> 0:15:16.800 do things, but there are some very noticeable changes to 0:15:16.920 --> 0:15:20.240 how the brain or brains react to certain types of 0:15:20.280 --> 0:15:23.200 stimuli and scenarios under that condition. Yeah, yeah, when the 0:15:23.320 --> 0:15:26.520 colossum has been severed. And then when you have like 0:15:26.800 --> 0:15:30.920 often it's you have to have certain experimental scenarios in 0:15:31.000 --> 0:15:35.200 place to make it become obvious because otherwise the individual 0:15:35.640 --> 0:15:38.600 doesn't notice and people who know them probably don't notice. 0:15:38.720 --> 0:15:40.760 But but we'll get out into all that in a second. Now, 0:15:40.760 --> 0:15:42.240 there are a lot of different directions you could go 0:15:42.280 --> 0:15:44.400 in here, like why, I mean, the big one is 0:15:44.480 --> 0:15:46.920 like why would they go in this direction? First of all, 0:15:46.960 --> 0:15:49.400 would it be natural? Would it be just an evolution 0:15:50.360 --> 0:15:52.360 or would it be something that was engineered? And in 0:15:52.400 --> 0:15:55.560 either case, like why would it have to do with uh, 0:15:56.040 --> 0:15:59.320 like higher why would they need this? Like higher cognitive 0:15:59.360 --> 0:16:02.840 state would have something to do with, you know, being 0:16:02.880 --> 0:16:06.160 an interstellar species, or something to do with their their 0:16:06.200 --> 0:16:09.280 home environment. I don't know. Well, I mean it makes 0:16:09.280 --> 0:16:11.880 me think about how there are species on Earth that 0:16:12.040 --> 0:16:16.960 have a more distributed model of intelligence and nervous system control. 0:16:17.000 --> 0:16:20.200 And a great example would be octopuses, you know, like 0:16:20.240 --> 0:16:22.640 the octopus of course, like they've got a central brain, 0:16:22.720 --> 0:16:25.560 but then they have ganglia throughout the body that are 0:16:25.720 --> 0:16:28.800 sometimes written about, and you could argue to what extent 0:16:28.880 --> 0:16:32.600 this is a fair characterization, but they you could argue 0:16:32.640 --> 0:16:37.000 that octopuses in some ways also think with their arms 0:16:37.080 --> 0:16:39.720 in ways that are independent of the thinking that takes 0:16:39.720 --> 0:16:43.520 place in the centralized brain. So you can imagine there 0:16:43.560 --> 0:16:46.400 are scenarios where it's useful for an animal to have 0:16:46.480 --> 0:16:50.480 thinking or information processing happening at multiple different places within 0:16:50.520 --> 0:16:53.160 the body. But the Syrian seems kind of different because 0:16:53.280 --> 0:16:55.520 you can imagine with the octopus, Okay, maybe somehow the 0:16:55.680 --> 0:16:58.720 arm needs to think independently of the central brain, but 0:16:58.800 --> 0:17:02.120 this is too central role brains, two brains in the head, 0:17:02.360 --> 0:17:05.240 So what's the what's like the second one doing differently? 0:17:05.280 --> 0:17:07.720 How would that be distributed in a way that would 0:17:07.760 --> 0:17:11.600 be useful like the octopus's arm. Yeah, and and so 0:17:12.440 --> 0:17:14.479 in thinking about possibilities, and you know, we also come 0:17:14.520 --> 0:17:17.919 into ideas of that, like a philosophical or spiritual upgrades 0:17:17.960 --> 0:17:19.840 to the brain. I mean, why not if we're trying 0:17:19.880 --> 0:17:22.920 to determine where we go from here. I mean, it 0:17:23.240 --> 0:17:26.080 seems like that's worth thinking about. I should also just 0:17:26.119 --> 0:17:28.960 go ahead and add that obviously, big headed aliens is 0:17:29.000 --> 0:17:32.240 just a long, a longstanding trope, you know, going back 0:17:32.240 --> 0:17:34.880 to the outer limits and so forth. So, uh, it's 0:17:34.920 --> 0:17:37.560 not like they invented the idea of big headed aliens 0:17:37.560 --> 0:17:41.800 and big headed future humanoids. It's been pretty much standard. Um. 0:17:42.280 --> 0:17:44.760 But but I don't know that I have I'm sure 0:17:44.960 --> 0:17:47.040 there's some sci fi out there predating this in which 0:17:47.200 --> 0:17:50.480 a human had to brain or humanoid had two brains, 0:17:50.520 --> 0:17:54.800 aside from Steve Martin, but yeah, but I'm not I'm 0:17:54.800 --> 0:17:56.960 not aware of it off the top of my head. 0:17:57.800 --> 0:17:59.880 But but a lot of these considerations, like when we're 0:18:00.000 --> 0:18:01.919 talking about what, you know, what does this mean? What 0:18:01.960 --> 0:18:04.040 would two brains be like? I mean, it basically comes 0:18:04.080 --> 0:18:06.639 down to to that, what would it be like to 0:18:06.800 --> 0:18:10.040 have two brains? What would it conceive? What would conceivably 0:18:10.080 --> 0:18:13.359 be the mental state of an individual like Master Moondy 0:18:13.440 --> 0:18:16.119 here with two brains in their head? Ah? So now, 0:18:16.160 --> 0:18:19.040 you're getting into subjective experience. And this of course touches 0:18:19.080 --> 0:18:22.679 on really big questions that are still unsettled in in 0:18:22.680 --> 0:18:26.040 in human science and philosophy, stuff about like where consciousness 0:18:26.080 --> 0:18:30.600 resides and what it consists of. Yeah, yeah, and ultimately, yeah, 0:18:30.640 --> 0:18:32.399 this is going to be unanswerable and we just have 0:18:32.440 --> 0:18:34.720 to sort of speculate and have fun with the speculation. 0:18:34.800 --> 0:18:37.880 But on one level, you have to say that, ultimately 0:18:37.920 --> 0:18:40.720 the mind of alien being might just be impossible for 0:18:40.800 --> 0:18:43.679 us to comprehend. It just might be that different. On 0:18:43.720 --> 0:18:46.159 the other hand, you could say, well, having two brains 0:18:46.160 --> 0:18:47.879 in your head like this, it would just be like 0:18:47.960 --> 0:18:51.480 our mental experience. Because, as we alluded to earlier, the 0:18:51.720 --> 0:18:54.600 human brain consists of two cerebral hemispheres connected by the 0:18:54.600 --> 0:18:59.200 corpus um closum, each with many different modules, all of 0:18:59.240 --> 0:19:02.439 these acting and consert with each other, interconnected, and we 0:19:02.480 --> 0:19:05.160 explored this at length in our episodes on split brain 0:19:05.240 --> 0:19:09.360 experiments UM and and of those experiments, most interestingly, one 0:19:09.359 --> 0:19:11.480 of the big takems was if is that indeed, if 0:19:11.480 --> 0:19:15.400 you split the brain, you essentially split the person as well. Um, 0:19:15.640 --> 0:19:18.800 we're talking one person per hemisphere of the brain, a 0:19:18.840 --> 0:19:21.919 division of self not one that is obvious to the 0:19:21.920 --> 0:19:25.440 individual or too people around them, but again presents itself 0:19:25.520 --> 0:19:31.040 when revealed through various experiments, particularly the Nobel winning work 0:19:31.080 --> 0:19:35.720 of neuroscientists Roger Sperry and Michael Gazanaga in the sixties 0:19:35.720 --> 0:19:38.440 and seventies. And so we go into much more depth 0:19:38.440 --> 0:19:40.280 than in that pair of episodes from I think it 0:19:40.359 --> 0:19:41.760 was a couple of years ago now, so you can 0:19:41.760 --> 0:19:43.600 go look those up if you want the full scoop. 0:19:43.680 --> 0:19:46.720 But they did find some very interesting things that I 0:19:46.720 --> 0:19:49.439 will say, Um, we also talked in that episode, I 0:19:49.440 --> 0:19:52.399 think about how there has been some research in recent 0:19:52.480 --> 0:19:55.960 years that sort of challenge their original findings, but people 0:19:55.960 --> 0:19:58.280 have pushed back against that research too, so it seems like, 0:19:58.280 --> 0:20:00.160 you know, this is one of the many things in 0:20:00.160 --> 0:20:03.919 in psychology and neuroscience that's still an ongoing question. But 0:20:03.960 --> 0:20:06.680 at least what they appeared to find is that you can, 0:20:06.720 --> 0:20:10.639 for example, in a patient who has had their hemisphere 0:20:10.680 --> 0:20:13.760 severed through this radical UH severing of the corpus closum, 0:20:13.800 --> 0:20:15.960 which is done not for the purpose of the experiment, 0:20:16.000 --> 0:20:20.040 but it's done specifically for people with really UH treatment 0:20:20.080 --> 0:20:25.080 resistant epilepsy to prevent them from having these recurring terrible seizures. 0:20:25.200 --> 0:20:28.720 Uh that you can sever the corpus closum, a person 0:20:28.920 --> 0:20:31.800 still reports being able to live their life generally like, 0:20:31.880 --> 0:20:34.359 it is not a debilitating thing to do to the brain, 0:20:34.440 --> 0:20:37.439 but it causes these strange things where, for example, it 0:20:37.600 --> 0:20:42.720 seems that some amount of information is prevented from being 0:20:42.840 --> 0:20:45.639 shared fully between the two different parts of the brain. 0:20:46.080 --> 0:20:49.040 And so, for example, it is widely uh that in 0:20:49.040 --> 0:20:52.800 in most brains, it is the left hemisphere that seems 0:20:52.840 --> 0:20:56.159 to do the talking, like the language interactions with the 0:20:56.200 --> 0:20:59.959 outside world. And so you can present stimuli that are 0:21:00.119 --> 0:21:03.600 only within the sensory awareness of the right hemisphere of 0:21:03.640 --> 0:21:06.000 the brain, say by presenting it in a certain part 0:21:06.040 --> 0:21:09.239 of the visual field. And so the parts of the 0:21:09.280 --> 0:21:12.879 body controlled primarily by the right hemisphere of the brain 0:21:13.240 --> 0:21:16.199 can do things that seem to reflect knowledge of the 0:21:16.200 --> 0:21:18.760 stimulus that you have showed that hemisphere of the brain, 0:21:19.040 --> 0:21:22.000 but the person can't talk about that knowledge. They don't 0:21:22.040 --> 0:21:27.000