WEBVTT - Star Wars Alien Necropsy, Part 2 0:00:01.360 --> 0:00:05.279 This facility is a mess, totally not up to imperial standards. 0:00:05.720 --> 0:00:08.240 He says that it's due to his haste. He could 0:00:08.240 --> 0:00:12.119 perform tidier neckruptcies of the alien species requested, but it 0:00:12.200 --> 0:00:17.040 would require more time. Lord Veta has absolutely forbidden a 0:00:17.120 --> 0:00:20.759 third episode. The analysis needs to be completed today. The 0:00:20.960 --> 0:00:23.840 surgical droid is requesting that we each hold a flap 0:00:23.880 --> 0:00:26.920 of tissue. I am just here to supervise. Doesn't he 0:00:26.960 --> 0:00:30.159 have extra arms for precisely this reason? Those are for 0:00:30.280 --> 0:00:38.360 waving around all right? Then, welcome to Stuff to Blow 0:00:38.400 --> 0:00:47.839 Your Mind production of My Heart Radio. Hey, welcome to 0:00:47.880 --> 0:00:50.120 Stuff to Blow your Mind. My name is Robert Lamb 0:00:50.360 --> 0:00:52.720 and I'm Joe McCormick, and we're back with part two 0:00:52.760 --> 0:00:57.040 of our Star Wars Alien necropsies. So in the last episode, 0:00:57.080 --> 0:00:59.240 if you haven't heard that, yeah, you should probably just 0:00:59.240 --> 0:01:01.800 go listen to that one first where we discuss what 0:01:01.800 --> 0:01:03.720 we're doing here and then and then come back and 0:01:03.720 --> 0:01:05.920 rejoin us for this one. But hey, if if you're 0:01:05.920 --> 0:01:08.720 all caught up here, we are again. And the last 0:01:08.760 --> 0:01:12.360 time we talked about some aliens from the Star Wars galaxy, 0:01:12.360 --> 0:01:15.720 we talked about some vacuum dwellers like the exo Gorth 0:01:15.800 --> 0:01:20.039 and the Mynox and compared that to some real world biology, 0:01:20.160 --> 0:01:24.200 both both definite and hypothetical. And we also talked about 0:01:24.240 --> 0:01:28.039 the Jedi toe Gruta, a powerful and honorable species of 0:01:28.120 --> 0:01:30.960 alien with some with awesome stuff on their heads. But 0:01:30.959 --> 0:01:33.280 but we're back again, and I think it's heads up 0:01:33.319 --> 0:01:36.440 first again today, isn't it? It is? And I'm glad 0:01:36.480 --> 0:01:39.360 you mentioned the togruta because because basically it comes down 0:01:39.400 --> 0:01:43.240 to this situation where you have various scenes in Star Wars, 0:01:43.880 --> 0:01:47.400 Cantina scenes, Jedi Council scenes, etcetera, where part of the 0:01:47.440 --> 0:01:50.480 fun is like, wow, look at the alien diversity and 0:01:50.520 --> 0:01:54.360 look at all the strange things going on with with morphology, 0:01:54.440 --> 0:01:57.600 with with these aliens heads and bodies. But of course, 0:01:58.440 --> 0:02:01.720 if we're looking at things from a biological standpoint, things 0:02:01.760 --> 0:02:04.560 are shaped certain ways for a reason. Things have evolved 0:02:04.560 --> 0:02:07.640 into different forms for a reason. And those strange heads 0:02:07.640 --> 0:02:10.160 you see just filling up the space if we were, 0:02:10.280 --> 0:02:12.760 if we were to look at them with scientific scrutiny, 0:02:13.280 --> 0:02:16.000 and you know, and also lean into the uh, you know, two, 0:02:16.040 --> 0:02:18.560 into the imagination, into the fantasy of that you know, 0:02:18.720 --> 0:02:22.000 all these things have a purpose, and and we can 0:02:22.160 --> 0:02:24.280 we can turn, of course, to to Cannon and to 0:02:24.720 --> 0:02:26.720 the fiction itself to get some of those answers. But 0:02:26.720 --> 0:02:29.200 then a lot of the fun is in extrapolating and 0:02:29.240 --> 0:02:32.119 saying what else could it be used for? Or if 0:02:32.120 --> 0:02:35.320 the thing they're telling me is true, what are the ramifications, 0:02:35.360 --> 0:02:38.720 often the unexplored ramifications of that right? What can you 0:02:39.400 --> 0:02:44.480 deduce about the ancestral environment of the creature that confronts 0:02:44.560 --> 0:02:46.800 Luke in the moss as Lee Cantina with the weird 0:02:46.800 --> 0:02:50.840 little lobes on his chin. I actually know the answer 0:02:50.880 --> 0:02:53.160 to that one. I think that was that one has 0:02:53.200 --> 0:02:56.799 been described in Cannon. I think it's Cannon anyway as 0:02:56.840 --> 0:03:00.600 being um like a a surgical It's like a self 0:03:00.639 --> 0:03:04.840 surgical addict. So so all those weird features are at 0:03:04.919 --> 0:03:08.079 least partially the result of self surgery. I think that's right. 0:03:08.560 --> 0:03:09.919 Could be wrong on that. We might have to take 0:03:09.960 --> 0:03:11.760 that out if I'm wrong, but but I believe that's 0:03:11.760 --> 0:03:14.079 the case. That is not the answer I expect. Wait, 0:03:14.080 --> 0:03:16.120 are you talking about the guy who talks to Luke 0:03:16.200 --> 0:03:18.040 or just the guy who grunt? No, I meant the 0:03:18.040 --> 0:03:20.240 guy who grunts at him, who has the weird little 0:03:20.320 --> 0:03:25.240 kind of like the butt on his mouth or chin area. Yes, Um, 0:03:25.400 --> 0:03:27.280 I don't know as much about those guys, but but 0:03:27.400 --> 0:03:29.440 they are. They are described at length in some of 0:03:29.480 --> 0:03:32.120 the books that uh, that I've looked at. One of 0:03:32.160 --> 0:03:34.320 which I want to go ahead and mention is Star 0:03:34.400 --> 0:03:39.160 Wars Alien Archive, which is just a wonderful illustrated tone 0:03:39.320 --> 0:03:41.920 of Aliens from all I think, all the Star Wars 0:03:41.960 --> 0:03:46.200 movies up through Solo, and it had just wonderful illustrations, 0:03:46.720 --> 0:03:49.080 nice little write ups about them. It's one of these 0:03:49.080 --> 0:03:51.560 books that UM that I got from my my son 0:03:52.360 --> 0:03:55.680 sometime last year early last year, and we've already like 0:03:55.760 --> 0:03:58.440 worn it out, their pages falling out of it. You know, 0:03:58.680 --> 0:04:00.160 anytime you get the book out, you have to like 0:04:00.560 --> 0:04:03.280 reinsert different parts of it that have come come apart. 0:04:03.600 --> 0:04:05.160 It's a it's seen a lot of a lot of 0:04:05.200 --> 0:04:08.560 wear and tear and love. So I highly recommend that one. Yeah. 0:04:08.600 --> 0:04:11.240 I think we've talked to many times before about our 0:04:11.280 --> 0:04:14.920 our love for the illustrated encyclopedias of fictional worlds, and 0:04:14.920 --> 0:04:18.080 and this is a great one. But the the first 0:04:18.120 --> 0:04:20.839 selection I want to make here today is Um is 0:04:20.880 --> 0:04:23.599 not a creature from a Cantina. It is that, in fact, 0:04:23.640 --> 0:04:26.800 a creature from UH that we first encounter in the 0:04:26.880 --> 0:04:32.280 Jedi Council scenes in UH Star Wars The Phantom Menace. Now, 0:04:32.279 --> 0:04:34.640 I don't know if you remember these these guys are 0:04:34.640 --> 0:04:37.240 not are really there's mainly one guy that we encounter, 0:04:37.800 --> 0:04:42.120 but the species they're known as the Serians. Oh, this 0:04:42.200 --> 0:04:44.400 is the guy who looks like a wizard but with 0:04:44.480 --> 0:04:47.480 a tower head. So it's almost as if the Tower 0:04:47.600 --> 0:04:52.600 of Eisenard has been incorporated into Saruman's skull. Yes, these 0:04:52.720 --> 0:04:55.960 uh these were a bipedal largely humanoid species. Were told 0:04:55.960 --> 0:04:58.840 their native to the planet Syria, and they're most notable 0:04:58.880 --> 0:05:03.000 for their in large, just vaguely conical craniums, though they 0:05:03.080 --> 0:05:08.360 lack the pronounced cone heads of the Mulachians of cone 0:05:08.400 --> 0:05:11.560 Head's fame. Um. We're told that they have two hearts, 0:05:12.040 --> 0:05:14.920 the second of which is said to supply extra blood 0:05:14.920 --> 0:05:18.960 and oxygen to their most curious uh neurobiology. And that 0:05:19.200 --> 0:05:24.000 is a binary brain. Oh okay, I can see why 0:05:24.040 --> 0:05:27.120 this caught your attention. Yes, so what is meant by 0:05:27.120 --> 0:05:30.680 a binary brain? Well? In UH again, the excellent illustrated 0:05:30.680 --> 0:05:33.080 Star Wars Alien Archive it is said that the Syrian 0:05:33.120 --> 0:05:36.480 binary brain is quote able to process many things at 0:05:36.480 --> 0:05:39.799 the same time, sort through data quickly and also consider 0:05:39.880 --> 0:05:45.640 two sides of the same arguments simultaneously parallel processing. Yeah, 0:05:45.720 --> 0:05:48.520 and it's also been suggested I think in perhaps this 0:05:48.560 --> 0:05:51.839 is like an extended universe, you know, novelization thing. But 0:05:51.880 --> 0:05:55.200 it's been suggested that this sort of brain structure allows 0:05:55.320 --> 0:05:58.359 at least certain members of of of the Syrian species, 0:05:58.680 --> 0:06:02.320 especially like for or sensitive individuals, to explore both the 0:06:02.440 --> 0:06:04.960 light and the dark side of the force in ways 0:06:05.080 --> 0:06:09.000 that are maybe somewhat safer compared to just normal dabbling 0:06:09.000 --> 0:06:11.760 in the dark side. Oh, I see. So the understanding 0:06:11.880 --> 0:06:15.200 is that normally, if you are to explore the dark side, 0:06:15.560 --> 0:06:18.320 it's kind of not possible to just do that as 0:06:18.360 --> 0:06:22.640 a curiosity like learning. The dark side necessarily will corrupt 0:06:22.720 --> 0:06:25.560 and contaminate your brain. And so if you have a 0:06:25.640 --> 0:06:28.760 divided mind like this, maybe you can sort of quarantine 0:06:28.960 --> 0:06:31.520 the half of your brain that does get corrupted with 0:06:31.560 --> 0:06:33.840 that so that it doesn't spread to the other half. 0:06:33.960 --> 0:06:35.920 Is is that what you're saying? That is what? That 0:06:36.040 --> 0:06:38.400 is what I believe the argument is. I haven't actually 0:06:38.440 --> 0:06:41.480 read anything um or viewed anything where they get into that. 0:06:41.640 --> 0:06:43.880 But certainly, if anyone out there has, if you're familiar 0:06:43.920 --> 0:06:47.480 with with whatever novelization or or novel or comic this 0:06:47.520 --> 0:06:48.880 happens to be from, I'd love to hear it a 0:06:48.920 --> 0:06:52.680 little bit more. Now. The most famous and recognizable Serian is, 0:06:52.680 --> 0:06:56.640 without a doubt, Jedi Master Kai Adimundi, hero general of 0:06:56.680 --> 0:06:58.839 the Clone Wars who fought alongside the likes of Anakin 0:06:58.920 --> 0:07:01.840 Skywalker and Obie one Kenobi. He fought at the first 0:07:01.839 --> 0:07:05.080 and second battles of Genosis and perished during the invasion 0:07:05.160 --> 0:07:09.560 of the Ghetto with the twenty one Novocore. When Supreme 0:07:09.680 --> 0:07:14.400 Chancellor Palpatine initiated Order sixty six, he stilled with a lightsaber. 0:07:14.560 --> 0:07:17.200 He was a skilled force combatant, but he was equally 0:07:17.200 --> 0:07:20.160 known and respected for his logic and tactics. That big 0:07:20.200 --> 0:07:22.920 brain of his. Yeah, that would make sense. I seem 0:07:22.960 --> 0:07:25.680 to recall his death scene. I think it's in Revenge 0:07:25.680 --> 0:07:28.880 of the Sith. He's like running across a is it 0:07:28.920 --> 0:07:31.200 across a bridge or something? Yeah, I think it's a 0:07:31.200 --> 0:07:33.720 bridge battle and all the Clone troopers start shooting him 0:07:33.720 --> 0:07:37.640 in the back. Yeah. Yeah, So so he definitely goes 0:07:37.680 --> 0:07:40.160 down but you so you don't see a lot of 0:07:40.200 --> 0:07:43.000 him in the live action stuff, but um And in 0:07:43.040 --> 0:07:45.400 those prequel films he was played by an actor by 0:07:45.400 --> 0:07:49.240 the name of Silas Carson under heavy um effects makeup. 0:07:49.480 --> 0:07:52.240 But in the Clone Wars animated series, the main one, 0:07:52.320 --> 0:07:55.320 he was voiced by British Israeli actor Brian George, who 0:07:55.320 --> 0:07:57.040 does a great job with him, and they have a 0:07:57.080 --> 0:08:00.040 little more time to flesh him out. And in the 0:08:00.040 --> 0:08:04.560 two thousand three Clone Wars series from Ghindi Tartakowski, you 0:08:04.600 --> 0:08:06.920 don't have um you don't really have a lot of 0:08:07.000 --> 0:08:08.720 character development there, but you have a lot of action. 0:08:08.760 --> 0:08:13.160 That's a very action centric series. And in that um 0:08:13.200 --> 0:08:16.200 Master Mundi is an absolute shirt ripping beast. Like he's 0:08:16.240 --> 0:08:19.280 running around with head bandaged and his shirt torn open, 0:08:19.360 --> 0:08:21.640 with all these muscles and he's just like, you know, 0:08:21.720 --> 0:08:25.000 killing the thousands of droids. It's it's pretty fun. So 0:08:25.080 --> 0:08:29.200 he's like your Hunter from the Future mode. Yeah, just 0:08:29.280 --> 0:08:32.000 slaying but you know, Okay, it's impressive that he can 0:08:32.040 --> 0:08:33.920 do stuff with lightsaber and then he can go into 0:08:33.920 --> 0:08:36.640 best mode. But the main thing we're going to talk 0:08:36.679 --> 0:08:39.920 about here is this idea of a binary brain and 0:08:39.960 --> 0:08:42.920 as far as I know, there's no definitive word on 0:08:42.960 --> 0:08:46.800 the exact structure of the Syrian brain or brains. But 0:08:46.880 --> 0:08:49.120 I think there are essentially a couple of ways to 0:08:49.200 --> 0:08:52.000 look at what might be going on inside that skull 0:08:52.040 --> 0:08:55.800 of their's. Okay, let's let's hear it. What's the first option? Okay, 0:08:55.880 --> 0:08:58.440 first option would be just, of course, a supersized brain 0:08:58.600 --> 0:09:02.800 that enables this buying, very mental process, composed of two 0:09:03.040 --> 0:09:05.640 lobes like ours, or maybe more lobes. I don't know, 0:09:05.720 --> 0:09:07.920 you know, when you're getting into an unknown alien brain. 0:09:08.280 --> 0:09:12.559 Who's to say, right, And Syrian brain evolution could certainly 0:09:12.600 --> 0:09:16.160 follow the ice cream scoop model of human brain evolution. 0:09:16.800 --> 0:09:18.880 I think we've discussed this on the show before. But 0:09:19.000 --> 0:09:22.480 as explained by Kyle Moon Kittrick in a two thousand 0:09:22.520 --> 0:09:26.240 ten Discover magazine article, quote, evolution built our brain by 0:09:26.240 --> 0:09:29.560 taking simpler brains and just piling more brains on top, 0:09:29.960 --> 0:09:34.800 like adding scoops of ice cream to an ice cream cone. Yeah. 0:09:35.840 --> 0:09:37.439 I think that's a good way of thinking about it. 0:09:37.480 --> 0:09:39.680 I mean, obviously, we always want to be careful not 0:09:39.760 --> 0:09:42.160 to oversimplify the way we think about the structures of 0:09:42.160 --> 0:09:45.160 the brain. Because brains are complex and and all that, 0:09:45.280 --> 0:09:47.959 but in rough terms, I think that is sort of true. 0:09:48.040 --> 0:09:50.640 Like at the the lower levels of the brain, you 0:09:50.720 --> 0:09:54.439 have um the more sort of automatic processes of the body, 0:09:54.520 --> 0:09:58.679 and the more base level things like emotional type reactions. 0:09:58.720 --> 0:10:00.760 And then when you get further and further into the 0:10:00.880 --> 0:10:03.800 younger parts of the brain, younger in an evolutionary sense, 0:10:04.360 --> 0:10:06.760 towards the top and front of the brain, you get 0:10:06.760 --> 0:10:09.720 these you know, these coretexes, which are very involved in 0:10:10.080 --> 0:10:12.800 executive function and a lot of the things we think 0:10:12.840 --> 0:10:17.160 of as higher level thinking and behavior. Yeah, so mon 0:10:17.160 --> 0:10:20.720 Gentric describes like the first the first layer is actually 0:10:20.800 --> 0:10:24.079 the cone, and that's the nervous jellyfish cone, and then 0:10:24.080 --> 0:10:27.320 you get your instinctive lizard scoop pile on top of that, 0:10:27.440 --> 0:10:30.480 then the memory mouse scoop, then the thinking the thinking 0:10:30.559 --> 0:10:33.319 ape scoop on top of that. So each layer brings 0:10:33.360 --> 0:10:36.199 with it great pros that enable the human brain to 0:10:36.240 --> 0:10:39.480 function and evolved, but also arguably certain cons and that's 0:10:39.480 --> 0:10:41.160 one of the things they get into in this article. 0:10:41.600 --> 0:10:43.800 But for our purposes, Yeah, I think you could look 0:10:43.840 --> 0:10:47.360 at the Syrian the brain as essentially a human level 0:10:47.400 --> 0:10:51.080 brain with additional scoops cowering atop the rest of the cone, 0:10:51.400 --> 0:10:55.559 enabling this vastly increased functionality. Now you might think, well, 0:10:55.559 --> 0:10:58.400 what would the cons of having higher brain function be? 0:10:58.600 --> 0:11:00.800 And I would just say, like I, I'm not aware 0:11:00.800 --> 0:11:07.320 of any reptiles that really get bogged down in rumination. Yeah, yeah, um, 0:11:07.640 --> 0:11:09.960 and I and I really hope certainly a Jedi master 0:11:10.000 --> 0:11:12.199 wouldn't have like Jedi masters have to deal with the 0:11:12.240 --> 0:11:14.040 dark side too. I mean, that's kind of the thing, right, 0:11:14.200 --> 0:11:16.520 Like higher cognition means you're open to the dark side. 0:11:16.679 --> 0:11:18.600 Correct me if I'm wrong. But I seem to recall 0:11:18.640 --> 0:11:21.040 in the prequels that a lot of Jedi training is 0:11:21.120 --> 0:11:25.160 about purging emotions, or at least certain kinds of emotions. 0:11:25.200 --> 0:11:28.559 Maybe not to the full Spock extent, but at least 0:11:28.600 --> 0:11:33.280 like not letting impulsive emotional reactions guide you're thinking, to 0:11:33.320 --> 0:11:35.560 be clear and to be you know, to to be 0:11:35.679 --> 0:11:39.120 able to use clear thinking in your mind when when 0:11:39.160 --> 0:11:41.640 our our natural tendency would be to get hot headed, 0:11:42.240 --> 0:11:45.079 right uh yeah. And then there's a lot of Buddhist 0:11:45.160 --> 0:11:49.640 uh uh Buddhism in there as well, dealing with like 0:11:49.840 --> 0:11:53.600 the idea of avoiding attachments and all. So we see 0:11:53.640 --> 0:11:56.120 that doesn't necessarily work out all that well for those 0:11:56.160 --> 0:11:59.320 who aspire to it, right in those films. But but 0:11:59.360 --> 0:12:02.640 even like in terms of like confronting the dark side though, 0:12:02.800 --> 0:12:05.480 like that's always been a part of the uh of 0:12:05.600 --> 0:12:07.840 the of the Star Wars world, I mean, back the Empire, 0:12:07.920 --> 0:12:10.720 when Luke goes into that swamp and he's completing his training, 0:12:10.720 --> 0:12:12.559 like one of the things he does is the encounters 0:12:12.600 --> 0:12:15.320 that that vision of of Darth Vader that is also 0:12:15.360 --> 0:12:17.640 a vision of himself, right, I mean, I think we're 0:12:17.679 --> 0:12:20.840 supposed to take that as like Luke is being confronted 0:12:20.920 --> 0:12:24.079 by the possibility of what would happen if he himself 0:12:24.120 --> 0:12:26.480 were seduced by the dark Side, which of course he does. 0:12:26.679 --> 0:12:29.680 He does play pretty dangerous in the movies, right, he 0:12:29.720 --> 0:12:34.400 gets close. Yeah. Yeah, anyway, that's basically this is like 0:12:34.559 --> 0:12:36.920 one idea of looking at this big brain, just one 0:12:36.960 --> 0:12:39.400 big brain in there, right, so it's like built up 0:12:39.480 --> 0:12:42.800 level by level, and maybe the additional brains are are 0:12:42.880 --> 0:12:45.840 something like what you would put even on top of 0:12:45.880 --> 0:12:48.400 our neo cortex. Maybe like they've got like a neo 0:12:48.520 --> 0:12:53.560 neo cortex or something. Yeah, Now, another interpretation and I 0:12:53.600 --> 0:12:56.600 think a more exotic one and also maybe maybe more fun, 0:12:56.720 --> 0:13:00.360 maybe more sci fi fantasy, but also one that I 0:13:00.360 --> 0:13:03.120 think I've seen visually represented somewhere. I tried to hunt 0:13:03.120 --> 0:13:04.520 it down to see if I could, because I would 0:13:04.520 --> 0:13:07.520 have put it in our inside of our notes if 0:13:07.520 --> 0:13:08.920 I could, but I couldn't find it. But I think 0:13:08.920 --> 0:13:11.360 I've seen this represented visibly. And that is the idea 0:13:11.679 --> 0:13:15.720 that Syrians actually have two brains inside their skull, one 0:13:15.760 --> 0:13:18.400 positioned right on top of the other, just straight up, 0:13:18.440 --> 0:13:21.880 two brains inside their heads. So that means one of 0:13:21.920 --> 0:13:24.280 the brains is closer to the heart. Maybe that makes 0:13:24.320 --> 0:13:26.400 it easier to get blood flow to that one. Well, 0:13:26.400 --> 0:13:30.000 that's why they have two hearts, Joe. So the idea 0:13:30.040 --> 0:13:32.600 is that that second heart is I guess, powering the 0:13:32.600 --> 0:13:35.120 second brain or enabling just enough blood flow to get 0:13:35.160 --> 0:13:38.920 up there to to work with both brains. Um. So 0:13:39.760 --> 0:13:41.640 I want to stress I'm not talking two brains here 0:13:41.679 --> 0:13:43.720 in the sense that the human brain consists of two 0:13:43.760 --> 0:13:47.679 hemispheres connected by the corpus co awesome, but two separate brains, 0:13:48.120 --> 0:13:52.839 perhaps each consisting of two hemispheres each. And uh, I 0:13:53.120 --> 0:13:56.600 should also add that that some descriptions refer to Syrian 0:13:56.640 --> 0:13:59.079 brains in a way that does seem to indicate two brains. 0:13:59.600 --> 0:14:01.800 And again they do have too hard so I guess 0:14:01.880 --> 0:14:05.160 the duplicity seems to to work out here. So these 0:14:05.200 --> 0:14:08.400 two I tend to lean more towards the actual two 0:14:08.400 --> 0:14:12.040 brains inside their their heads. Uh So, I guess another 0:14:12.120 --> 0:14:13.840 you could do a third option. It would be a 0:14:13.880 --> 0:14:16.040 variation on idea number two, and that would be that 0:14:16.080 --> 0:14:18.840 they just had a very large humanoid brain, but the 0:14:18.920 --> 0:14:22.760 hemispheres are not connected by something like the corpus colossum. 0:14:22.800 --> 0:14:25.360 Oh no, that's very interesting. I want to say some things, 0:14:25.400 --> 0:14:26.840 but I also don't want to preempt you because I 0:14:26.880 --> 0:14:28.600 know you're going to get into talking about split brain 0:14:28.680 --> 0:14:32.400 experiments here. Yeah, okay, but yeah, So the corpus colossum, 0:14:32.440 --> 0:14:35.120 at least we know in the human brain, enables a 0:14:35.280 --> 0:14:39.440 large amount of communication between the hemispheres, and in cases 0:14:39.440 --> 0:14:42.960 where the corpus colossum in humans has been severed, often 0:14:42.960 --> 0:14:45.400 a person can still live their life, like you can 0:14:45.480 --> 0:14:49.360 function with your brain hemispheres severed, and you can do things. 0:14:49.400 --> 0:14:53.640 But there are some very noticeable changes to how the 0:14:53.680 --> 0:14:57.240 brain or brains react to certain types of stimuli and 0:14:57.280 --> 0:15:00.120 scenarios under that condition. Yeah, yeah, when the color some 0:15:00.280 --> 0:15:03.480 has been severed. And then when you have like often 0:15:03.480 --> 0:15:07.760 it's you have to have certain experimental scenarios in place 0:15:08.800 --> 0:15:12.400 to make it become obvious because otherwise the individual doesn't 0:15:12.440 --> 0:15:15.400 notice and people who know them probably don't notice. But 0:15:15.360 --> 0:15:17.160 we'll get out into all that in a second. Now, 0:15:17.200 --> 0:15:18.680 there are a lot of different directions you could go 0:15:18.680 --> 0:15:20.840 in here, like why, I mean the big one is 0:15:20.880 --> 0:15:23.320 like why would they go in this direction? First of all, 0:15:23.360 --> 0:15:25.800 would it be natural? Would it be just an evolution 0:15:26.760 --> 0:15:28.800 or would it be something that was engineered? And in 0:15:28.840 --> 0:15:31.960 either case, like why would it have to do with uh, 0:15:32.440 --> 0:15:36.120 like higher why would they need this like higher cognitive state? 0:15:36.160 --> 0:15:39.280 Would it have something to do with, you know, being 0:15:39.320 --> 0:15:42.600 an interstellar species or something to do with their their 0:15:42.600 --> 0:15:45.680 home environment. I don't know. Well, I mean it makes 0:15:45.720 --> 0:15:48.320 me think about how there are species on Earth that 0:15:48.480 --> 0:15:53.360 have a more distributed model of intelligence and nervous system control. 0:15:53.400 --> 0:15:56.640 And a great example would be octopuses, you know, like 0:15:56.680 --> 0:15:59.080 the octopus of course, like they've got a central brain, 0:15:59.160 --> 0:16:02.000 but then they have anglia throughout the body that are 0:16:02.120 --> 0:16:05.240 sometimes written about and you could argue to what extent 0:16:05.280 --> 0:16:09.040 this is a fair characterization, but they you could argue 0:16:09.080 --> 0:16:13.320 that octopuses in some ways also think with their arms 0:16:13.520 --> 0:16:16.120 in ways that are independent of the thinking that takes 0:16:16.160 --> 0:16:19.960 place in the centralized brain. So you can imagine there 0:16:19.960 --> 0:16:22.800 are scenarios where it's useful for an animal to have 0:16:22.920 --> 0:16:26.880 thinking or information processing happening at multiple different places within 0:16:26.920 --> 0:16:29.600 the body. But the Syrian seems kind of different because 0:16:29.720 --> 0:16:31.960 you can imagine with the octopus, Okay, maybe somehow the 0:16:32.120 --> 0:16:35.120 arm needs to think independently of the central brain. But 0:16:35.240 --> 0:16:38.520 this is two central brains, two brains in the head, 0:16:38.800 --> 0:16:41.640 So what's the what's like the second one doing differently? 0:16:41.720 --> 0:16:44.160 How would that be distributed in a way that would 0:16:44.160 --> 0:16:48.080 be useful like the octopus's arm. Yeah, and and so 0:16:48.880 --> 0:16:51.080 in thinking about possibilities, you know, we also come into 0:16:51.120 --> 0:16:54.840 ideas of that, like philosophical or spiritual upgrades to the brain. 0:16:54.880 --> 0:16:57.360 I mean, why not if we're trying to determine where 0:16:57.400 --> 0:17:00.840 we go from here, I mean, it seems that's worth 0:17:00.840 --> 0:17:03.240 thinking about. I should also just go ahead and add 0:17:03.280 --> 0:17:06.600 that obviously, big headed aliens is just a long, a 0:17:06.640 --> 0:17:09.520 long standing trope, you know, going back to the outer limits, 0:17:09.520 --> 0:17:12.120 and so forth. So, Uh, it's not like they invented 0:17:12.160 --> 0:17:15.600 the idea of big headed aliens and big headed future humanoids. 0:17:15.880 --> 0:17:19.760 It's been pretty much standard. Um. But but I don't 0:17:19.760 --> 0:17:22.200 know that I have I'm sure there's some sci fi 0:17:22.200 --> 0:17:24.920 out there predating this in which a human had two 0:17:25.000 --> 0:17:28.040 brain or humanoid had two brains, aside from Steve Martin, 0:17:28.200 --> 0:17:32.159 but yeah, but I'm not. I'm not aware of it 0:17:32.280 --> 0:17:34.879 off the top of my head. But but a lot 0:17:34.920 --> 0:17:37.520 of these considerations, like when we're talking about what, you know, 0:17:37.560 --> 0:17:39.320 what does this mean? What would two brains be like? 0:17:39.359 --> 0:17:41.479 I mean, it basically comes down to to that, what 0:17:41.520 --> 0:17:44.880 would it be like to have two brains? What would 0:17:44.880 --> 0:17:47.840 it conceive? What would conceivably be the mental state of 0:17:47.880 --> 0:17:50.640 an an individual like Master moon Dy here with two 0:17:50.680 --> 0:17:53.160 brains in their head? Ah, So now you're getting into 0:17:53.240 --> 0:17:56.360 subjective experience, And this of course touches on really big 0:17:56.440 --> 0:18:00.600 questions that are still unsettled in in human science and philosophy, 0:18:00.680 --> 0:18:05.520 stuff about like where consciousness resides in what it consists of? Yeah, yeah, 0:18:06.080 --> 0:18:08.560 and ultimately, yeah, this is gonna be unanswerable and we 0:18:08.600 --> 0:18:10.399 just have to sort of speculate and have fun with 0:18:10.440 --> 0:18:13.600 the speculation. But on one level, you have to say 0:18:13.640 --> 0:18:16.439 that ultimately the mind of alien being might just be 0:18:16.560 --> 0:18:19.679 impossible for us to comprehend. It just might be that different. 0:18:20.000 --> 0:18:22.240 On the other hand, you could say, well, having two 0:18:22.280 --> 0:18:24.080 brains in your head like this, it would just be 0:18:24.200 --> 0:18:28.040 like our mental experience. Because, as we alluded to earlier, though, 0:18:28.040 --> 0:18:30.919 the human brain consists of two cerebral hemispheres connected by 0:18:30.920 --> 0:18:35.560 the corpus um closum, each with many different modules, all 0:18:35.560 --> 0:18:38.680 of these acting in concert with each other, interconnected, and 0:18:38.760 --> 0:18:41.240 we explored this at length in our episodes on split 0:18:41.320 --> 0:18:45.520 brain experiments UM and of and of those experiments, most interestingly, 0:18:45.640 --> 0:18:47.800 one of the big ta coms was is that indeed, 0:18:47.800 --> 0:18:50.399 if you split the brain, you essentially split the person 0:18:50.440 --> 0:18:54.359 as well. Um, we're talking one person per hemisphere of 0:18:54.400 --> 0:18:56.919 the brain. A division of self, not one that is 0:18:57.320 --> 0:19:00.280 obvious to the individual or two people around them, but 0:19:00.359 --> 0:19:05.680 again presents itself when revealed through various experiments, particularly the 0:19:06.000 --> 0:19:11.159 Nobel winning work of neuroscientists Roger Sperry and Michael Gazzaniga 0:19:11.280 --> 0:19:14.120 in the sixties and seventies. And so we go into 0:19:14.200 --> 0:19:16.399 much more depth than in that pair of episodes from 0:19:16.440 --> 0:19:17.840 I think it was a couple of years ago now, 0:19:17.840 --> 0:19:19.320 so you can go look those up if you want 0:19:19.359 --> 0:19:22.480 the full scoop. But they did find some very interesting 0:19:22.560 --> 0:19:25.240 things that I will say. Um. We also talked in 0:19:25.280 --> 0:19:27.600 that episode, I think about how there has been some 0:19:27.680 --> 0:19:32.000 research in recent years that sort of challenged their original findings, 0:19:32.000 --> 0:19:34.200 but people have pushed back against that research too, So 0:19:34.280 --> 0:19:35.600 it seems like, you know, this is one of the 0:19:35.600 --> 0:19:39.200 many things in in psychology and neuroscience that's still an 0:19:39.200 --> 0:19:41.800 ongoing question. But at least what they appeared to find 0:19:41.960 --> 0:19:46.119 is that you can, for example, in a patient who's 0:19:46.160 --> 0:19:49.359 had their hemisphere severed through this radical uh severing of 0:19:49.359 --> 0:19:51.600 the corpus closum, which is done not for the purpose 0:19:51.640 --> 0:19:54.720 of the experiment, but it's done specifically for people with 0:19:54.960 --> 0:19:59.080 really uh treatment resistant epilepsy to prevent them from having 0:19:59.400 --> 0:20:03.480 these recurr terrible seizures. UH. That you can sever the 0:20:03.480 --> 0:20:07.120 corpus closum, a person still reports being able to live 0:20:07.160 --> 0:20:09.960 their life generally like it is not a debilitating thing 0:20:10.000 --> 0:20:12.240 to do to the brain, but it causes these strange 0:20:12.320 --> 0:20:15.920 things where, for example, it seems that some amount of 0:20:16.000 --> 0:20:20.920 information is prevented from being shared fully between the two 0:20:21.000 --> 0:20:23.480 different parts of the brain. And so, for example, it 0:20:23.600 --> 0:20:27.280 is widely uh that in in most brains it is 0:20:27.400 --> 0:20:30.719 the left hemisphere that seems to do the talking, like 0:20:30.800 --> 0:20:34.520 the language interactions with the outside world. And so you 0:20:34.560 --> 0:20:38.640 can present stimuli that are only within the sensory awareness 0:20:38.680 --> 0:20:41.640 of the right hemisphere of the brain, say by presenting 0:20:41.640 --> 0:20:44.240 it in a certain part of the visual field. And 0:20:44.320 --> 0:20:47.840 so the parts of the body controlled primarily by the 0:20:47.960 --> 0:20:51.040 right hemisphere of the brain can do things that seem 0:20:51.080 --> 0:20:54.040 to reflect knowledge of the stimulus that you have showed 0:20:54.040 --> 0:20:56.960 that hemisphere of the brain, but the person can't talk 0:20:57.040 --> 0:21:00.000 about that knowledge. They don't seem to have linguistic aware 0:21:00.000 --> 0:21:03.879 earness of it, which is extremely weird. Yeah, And and 0:21:04.119 --> 0:21:06.040 at times it kind of comes off as a sort 0:21:06.080 --> 0:21:09.199 of subtle duality of self. Some of the most interesting 0:21:09.240 --> 0:21:11.520 ideas that come come out of it because Anaga wraps 0:21:11.600 --> 0:21:14.200