In this video, the vlogger Vsauce talks about conscience!
Videos for this vlogger in particular are particularly interesting for the way it talks about the topics and sometimes not the topic itself!
Here, he gives the example of hemispherectomies to think about.
This type of surgery involves the removal of a hemisphere when it completely, is responsible for epileptic focus and if they can not be controlled by drugs. Structures such as the thalamus, brain stem and basal ganglia remain intact.
It is performed in children before age 14 because this hemisphere may take over some functions that are missing by the removal of the previous one.
In this case I ask, then with approximately 50% of the initial brain mass, to what extent the entire state of consciousness remains unchanged? Is the consciousness state measurable? Why do not we live constantly 100% aware? Isn't that disturbing???
Vsauce proposes the following:
- What if, to the same brain, we remove one hemisphere and put it in a body and the other hemisphere in another body, to which the bodies belong to the original person? It really is an impossible question to answer since this was never tried and there are not theoretical arguments to justify any answer in concrete and honestly, seems impossible to stand life in that conditions!
By the other hand if you survive the hemispherectomy, wouldn't it be possible to do this?
But thinking about it is always a viable and safer option! The question remains, what is consciousness?
We are composed of the same material that the rest of the universe, or as Carl Sagan would say, "We are star stuff"
Living organisms have ownership of counteracting the second law of thermodynamics and expend energy by organizing their systems!
A mistery remains: what does the matter that we possess has to make us different, from the matter of non living organisms or inanimate objects?
Without physical property, consciousness is not palpable. We can not , in a living organism set the barrier that defines its conscience or not.
But one thing is certain, the state of consciousness allows us to live life to its fullest!
Frightening is the fact that our nervous system allow us to live a lie without we noticing it! Here aresome examples of those conditions:
- Parkinson
- Anosognosia
- Anton - the Babinsky syndrome ( 1)
- Hemiespacial neglect syndrome ( 2 )
As such , live life consciously gains another matter.
Can you imagine what it would be if all your nerve cells of your body , all your information was computed and stored? What if that computer was able to learn , respond and make decisions from YOUR information, would that be you? Could you live forever? The need to define what is consciousness in biological terms reveals a tremendous importance because the fields yet to explore, are infinite!
