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What does symmetry and self-similarity between life and intelligence mean for the nature of reality? How are neurones like genes? Today we have the extraordinary Fractal Brain Theory to discuss. After episode #38 about the World as a Neural Network, with Russian physicist and computer scientist Vitaly Vanchurin, i've become more open to a unified theory of universe that reconciles quantum mechanics with general relativity, as Vanchurin's equations seem to offer. So when I was recommended today's guest's Fractal Brain Theory by one of the wonderful listeners, I was curious if a little sceptical given all the psychedelic hype about fractal geometry. So a symmetrical theory of repeating self-similar, self-modifying behaviour in the universe is not so far from the vision of the universe as a thriving, adaptable neural network. And according to today's guest the symmetry directly connects the often divorced worlds of neurones, brains and intelligence with the world of genes, evolution and life. He is multi-disciplinary researcher, computer scientist, musician and author Wai H Tsang. A self-taught thinker in the world of neurology, evolutionary biology, consciousness and philosophy of mind, Tsang is in the unique position of combining these traditions into a single theory of brain, that promises to solve even the hard problem of consciousness. Trained in computer science at Imperial college, he wrote the first version of his Fractal Brain Theory in 2016, in his book of the same name, and it was picked up by quantum consciousness theorist Stuart Hameroff, who invited him to the Science of Consciousness Conference, alongside heavy weights in the field like David Chalmers, Roger Penrose, Sue Blackmore, Donald Hoffman - many who've been on this show already. This recognition catapulted his theory into the field, so it's with great pleasure that I include it on the show for us to compare alongside the theories of many of the giants. What we discuss: 00:00 Intro 07:10 Symmetry explained: Variance and non-variance; change and resistance to change 11:00 Genomes work like tiny fractal brains 12:30 The symmetry between intelligence and life, neurones and genes 13:00 Junk DNA, neurones and boolean algebra 17:45 Dendritic structure, processing and artificial intelligence 19:00 Self-similarity and recursively nested symmetry 21:30 Evolution and ontogenesis algorithm: differentiate, select, amplify 22:15 Fractal Mathematics and Benoit Mandelbrot: Approximate self-similarity 25:45 Binary trees generating life and intelligence 29:00 Mitosis and progenator fields 30:00 Allocentric and egocentric mapping (Nobel prize) 34:40 Goodwin and cell division VS epigenetic mutation/adaptation 36:00 Recursive modification IS intelligence; evolving evolvability 40:15 A new calculus: analytic geometry 47:00 The soft and hard problem of consciousness 51:00 Time symmetric quantum mechanics and problems with causal chains 58:00 David Chalmers: Identity cosmo-psychism critique 01:11:00 Is self-reflective conscious Ai possible? 01:19:30 Penrose: Quantum mechanics is incomplete until we understand the collapse of the wave function 01:21:00 The ethical debate about the future of Ai References: ‘The Fractal Brain Theory' Wai Tsang Wai Tsang You Tube Channel Boolean Algebra David Chalmers, “Idealism and the mind body problem” paper
Exclusive - Susan Blackmore, We have a block buster episode here where we explore the mysteries of the human mind and the depths of human experience. today we have the privilege of delving into the realms of neuroscience, consciousness, and the enigmatic nature of our own awareness.Our Exclusive and special guest is a true polymath, a freelance writer, lecturer, and broadcaster who has made significant contributions to our understanding of the mind. As a Visiting Professor at the esteemed University of Plymouth, she brings a wealth of knowledge and insight to the forefront of our discussion.Having earned her degree in psychology and physiology from Oxford University in 1973, she embarked on a remarkable journey of exploration. Her pursuit of understanding the human mind led her to obtain a PhD in parapsychology from the University of Surrey, a field that once teemed with the allure of the paranormal.However, it was her insatiable curiosity and thirst for truth that redirected her focus toward captivating areas of study such as memes, evolutionary theory, consciousness, and meditation. her profound insights have captured the attention of diverse audiences, as she shares her wisdom through her writings for renowned magazines and newspapers, her thought-provoking blog for the Guardian newspaper, and her captivating presence as a frequent contributor and presenter on radio and television.With over sixty academic articles, about fifty book contributions, numerous book reviews, and a collection of captivating books to her name, Dr. Blackmore has firmly established herself as a leading authority in her field. Her work transcends boundaries and challenges conventional thinking, pushing the frontiers of our understanding.Today, we dive into the depths of neuroscience, exploring its intricate relationship with consciousness itself. We venture into the uncharted territories of out-of-body experiences, near-death experiences, and the very nature of our subjective reality. Brace yourselves for a mind-bending conversation that will challenge your assumptions and leave you with more questions than answers.So, without further ado, join us as we embark on this extraordinary intellectual journey with the brilliant Dr. Sue Blackmore.
This week @EchoChamberFP https://www.instagram.com/echochamberfp/ is a 'TwO Parter'!!! In 'Part One', we have a climate documentary, we finally look at the twenty fifth Bond installment, AND, we have the new Nicolas Cage dose of crazy! Today we have: 12th Hour Watch Review: Here. https://youtu.be/P70wWCAhDvU Digital Release Date: 22nd April 2022 Director: Susan Kucera Cast: David Morse, Dr. Paul Piff, Dr. Maureen O'Hara, Dr. Thomas Metzinger, Dr. Bruce M. Hood, Dr. Jorgen Randers, Dr. Azim Shariff, Dr. Daniel Wildcat, Dr. Ugo Bardi, Dr. Michael Ranney, Dr. Kari Norgaard, Pete Russell, Dr. William Catton, Dr. Dario Maestripieri, Richard Dawkins, Dr. Joseph Tainter, George Dyson, Paul Roberts, Dr. William Calvin, Dro. Robert Trivers, Dr. Stephan Lewandowsky, Dr. Brian Fagan, Jay Julius, Dr. Sue Blackmore, Rob Hopkins Credit: Rangeland Productions, Video Project Genre: Documentary Running Time: 52 min Cert: 12a Trailer: Here. https://youtu.be/xWBc_r1gyHg Website: Here. https://www.12thhourfilm.com/ Twitter: @12thhourfilm https://twitter.com/12thhourfilm Facebook: Here. https://www.facebook.com/12thhourfilm/ Instagram: @12thhourfilm https://www.instagram.com/12thhourfilm/ ------------ No Time to Die Watch Review: Here. https://youtu.be/YoLJNdqd9bs Theatrical UK Release Date: 28th September 2021 Theatrical USA Release Date: 8th October 2021 Digital Release Date: 20th April 2022 Director: Cary Joji Fukunaga Cast: Daniel Craig, Léa Seydoux, Ben Whishaw, Naomie Harris, Jeffrey Wright, Christoph Waltz, Rory Kinnear, Rami Malek, Lashana Lynch, Billy Magnussen, Ana de Armas, David Dencik, Dali Benssalah, Ralph Fiennes Credit: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Eon Productions, Universal Pictures, United Artists Releasing Genre: Action, Adventure, Thriller Running Time: 163 min Cert: 18 Trailer: Here. https://youtu.be/N_gD9-Oa0fg Watch via Prime Video USA: Here. https://www.primevideo.com/detail/No-Time-To-Die/0SILOEE0B6Y2YL1HOCOU40O6L1 Watch via Prime Video UK: Here. https://www.amazon.co.uk/No-Time-Die-Daniel-Craig/dp/B09LRC7WSJ Website: Here. https://www.007.com/no-time-to-die/ Twitter: @007 https://twitter.com/007 Facebook: Here. https://www.facebook.com/JamesBond007GB/?brand_redir=266350353379883 Instagram: @007 https://www.instagram.com/007/ YouTube: Here. https://www.youtube.com/c/007 ------------ The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent Watch Review: Here. https://youtu.be/aHtW1y6E6gY Digital Release Date: 22nd April 2022 Director: Tom Gormican Cast: Nicolas Cage, Pedro Pascal, Sharon Horgan, Lily Mo Sheen, Ike Barinholtz, Paco León, Alessandra Mastronardi, Jacob Scipio, Neil Patrick Harris, Katrin Vankova, Tiffany Haddish Credit: Saturn Films, Burr! Productions, LionsGate Genre: Action, Comedy, Crime, Thriller Running Time: 107 min Cert: 18 Trailer: Here. https://youtu.be/CKTRbKch2K4 Website: Here. https://www.nickcage.movie/ Twitter: @NickCageMovie https://twitter.com/NickCageMovie Facebook: Here. https://www.facebook.com/NickCageMovie Instagram: @nickcagemovie https://www.instagram.com/NickCageMovie/ ------------ *(Music) 'Luchini aka This Is It' by Camp Lo - 1997 --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/eftv/message
Catch up with REX Today for Tuesday 26 October - with Dominic George. You can also listen to REX Today on Maagic Talk weekdays from 5am. Find out more at Magic.co.nzSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Catch up with REX Today for Tuesday 26 October - with Dominic George. You can also listen to REX Today on Maagic Talk weekdays from 5am. Find out more at Magic.co.nz See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Adam Hart-Davis discusses with Ivan six things which he thinks should be better known. Adam Hart-Davis is a freelance writer and lecturer – former presenter on television of Local Heroes, Tomorrow’s World, What the Romans (and others) Did for Us, How London was Built, and many other series. He has collected various awards for both television and radio, as well as four medals and 14 honorary doctorates. He has read several books, and written about 35, most of them about science and history. He spends a lot of time hacking at green wood, making chairs, tables, bowls, and spoons He is a member of many associations, including the Association of Pole-lathe Turners, and the British Toilet Association. He lectures on diverse subjects, from Toilets and history to Are we alone in the universe? and has given more than 100 talks, to audiences ranging from The Royal Society, The Royal Institution, and the American Society of Mechanical Engineers to schools, small local history groups, and the captive audiences on cruise ships. He lives in south Devon with his wife Sue Blackmore, two cats, and four chickens. Sandy Bain and the fax machine https://electronics.howstuffworks.com/gadgets/fax/history-of-fax.htm Colin Pullinger and his mousetrap https://www.inventricity.com/local-heroes-colin-pullinger The skating stones of Racetrack Playa https://www.livescience.com/37492-sailing-stones-death-valley-moving-rocks.html The short stories of Somerset Maugham https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v31/n24/miranda-carter/no-more-alimony-tra-la-la Fibonacci's rabbits https://plus.maths.org/content/fibonacci-sequence-brief-introduction If you haven't tested it, it doesn't work https://www.kguttag.com/2013/08/10/if-you-havent-tested-it-it-doesnt-work/ This podcast is powered by ZenCast.fm
In an out-of-body experience (OBE), people feel as though they have left their physical body and can see the world from outside it. What are these experiences, and are they spiritual? As a 19 year-old psychology student, Susan Blackmore had an extraordinarily powerful OBE that lasted for hours and culminated in a mystical experience of transformation and oneness. Her determination to understand what had happened led Susan to becoming a parapsychologist – a profession she later gave up, zen training, and decades of research into the nature of mind and consciousness. In this talk, Susan will explore the surprising science of out-of-body experiences, whether anything really leaves the body during an OBE, and their profound effect on our sense of self. Sue Blackmore is a psychologist, lecturer and writer researching consciousness, memes, and anomalous experiences, and a Visiting Professor at the University of Plymouth. She is a TED lecturer, blogs for the Guardian, and often appears on radio and television. The Meme Machine (1999) has been translated into 16 other languages; more recent books include Conversations on Consciousness (2005), Zen and the Art of Consciousness (2011), Seeing Myself: The new science of out-of-body experiences (2017) and a textbook Consciousness: An Introduction (3rd Ed 2018). Links: Get our latest psychology lectures emailed to your inbox: http://bit.ly/new-talks Check out our next event: http://theweekenduniversity.com/events/ Support this channel on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/theweekenduniversity Susan's book: https://amzn.to/2Y3tlwx Susan's website: https://www.susanblackmore.uk/ Donate to Sue's chosen charity (Anyone's Child): https://anyoneschild.org/
This week we start our episode with Editor-in-Chief of The Skeptic magazine, Deborah Hyde, who tells us about this year's Ockham Awards, the nominations for which are still open. https://www.skeptic.org.uk/ockham-awards-2017/vote/ Then we have an interview with Prof. Susan Blackmore, who tells us about her fascinating journey from being a believer in paranormal explanations of out-of-body experiences and the like to becoming a skeptic and a popular author telling the world about the tricks of the mind and what science has to say about all that.
Sue Blackmore on her lifetime OBE research - plus a 75 year old ice mystery solved inSwitzerland...
Live from the QED Conference in Manchester, Cara chats with psychologist and author Dr. Sue Blackmore about her history as a parapsychologist studying out-of-body experiences. They discuss her transition from credulity to skeptical thinking, and how it has shaped her research and writing in the psychology of consciousness and more.Special thank you to Drew Porras for his audio engineering expertise.
Live from the QED Conference in Manchester, Cara chats with psychologist and author Dr. Sue Blackmore about her research history in parapsychology and out of body experiences. They discuss her transition from credulity to skeptical thinking, and how its shaped her research and writing in the psychology of consciousness and more. Special thank you to Drew Porras for his audio engineering expertise.
Sue Blackmore and Adam Hart-Davis join Harriett Gilbert to discuss favourite books.
Graham Ward is Oxford Regius professor of Divinity. His new book 'Unbelievable' explores the biology and psychology of belief. Atheist professor of psychology Susan Blackmore joins the discussion in the first part of the show. Is belief a purely material phenomenon of the brain? Though the 'truth' of belief remains under increasing attack, in a thoroughly secularized context, Ward argues that secularity is itself a form of believing. MP3 of this show http://media.premier.org.uk/unbelievable/ba27f310-0401-41ea-a8cb-4e5d24b2ab55.mp3 For Graham Ward's book 'Unbelievable': http://www.amazon.co.uk/Unbelievable-Why-We-Believe-Dont/dp/1780767358 For more faith debates visit www.premierchristianradio.com/unbelievable Join the conversation: https://www.facebook.com/UnbelievableJB and https://twitter.com/unbelievablejb Get the MP3 podcast of Unbelievable? http://ondemand.premier.org.uk/unbelievable/AudioFeed.aspx
The two of us chatted about parapsychology, her new theory about the evolution of technology and how to meditate in 20 seconds.
I did not come to this conference of my own free will because free will is an illusion. Plenty of evidence from neuroscience suggests that there is no persisting ‘me’ who could exert this mysterious power. Libet’s experiments on the timing of voluntary actions throw free will into doubt; the neuroscience of volition reveals the brain areas responsible for decision-making and self-control; and research by Wegner shows how the feeling of being responsible for an action depends on post-hoc attributions based on sequence, similarity and timing. So if our intuitions are not to be trusted, how should we live our lives? Many people reject the traditional idea of free will but still say they must live ‘as if’ they have free will. Otherwise, they claim, society would disintegrate and all hell break loose. I disagree and will discuss ways of living a moral and happy life without believing in free will.
Denne uken har vi samlet sammen noen av våre beste reportasjer fra høstsemesteret. Warp drive, Sue Blackmore, kvantehackere, 2012, samt litt Ig Nobel!
Science Chat talks to journalist Sue Blackmore about the controversial move by the Royal Institution earlier this year to make Baroness Susan Greenfield redundant
In this episode I chat with psychologist, skeptic and author Sue Blackmore, who was at the Edinbrugh Book Festival to… Read More Episode 4: Afternoon Tea With Sue Blackmore
Sue Blackmore is a psychologist and writer whose research on consciousness, memes, and the paranormal has been published in over sixty academic papers, as well as book chapters, reviews and popular articles. She regularly writes in the Guardian, and often appears on radio and television in the United States and the United Kingdom. She spent two decades early in her career investigating psychic phenomena, following an out-of-body experience she had as a student at Oxford. She is the author of a number of books, including Dying to Live (on near-death experiences), In Search of the Light, and Test Your Psychic Powers (with Adam Hart-Davis). The Meme Machine (1999) has been widely acclaimed, and translated into 13 other languages. Her highly praised textbook, Consciousness: An Introduction, and A Very Short Introduction to Consciousness are both published by Oxford University Press, as is her most recent Conversations on Consciousness. In this far-ranging discussion with D.J. Grothe, Susan Blackmore talks about her research into the paranormal and near death experiences and why she left that field of study, memetics and religion as a meme, free will and the question of moral responsibility, consciousness and the illusory nature of the self, and Zen Buddhism and meditative practice, among other topics. She also explores why is it more important than ever for scientists to speak out about important issues of concern in the world today.