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00:00Can we know the universe? Are our brains capable of comprehending the cosmos in all of its complexity
00:13and splendor? We don't yet know the answer to that question because our brain remains almost
00:19as much of a mystery as the universe itself. We think that the number of processing units in
00:26your brain is roughly equal to all the stars in a thousand galaxies. At least a hundred
00:33trillion. And it's possible that the real number of processing units is ten times larger.
00:38We're inside a brain. It's in the grip of a category 5 hurricane of chemical electrical
00:46forces. The storm came without warning, spreading chaos and heartache far beyond its path. But
00:54it also provided the first clues to the nature of this little cosmos.
01:24So
01:26so
01:31ORGAN PLAYS
02:01We are traveling 2,500 years back in time
02:10to the island of Kos in the Aegean Sea.
02:14This is the story of a giant leap in the history of thought.
02:19It was here that one of the most powerful spells ever to cloud the mind
02:23was first broken.
02:25Imagine you are the loving parents of a precious only child.
02:32The boy is given to moments of brilliance
02:34which charm and impress your friends.
02:38But there's something wrong.
02:39A storm is brewing inside his head.
02:48Peleus! Peleus!
02:49Peleus! Peleus!
02:51Grigora!
02:52Toria!
02:53Peleus!
02:53Peleus!
02:54Peleus!
02:55This was medicine 2,500 years ago in Greece.
03:22The idea that the ritual appeasement of one of the gods
03:25could bring about the cure for an epileptic seizure
03:28was magical thinking.
03:31When the Greeks and people of other cultures
03:33performed their rituals,
03:34some of the afflicted recovered
03:36due to the finite course of the illness
03:38or to their own immune systems.
03:41But to the patients and their loved ones,
03:43it meant that the gods had been appeased.
03:46And when the patient died,
03:48that just meant the gods were so angry,
03:50nothing could be done.
03:53This way of thinking was a byproduct
03:55of that great human strength and weakness
03:58called pattern recognition.
04:03In this case, false pattern recognition.
04:07The belief that epilepsy was caused
04:09by the anger of the gods
04:11was the confusion of correlation with causation
04:14and the wishful thinking that prevails
04:16when people feel powerless.
04:19That's not to say that the ancient Greeks
04:21didn't have remedies, plants, and minerals
04:24they used as medicines.
04:25But for a disease as mysterious as epilepsy,
04:28they could only light their incense and pray.
04:32They didn't even know it had anything to do with the brain.
04:35And then came Hippocrates.
04:40Hippocrates rejected the notion
04:42that angry gods were the cause of disease and injury.
04:45He wrote,
04:46The physician must investigate the entire patient,
04:50his diet, and his environment.
04:53The best physician is the one who is able to prevent illness.
04:58Nothing happens without a natural cause.
05:01For this alone, he could be called the father of medicine.
05:05He is credited with codifying an ethos for doctors.
05:09The oath ascribed to him in the 3rd century BCE
05:12is still taken today
05:14by those who had practiced medicine.
05:19And it was Hippocrates
05:20who was among the first to declare the brain
05:23to be the seat of consciousness.
05:25It's hard to believe,
05:27but this was once a revolutionary concept.
05:30The prevailing wisdom being
05:31that we actually thought with our hearts.
05:35And it may have been here
05:36where he made one of the great prophecies
05:39in the history of science.
05:43Hippocrates understood
05:44that he and his contemporaries
05:46called epilepsy the sacred disease
05:49because they didn't understand its physical cause.
05:52He wrote,
05:54When we do,
05:56we will no longer think it divine.
06:00That little boy wasn't cursed.
06:02It was a physical malfunction inside his brain.
06:05As long as we searched for it
06:07in the whim of the gods,
06:09we had no hope of helping him
06:10or ourselves.
06:13Yet thousands of years passed
06:15and the brain remained a mystery.
06:20Between 420 BCE and the 19th century,
06:23our understanding of the cosmos
06:25grew by leaps and bounds.
06:27We discovered the speed of light,
06:30the laws of gravity,
06:31and we learned that our sun
06:33is part of a greater galaxy of stars.
06:36And yet,
06:372300 years after Hippocrates,
06:40we still knew virtually nothing
06:42about the part of ourselves
06:43that made it possible
06:44to make these discoveries.
06:47Our brains.
06:48It could be said
06:49that we actually knew less.
06:52The study of the brain
06:53had become stuck
06:53in a pseudoscientific dead end
06:55called phrenology,
06:57which held
06:58that from the shape
06:59of a person's skull,
07:01you could deduce
07:02their intelligence
07:02and trustworthiness.
07:05A frenzy of head measuring ensued.
07:08A gift for languages
07:09resided above the cheekbone,
07:11and marital fidelity
07:12located behind the ears.
07:15And not surprisingly,
07:17European phrenologists
07:18discovered
07:18that their particular heads
07:20represented
07:21the universal standard
07:22of cerebral excellence.
07:24The first real insight
07:26regarding the connection
07:27between the mind
07:29and the brain
07:29was made in France
07:31in 1861.
07:32And here again,
07:34epilepsy
07:34played a critical role.
07:45The Bicetre Psychiatric Hospital
07:47was state-of-the-art
07:48in Paris back then.
07:50In the previous century,
07:51it had been the first
07:52to introduce humane practices
07:54in the treatment
07:55of the insane
07:56and mentally disabled.
07:59And among the doctors there,
08:01surgeon Paul Broca
08:02was especially admired
08:04for his enlightened treatment
08:05of his patients.
08:13Done.
08:14The patient's name
08:20was Louis Liboron.
08:24Tan.
08:24But everyone called him Tan
08:26after the only syllable
08:28that he had uttered
08:29since he was 30.
08:31He was now 51.
08:33Tan had been having
08:34epileptic seizures
08:35since childhood,
08:36but he was committed
08:37to Bicetre
08:38because he had lost
08:39all powers of speech
08:40except for being able
08:42to say Tan.
08:44Now,
08:45poor Tan lay dying.
08:47His right side
08:48had become paralyzed
08:49and gangrene
08:50had set in.
08:52Prior to Tan's
08:53medical crisis,
08:54Broca had been speculating
08:55that specific regions
08:57of the brain
08:57might be responsible
08:58for the powers
08:59of speech
09:00and memory.
09:02Broca wanted to know
09:04everything he possibly could
09:05about the dying patient
09:06in expectation
09:07of what a post-mortem
09:09might reveal.
09:11We do not know
09:12if Tan's epilepsy
09:13caused the damage
09:14to his brain
09:15or whether an unreported
09:17childhood injury
09:18caused his epilepsy
09:19and later loss of speech.
09:24Tan.
09:26Tan.
09:26Tan.
09:26But because of Tan's fate,
09:49Paul Broca was able
09:50to connect
09:50for the very first time
09:52a part of the human brain,
09:54in this case,
09:55the region that was damaged
09:56and its specialized function,
09:58the ability to use language.
10:00His reward?
10:02That part of our brain
10:03has been known
10:04ever since
10:04as Broca's area.
10:09Paul Broca's own brain
10:11ended up in a jar
10:13like this one,
10:14in a back storage room
10:16of the anthropological museum
10:17he directed,
10:19with shelf upon shelf
10:20of the brains
10:21of mass murderers
10:23and other master criminals,
10:24as well as
10:25congenital abnormalities
10:26that seemed to fascinate
10:28the public
10:28of the 19th century.
10:31Broca was a humanist.
10:33He concluded
10:34that there were
10:34deep connections
10:35in brain physiology
10:36between non-human primates
10:38and us.
10:40He founded a society
10:41of free thinkers
10:42in his youth
10:43and believed passionately
10:44in the importance
10:45of unobstructed inquiry.
10:48He lived his life
10:49in pursuit of that aim,
10:50but he too
10:52was partly blinded
10:54by the prejudices
10:55that permeated
10:56his society.
10:57He thought men
10:59mentally superior
11:00to women
11:01and whites
11:02superior to everyone else.
11:05His falling short
11:06of humanist ideals
11:07shows that even
11:09someone as committed
11:10to the free pursuit
11:11of knowledge
11:11as Broca
11:12could still be deceived
11:14by endemic bigotry.
11:17Society corrupts
11:18the best of us.
11:20It's a little unfair,
11:21I think,
11:22to criticize a person
11:23for not sharing
11:24the enlightenment
11:24of a later age,
11:26but it is also
11:27profoundly saddening
11:29that such prejudices
11:30were so pervasive.
11:32The question
11:34raises nagging
11:36uncertainties
11:37about which
11:38of the assumptions
11:39of our own age
11:40will be considered
11:41unforgivable
11:43by the next.
11:47Broca established
11:48for the first time
11:49that there were
11:50physical correlations
11:51between anatomy
11:52and function,
11:54but what of the
11:55crackling energy
11:55of consciousness?
11:57What of the stuff
11:58that dreams
11:59are made of?
12:00Can't put them
12:02in a jar.
12:27When the ancient
12:28Egyptians looked up
12:29at night,
12:29they saw
12:30the underbody
12:31of Nut,
12:32goddess of the Milky Way.
12:34When they closed
12:35their eyes
12:36and began to dream,
12:37they believed
12:38they were transiting
12:39to the afterlife.
12:40And so,
12:41dreaming was ritualized
12:42into a form of worship,
12:44a means to learn
12:45what their future held,
12:47or to send a message
12:48to the gods
12:49as they slumbered.
12:50The faithful
12:51would make a pilgrimage
12:52to a temple
12:53to dream.
12:54To prepare themselves,
13:03they would withdraw
13:04to a place
13:04of isolation
13:05and fast
13:06to cleanse
13:07their mind
13:08and body.
13:14A prayer
13:15might be written
13:16to a particular god
13:17and burn.
13:28It was hoped
13:29that its smoke
13:30would convey
13:31the contents
13:31to the underworld.
13:32if we could only
13:41materialize
13:42and decipher
13:43the dreaming
13:44that went on
13:44at the Temple of Dendera
13:46so long ago.
13:48And what of your dream
13:49just last night?
13:51The ancient Egyptians
13:52were mystified
13:53by the boundary
13:54that separates
13:54our waking
13:55and sleeping life.
13:57They believed
13:58that we were
13:59actually transported
14:00to another physical realm
14:01and that dreams
14:03had a material reality.
14:05How else
14:06to explain
14:07the stunning detail
14:08of a particularly
14:09vivid dream?
14:11More than a thousand years
14:12after the last dreamers
14:14awakened to Dendera,
14:15there was a scientist
14:16who believed
14:17that conscious
14:18and unconscious thoughts
14:19do have a material reality,
14:21that dreams
14:22were actually
14:23physical phenomena
14:24that could be recorded.
14:28And he found
14:30a way to do it
14:31in a place
14:32of broken minds
14:33and shattered dreams.
14:45This is the
14:47Monocomio di Collegno
14:48in Turin, Italy.
14:51Built as a monastery
14:52in the 17th century,
14:53it had become
14:54a psychiatric hospital
14:55by 1850.
14:57It was abandoned
14:58decades ago.
14:59But it still reverberates
15:01with centuries
15:02of human suffering
15:04and loneliness.
15:06It was here
15:07that Angelo Masso
15:08came to perform
15:09experiments
15:10on dreams
15:11and thoughts.
15:12Masso
15:13was a child
15:14of the working class
15:15who bootstrapped himself
15:16into becoming
15:17a scientist.
15:18His primary research
15:19had been in pharmacology
15:21and physiology.
15:22And it was all focused
15:24on making life better
15:25for the working poor.
15:26He viewed science
15:29as a means
15:30to improve
15:31labor conditions.
15:33In a time
15:34when people
15:35were literally
15:35worked to death
15:37without recourse
15:38or legal protection,
15:40Masso designed
15:41and built
15:41an ergograph
15:42or fatigue recorder
15:44so that he could
15:45demonstrate experimentally
15:46what the relentless
15:48stress of hard labor
15:49did to the human
15:50body and mind.
15:51To Masso,
15:53exhaustion was both
15:55a physical
15:55and emotional state,
15:57not a sign
15:58of human weakness
15:59or a character flaw.
16:01It was your body's way
16:02of telling you
16:03to stop what you were doing
16:04to avoid injury.
16:06Masso reasoned
16:07that fatigue
16:08had an evolutionary advantage,
16:10much like fear.
16:11to demonstrate this,
16:31Masso began thinking
16:32about designing
16:33an apparatus
16:34that could record
16:35the body's blood flow.
16:36The table that Masso's
17:00assistant floated on
17:01was exquisitely balanced
17:03and was all attached
17:05to a rotating drum.
17:06with a stylus
17:07that recorded
17:08the blood flow.
17:24It was the beginning
17:25of medical imaging,
17:27a tool
17:28that had never existed before.
17:33But if the actions
17:35of the heart
17:35could be recorded,
17:37what about the brain?
17:39How could you
17:40transcribe the brain's
17:41delicate murmurings
17:42when they were housed
17:43in a protective skull?
17:46There was no way
17:46to do that
17:47without harming a patient.
17:49Or was there?
17:50When he was not even two years old,
17:54when he was not even two years old,
17:57Giovanni Thrawn fell
17:58from a great height.
18:00His skull had been
18:01so badly shattered,
18:03it was necessary
18:03to remove some of the pieces.
18:06As a result of the blow,
18:08he began to have frequent
18:09and violent epileptic seizures.
18:12Fearing that they might be contagious,
18:14his parents abandoned him
18:16at the mental hospital in Turin
18:17by the time he was five.
18:20And there he languished
18:21for six years.
18:24The catastrophic injury
18:25that had ruined Giovanni's life
18:27had left a doorway
18:28to his brain.
18:31Masso designed
18:31and built the machine
18:32so sensitive,
18:34it could register the blood
18:35coursing through his brain.
18:37But Giovanni was so agitated
18:38during his waking hours,
18:40Masso could only study him
18:41while he slept.
18:43Masso needed Giovanni
18:45to be perfectly still
18:46in order to record
18:47the faint signature
18:48of his thoughts.
18:51When I saw Giovanni
18:52in February 1877,
18:55he had a large opening
18:56in the skull
18:56covered with skin.
18:59The terrible fall
19:00had forever arrested
19:01his intellectual development.
19:04It was a saddening circumstance
19:05that in the midst
19:06of the ruin of his mind,
19:08one single higher idea
19:11had remained.
19:11a remnant
19:13of his earlier
19:15intellectual life.
19:17A motto
19:17which he constantly repeated.
19:20I want to go to school.
19:24It was one of the most
19:25interesting sights
19:27to observe
19:27in the stillness of night.
19:30What was going on
19:31in his brain
19:32when there was no external cause
19:34to disturb
19:35this mysterious life of sleep.
19:37The brain pulse remained
19:39for 10 or 20 minutes
19:40quite regular
19:41and very weak
19:42and then
19:43began suddenly
19:45without any apparent cause
19:47to swell
19:48and beat
19:49more vigorously.
19:51Did dreams, perhaps,
19:54come to cheer
19:55the repose
19:56of the unhappy boy?
19:57Did the face
19:58of his mother
19:59and the recollections
20:00of his early childhood
20:01glow bright
20:03in his memory,
20:04lighting up the darkness
20:05of his intelligence
20:06and make his brain
20:08pulsate with excitement?
20:10Or was it
20:11an unconscious agitation
20:13of matter
20:13like
20:14the ebb and flow
20:16of an unknown
20:17and solitary sea?
20:19On that snowy night,
20:33Angelo Mosso
20:34gave the brain
20:35its first pen
20:36to write with.
20:37He had invented
20:38neuroimaging
20:39and showed
20:40that even in sleep
20:41the brain is pulsing,
20:44throbbing,
20:45flashing
20:45with the complex
20:46business of life.
20:48Dreaming,
20:49remembering,
20:50figuring things out.
20:52Our thoughts,
20:54visions,
20:54fantasies,
20:55and our dreams
20:56do have a material reality.
21:00Three months after
21:00the night of dreams,
21:02Giovanni
21:03died of anemia.
21:07He was not yet 12.
21:16Angelo Mosso's breakthrough
21:22in pioneering
21:23the field of neuroscience
21:24inspired another man
21:26to take Mosso's work
21:27one giant step further.
21:30He wanted to demonstrate
21:31that psychic powers
21:33are real.
21:34It all happened
21:35because of a freak accident.
21:43Hans Berger
21:44dreamed of becoming
21:45an astronomer
21:46but it was too hard
21:48and so in 1892
21:50he enlisted
21:51in the German army.
22:07Berger was shaken
22:08by his brush with death
22:09but something happened
22:11that night
22:12that shocked him
22:13even more.
22:17A telegram had arrived
22:19from his father,
22:20a cold and distant man
22:22who had never sent him
22:23a telegram before.
22:25Berger's older sister
22:26had become panic-stricken
22:28with the certainty
22:29that something terrible
22:30had happened
22:31to her little brother.
22:33Was it possible,
22:34Berger wondered,
22:35that in the moment
22:36he realized
22:37he was going to die,
22:38his brain
22:39had somehow
22:40telepathically delivered
22:41a message
22:42to the person
22:43he was closest to,
22:44his sister.
22:47Berger became
22:48a physician
22:48and a professor
22:49at the University of Vienna.
22:51By day,
22:52he worked with his students
22:53and colleagues
22:54who found him
22:55to be awkwardly formal
22:57and scientifically
22:58unadventurous.
23:00But by night,
23:01he went to a secret laboratory
23:02where he conducted experiments
23:04on the brain's activity.
23:11Berger believed
23:12that this was his best chance
23:14of proving
23:14that psychic energy
23:16was real.
23:18He feared that
23:19if anyone were to discover
23:21his real scientific objective,
23:23he'd be laughed
23:24out of the profession.
23:25He kept his secret
23:35for 20 years.
23:41Berger's electroencephalograph
23:43made it possible
23:44to interpret the signals
23:45that the brain sends
23:46and to diagnose
23:48many neurological diseases,
23:50including epilepsy.
23:52He never did find
23:54any evidence
23:54for psychic energy
23:55or telepathic communication.
23:58Berger sunk
23:59into a deep depression
24:00and hanged himself
24:01in his secret laboratory
24:03in 1941.
24:06The EEG
24:08is still in use today,
24:10although we now
24:10have far more accurate ways
24:12of seeing and recording
24:13what the brain does,
24:14and we even have the ability
24:16to decrypt
24:17the electrochemical language
24:18of thought.
24:20Exactly 100 years
24:22after Angelo Mosso
24:23first recorded
24:24the electrical whispers
24:25of Giovanni's dreams,
24:27the brainwaves
24:28of a woman
24:29newly fallen in love
24:30were included
24:32in the Voyager
24:32interstellar message
24:33destined to sail
24:35the Milky Way
24:36for a billion years
24:38or more.
24:39From horse-drawn carriage
24:41to interstellar craft
24:42in just 100 years,
24:45from telegrams
24:46to sending our thoughts
24:47hand-delivered
24:48to one another
24:48at the speed of light
24:49and our deepest feelings
24:51to a billion years
24:52from now.
24:54How did we make
24:55that leap?
24:56And why us?
24:58Of all the billions
24:59of species
25:00that have ever lived
25:01on Earth,
25:02why us
25:03and no other?
25:04are you?
25:14I love you.
25:15I love you.
25:16I love you.
25:18Primates who descended from the African savanna have sent their robot emissaries to explore
25:44the red deserts of Mars and ring that world with satellites we've only been at this since
25:52the mid-20th century not even a lifetime yet look at how far beyond our little world our
25:59robots have ventured one of our craft Voyager 1 has broken free of the Sun and now sails the
26:07deep ocean of interstellar space every one of those odysseys of discovery began here
26:14it's easy to see why the seat of all these mythic achievements would itself seem beyond our ability
26:22to understand it's hard to believe that our minds are made of the same matter as our stomachs and our
26:30feet consciousness seems supernatural identity or skepticism imagination love how do you assemble
26:43transcendence from the periodic table of the elements we are at the bottom of the sea off the
26:56coast of Chile and Peru this is perhaps the largest living organism on earth it's a community of
27:03microbes that is the size of a country Greece but there's something even more amazing about it than
27:10its immensity the ancient ancestors of these colonies represent an early step in the development of
27:18brains when the microbes living at the center of this vast mat get hungry they dispatch electrochemical
27:26messages to their fellow citizens at the outer edge these communiques travel through passages called ion
27:34ion channels a message goes out on amber waves of potassium from sparta to athens saying hey guys stop hogging all
27:43the food and the residents of the mats outer edge respond by reducing their intake of nutrients it's possible that
27:52their ancient ancestors evolved cells called neurons that specialized in this kind of messaging neurons are the
28:01basic unit of nervous systems in almost every life form in the animal kingdom including us and they vary very
28:09little in nature if at all from species to species but vary dramatically in number in fact we now think that
28:17epilepsy that so-called sacred disease is a misfiring in the brain of our own ion channels think of it a microbial mat and
28:29isaac newton separated by hundreds of millions of years of evolution but sharing the same basic currency of thought
28:38the messaging system pioneered by the microbes some four billion years ago is still inside us
28:45no one looking at a microbial mat three billion years ago could have predicted that the one-celled organisms of life on earth
28:53would evolve into you that's what happens when living things and environments interact over the eons
29:02new forms and ways of being alive and aware come into existence when the whole becomes greater than the
29:09some of its parts it's called emergence
29:20see the thing that looks like a shred of a ruffle from a gaudy dress
29:24you might think it's kind of silly but you would be so wrong long long ago some 600 million years ago
29:33life first evolved something new to planet earth a command center that could perceive and react to its
29:39environment a brain now life inch closer to the stars we think it first happened inside a flatworm
29:49this little guy's ancestor the first animal hunter a brain was just what a hunter would need to seek out
29:57and plan a strategy for attack binocular vision allowed the flatworm to perceive the dimension of depth
30:04more sharply and objects with greater clarity all the better to triangulate on prey the flatworm brain
30:12had a pair of dense nerve clusters called ganglia cords extended from them carrying instructions and
30:19sensations to the rest of its body via some 8 000 neurons not many compared with the life forms that would
30:26come later but a momentous beginning flatworms have something called oracles on the sides of their heads
30:32where their ears should be but they're actually noses we may not look much alike but we have a lot in
30:40common we share the same chemicals that control our nervous systems called neurotransmitters we get
30:47addicted to the same drugs flatworms can learn they process information about their environment and act
30:55accordingly we think they're nature's first animals to have a front a back and a head a blueprint that
31:01remains state of the art 600 million years later and they were the true pioneers in the deepest sense of
31:10that word unlike any life form before them they developed the habit of venturing into the unknown
31:16territory in search of what they craved okay flatworms are cool but there's a big difference between a
31:24flatworm brain and ours how did we get from there to here we don't yet know that's mainly because
31:33brains tend to be squishy they don't leave distinct imprints in the fossil record but the brain preserves
31:40it's evolutionary past why because our brains are a little like new york city
32:10most of the world's great cities have grown haphazardly little by little in response to the needs of the
32:17moment very rarely is a city plan for the remote future in new york city many of the streets date
32:25all the way back to the 17th century the stock exchange to the 18th the waterworks and the electrical
32:33power system to the 19th century and the communications bandwidth to the 20th
32:46a city is like a brain it develops from a small center and slowly grows and changes
32:54leaving many old parts still functioning
32:57new york can't afford to suspend its water supply or its transportation system while they're being
33:04replaced by something more efficient changes have to happen piecemeal
33:11and that's how it is for the brain there is no way for evolution to rip out the ancient interior of
33:19the brain because of its imperfections and replace it with something of more modern manufacture
33:25the brain and the city both must function continuously during the renovation that's why our limbic system
33:33is surrounded by the cerebral cortex the old part is in charge of too many vital mechanisms for it to be
33:40replaced altogether so it's sometimes counterproductive but that's a necessary consequence of evolution
33:48the city is a gift of the cerebral cortex
33:56but the brain's language is not encoded in the dna of genes because the vocabulary of life is too small
34:03our brains need a language with 10 000 times as many words the information content of the human brain
34:10expressed in bits is probably comparable to the total number of connections among the neurons
34:17about a thousand trillion bits
34:23if all the contents of your brain were transcribed into written language it would amount to vastly more
34:30books that are contained in the largest libraries on earth the equivalent of more than four billion books
34:37are inside your head the brain is a very big place in a very small space
34:49it's written in those neurons pioneered by the undersea microbial bats
34:55these are tiny electrochemical switching elements typically a few hundredths of a millimeter across
35:02each of us has 86 billion neurons comparable to the number of stars in the milky way galaxy
35:09the neurons and their parts axons dendrites synapses and the cell bodies themselves make up a network in
35:16the brain many neurons have thousands of connections with their neighbors dendrites those pathways sent out
35:24by neurons to connect with other neurons extend these nerve cells to synapses until they create a full-blown network of consciousness
35:42the neurochemistry of the brain is astonishingly busy the circuitry of a machine more wonderful than
35:59any devised by humans your brain functions are due to those hundred trillion neural connections that
36:06make you you your deepest feelings of love and awe those moments when we glimpse the grandeur of nature
36:14and all the elegant architecture of consciousness are made possible by those connections
36:21this is the essence of emergence tiny units of matter operating collectively to become something much
36:28more more than themselves to enable the cosmos to know itself but there's a vision of emergence that
36:36takes it even higher can we know the universe and will it ever come to know us
36:58can we know the universe all those galaxies solar systems numberless worlds moons comets beings
37:12and their dreams everything that ever was is or will be
37:18can we know the universe can we know the universe i'm not sure we can even know a grain of salt
37:32consider one microgram of table salt a speck just barely large enough for someone with keen eyesight to see
37:39without a microscope in that grain of salt there are about 10 to the power 16 sodium and chlorine atoms
37:48what does that mean it means that there are 10 million billion atoms in this and every other single grain
37:55of salt to know the grain of salt deeply requires us to know at least the three-dimensional positions of each
38:02of these atoms in fact there's much more to be known for example the nature of the forces between the atoms
38:10but okay let's try to keep it simple we'll leave that aside is the number of all the positions more or less
38:18than the number of things which the brain can know how much can the brain know if you do the calculation
38:25with all the neurons and their dendrites axons synapses we can know 100 trillion things
38:33but this is only one percent of the number of atoms in our grain of salt
38:38so in this sense the universe is unmanageable astonishingly immune to any human attempt at full
38:45knowledge we cannot at this level fully know a grain of salt much less the universe but let's look a
38:53little more deeply at our microgram of salt salt happens to be a crystal in which except for defects
39:00in the structure of its lattice the position of every sodium and chlorine atom is predetermined if we
39:07shrink ourselves into this crystalline world we would see rank upon rank of atoms in an ordered array
39:15a regularly alternating structure sodium chlorine sodium chlorine specifying the sheet of atoms we are flying
39:23through and all the sheets above us and below us an absolutely pure grain of salt could have the
39:31position of every atom specified by something like 10 bits of information this wouldn't strain our brains
39:37carrying capacity we still have plenty of room for other stuff now imagine a universe with natural laws
39:45that govern its behavior to the same degree of regularity that's true for a grain of salt
39:51that universe would be knowable even if it had many complicated laws we'd still have a shot at knowing
39:59that cosmos
40:12it wouldn't matter if the reality of that universe exceeded the information carrying capacity of one
40:18of our brains we'd just go outside our bodies and build a computer to store the surplus information
40:24and we'd still in some sense know the universe now imagine a universe with no such laws when it behaves in
40:34a completely unpredictable fashion that universe would contain something like 10 to the 80th elementary particles
40:43the inhabitants would find everyday experience a muddled jumble of events with no predictability
40:50no regularity and if they ever came to exist they would be in grave peril
41:04lucky for us we live in a universe with important parts that are knowable
41:10the universe belongs to those who at least to some degree have figured it out
41:15it's an astonishing fact that there are laws of nature rules that summarize not just qualitatively
41:23but quantitatively how the cosmos works but what about the cosmos inside each of us
41:31that unknown solitary sea
41:35there are something like a hundred trillion that is a hundred thousand billion connections
41:41in your cerebral cortex that's a hundred times as many connections inside you as all the galaxies of the
41:49visible universe we're just at the beginning of a great journey of exploration just as biologists
41:57succeeded in mapping the human genome neuroscientists are attempting to map something far more complex and
42:04unique to each and every one of us it's called our connectome
42:14if we could truly know another person's connectome the singular wiring diagram of all their memories
42:22thoughts fears dreams how would we treat each other could we heal the brain of its countless torments
42:31and free all the giovannis of the world could we send one of our connectomes on a future interstellar probe
42:40or ever hope to receive one from the being of another world
42:45would that be the ultimate realization of emergence a cosmos interconnected by thoughts and dreams
43:07and be a wish
43:17so
43:19so
43:22Transcription by CastingWords
43:52CastingWords