Consciousness and Neuronal Connections
Posted
April 19, 2012 by V S Ramachandran, PhD
You are connected not just via Facebook and the Internet, you’re actually quite literally connected by your neurons.
T
here are chains of neurons around this room, talking to each other. And there is no real distinctiveness of your consciousness from somebody else’s consciousness. This is not mumbo-jumbo philosophy. It emerges from our understanding of basic neuroscience. For the longest time people have regarded science and the humanities as being distinct. C.P. Snow spoke of the two cultures: science on the one hand, humanities on the other; never the twain shall meet.
So, I’m saying the mirror neuron system underlies the interface allowing you to rethink issues like consciousness, representation of self, what separates you from other human beings, what allows you to empathize with other human beings, and also even things like the emergence of culture and civilization, which is unique to human beings.
(Excerpt from his TED Talk – VS Ramachandran: The neurons that shaped civilization.)
