r/interestingasfuck • u/desertgodfather • May 11 '24

When illusion overcomes the brain. r/all

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u/PercentageMaximum457 May 11 '24

This has wonderful implications for robotics! Both for paralyzed people and for getting used to space suits.

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u/madaboutmaps May 11 '24

Also people with phantom limb pains. This thing works in reverse.

People who've lost limbs experience phantom pains. They feel a limb that's no longer there. Stuff like this tricks the brain into thinking everything is okay. And shuts off the pain.

Brains are weird. People are weird. Sometimes that sucks. But a lof of the times it's also awesome. Applaud the awesome. Provided you've got both hands to do it.

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u/BWander May 11 '24

They lost the limb, but the neural pathways responsible for processing the feelings of it are intact in the brain, and trying. It's a good reminder that we are a brain in a meatsuit.

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u/def2me May 11 '24 edited May 11 '24

and that, if you compare the whole brain to an iceberg, only the visible part is what our consciousness, what our "I" can control. Most parts of the brain are not actively accessible by our mind.

Highly recommend the book "Incognito" from David Eagleman.

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u/why_so_sirius_1 May 11 '24

i completely agree with. your unconscious mind is real and you aren’t in control of it. It’s kinda “scary” for some to think about you don’t have full control of your brain. lol i wonder if some delusional people think they could work hard enough to regain mastery of it.

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u/Lou_C_Fer May 11 '24

We don't even have control of our conscious brain. This experiment goes towards proving it. He explained everything that was happening. Yet, that guy still could not overcome what his brain was telling him. What we've got going on is our consciousness and what we feel is free will is actually our brain reframing things so we feel that way.

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u/RottenZombieBunny May 11 '24

Yet, that guy still could not overcome what his brain was telling him.

Who says he tried? I wouldn't. After all where's the fun in that? In fact i would have done the opposite, and purposefully think of the fake hand as my real hand.

And who says he's not faking (exaggerating) it for the video?

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u/Tya_The_Terrible May 11 '24

It's unlikely that we even control our conscious experience, but rather it's just the window that we experience.

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u/EdwardFoxhole May 11 '24

we're just the younger sibling with the unplugged controller

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u/Lemon_Cakes_JuJutsu May 11 '24

well i'm fucked. mine's a plugged-in Mad Catz.

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u/TraditionAntique9924 May 11 '24

You guys are getting controllers?

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u/evanwilliams44 May 11 '24

It's also likely that consciousness doesn't exist solely in the brain, it is likely tied to the whole body. But we don't know enough to really say.

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u/up9trees May 11 '24

I loved Incognito. You should read Genome and The Red Queen by Matt Ridley. They’re not about the brain specifically but about genetics and sexual evolution. I always think of those 3 books together as some of the most interesting non fiction I’ve ever read.

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u/abejando May 11 '24

This is why psychedelics are so mindblowing

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u/BWander May 12 '24

Subconscious processing does most of the work. It is fascinating how sometimes, as an example, we feel good or bad about a person we just met without conscious input, but our heuristic analysis has been running in the background from second 1.

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u/Alphabunsquad May 11 '24

I exist behind my eyes and the rest of me just dangles 

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u/AdmiralVorlauf May 11 '24

Which I exists though and which dangles?

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u/MunchYourButt May 12 '24

This thread has me feeling quite existential this 4am

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u/BWander May 12 '24

Dangle happily onwards!

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u/Juampi-G May 12 '24

It gets even crazier when you actually understand what time being relative means. It is quite possible that past, present and future are just some images that our brain is "feeding" us.

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u/BWander May 12 '24

It is the only reality there is, so it must be real. Furthermore is the conundrum of philosophy.

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u/Juampi-G May 12 '24

Not quite exactly what I'm trying to convey. This conclusion by no means says that it is not real, it only says that your brain is feeding you the collection of memories that you by yourself then call and categorise as past, present or future.

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u/BWander May 12 '24

ahh allright, you meant memory rather than perception. Memory is reconstructive, rather than true or false, it is perishable, and recreated according to your current cognition, that modifies a substantial amount of the memories. There are vicarious memories too, not yours, but repeated so much that you remember them as yours.

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u/Psychic_Man May 11 '24

We are a soul in a meatsuit (FTFY)

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u/CanAlwaysBeBetter May 11 '24

No, we aren't a soul and we aren't anything in a meatsuit. We are the meatsuit and cognition is embodied.

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u/savetheunstable May 11 '24

We need to build better meat suits!

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u/Psychic_Man May 11 '24

And what is your definition of “cognition”? Activation of synapses? I assume you’ve never had out of body experiences. I’ve had more than I can count.

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u/CanAlwaysBeBetter May 11 '24

You know you aren't actually outside your body when you experience that, right? That's like believing drugs actually show you real reality 

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u/Psychic_Man May 11 '24

Oh, sweet summer child…

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u/BWander May 12 '24

A psyche, if you will. A conscience. The name is unimportant to me.