Feedback loops are creating consciousness
Michio Kaku | 6:35
Transcript
In the entire universe, there are two great unsolved problems. The two greatest problems in all of science, first of all, is about the very big. It's about the origin of the universe. Why did it bang? Why do we have an expanding universe? And I personally work on something called the multi. Which we think is the, the dominant source of theories that gives us the universe before creation itself, the multiverse.
But there's also the mystery of inner space, not outer space. And that's the human mind. Where does consciousness come from? And I think that in my book, the Future of the Mind, I try to make a stab at what is consciousness. First of all, let me explain my theory. I have my own theory of consciousness. I think consciousness is the sum total of all feedback loops necessary to create a model of yourself in space, in society, and in time.
Now, I'm a physicist. We like to measure things and quantify things. I think there is a unit of consci. If consciousness is a sum total of all feedback loops necessary to create a, a picture of yourself in space, in society, and in time, then the unit of consciousness is a thermostat. A thermostat has one unit of consciousness cuz it has one feedback loop measures temperature.
Now a plant. Has maybe five units of consciousness because plants have to regulate temperature. They have to regulate humidity, the direction of gravity when to sprout. So they are maybe five or so feedback loops in, uh, plant. Then we go to alligators. The alligators are masters of the back part of the brain, and then you have maybe several hundred feedback loops that govern.
That's what alligators are very good at their brain. If you look at the parts of the back of the brain, we too have the reptilian brain that governs our understanding of space, where we are in space, and then going forward in time, evolution gave us the monkey brain. The center of the brain, the limbic system and the limbic system in turn, governs society.
It governs where we are with respect to our elders, our children, other human beings, uh, PAC mentality, wolves. All of them have a developed center, part of the brain, the monkey brain, and then the front part of the brain is what distinguishes us from the animals. It. The ti temporal brain that constantly simulates the future.