Philosophy Now Forum

One of the best TED talks I've seen (before they got silly).



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CyYQIcZacvA

What to make of this...

https://youtu.be/7H6doOmS-eM?si=N6HxrcDkKXT8R-8D

It's got to be unnerving to think that an incident similar to the one Padgett endured might actually dramatically change the way you look at yourself and the world around you. Or your personality.

Or suddenly you acquire these skills -- mathematical, artistic -- that you never possessed before.

Just more evidence, in my view, that the human brain can become a truly mind-boggling entity we only have so much understanding and control over.

Sometimes it's for the better and sometimes for the worse. Padgett himself came to see his own close encounters with those two thugs as "a gift".

It's an incredible story. He essentially had the part of the brain that 'lies' to us about reality destroyed.
He explains space/time better than anyone I've heard.

Reality is still smooth though, the pixelated quality is only in his mind. Because our brains process reality in about 10-100 frames per second by taking sort of snapshots, and then smoothing the frames out to make them look like a continuous movie, except his brain no longer smooths them out.

accelafine wrote: ↑Sun May 25, 2025 12:04 am One of the best TED talks I've seen (before they got silly).



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CyYQIcZacvA

Rewording the conclusion of his talk: Anything is possible if the conditions are right.

"In 2002 I had a brain injury and it forever altered the way I view reality".

On the other hand, if we gathered every single member of Mensa and asked them to provide us [morally and politically] with the most rational behavioral prescriptions and proscriptions...?

Genius and conflicting goods?

We could run it by Marilyn vos Savant, purported to have the highest I.Q. of us all: https://timriter.com/blog/2024/9/14/why-are-we-here

Hints of God appear everywhere, sometimes even in Parade magazine. Marilyn vos Savant, whom Guinness proclaims as having the highest recorded IQ score, responded in her column to a question from a Mensa member, 'Why are we here?'

Savant replied, “I think it depends on your spiritual beliefs. If you have a religion, it provides the answer. But if you don't believe in a god, the question contradicts your thinking. Having a reason implies having a purpose, which indicates an intelligent being for cognitive power with intent. That's what people call a god. So if you don't believe a god exists, you can't believe a reason exists. You must settle for assuming we got here through some natural processes and that's that.”

No God...no objective morality?

Only idiots talk about 'IQ scores' and especially about their own 'IQ scores'. It's pseudoscience at best.

accelafine wrote: ↑Sun May 25, 2025 1:40 am It's an incredible story. He essentially had the part of the brain that 'lies' to us about reality destroyed.

Not necessarily so at all.

Even 'that one' pointed out and explained that it just started 'viewing', and thus started also 'seeing', things differently.

accelafine wrote: ↑Sun May 25, 2025 1:40 am He explains space/time better than anyone I've heard.

Just out of curiosity what is 'it', exactly, which you learned and understood about so-called 'space/time' through 'that one's' explanation?

The brain can be rewired through meditation. Brain trauma is only one way to gain new insight by rewiring.