Exploring Consciousness with George Mashour

About This Episode

What is consciousness? Neil deGrasse Tyson and comedian Chuck Nice learn about the study of consciousness and how psychedelics could help illuminate the inner mechanisms of the brain with anesthesiologist and founder of the Michigan Psychedelic Center, George Mashour.

How do you study consciousness? We break down what a medically-induced coma is and how we would define a conscious being. What do we still not understand about consciousness? Is it located in a particular part of the brain? We discuss consciousness across species, panpsychism, and the emerging consciousness of babies. Could consciousness be applied to machines?

We discuss cognitive evolution and the different categories of consciousness theories. How will we know if a computer is conscious? We discuss how machines might achieve consciousness and whether replicating a human brain neuron by neuron would yield the same results as the original.

Learn about how psychedelics could help us uncover the inner mechanism of the brain. Why would putting chemicals in the brain help us understand it better? Do drugs help us understand objective reality better? We break down the conscious experience and what the brain is really doing.

Thanks to our Patrons Andrew O., Johnathan Kuhl, Nathan champlin, Matthew Smith-Burlage, Kareem Austin, Charles Blaksmith, and İtKopuk Cansel Işıksel for supporting us this week.

NOTE: StarTalk+ Patrons can listen to this entire episode commercial-free.