78004 - Transcription Podcast With US #64: The power of brain

N. Lygeros

Let’s talk about the brain. Of course, I mean the human brain. At the beginning we can consider that it’s only an organ from the human, another system. But the position of intelligence about the brain is more related to the brain power. So, what can we do with this central organ, which is in fact impossible with all the other ones. So, before, I mean a long time ago, we thought that it was not so important as an organ, so we considered at that time that the heart was much more important. At the end we found that it was only a master. We have the same problem with other organs but now we fix the problem and we consider this this is the source. So, this is a source of our thoughts, of our mind, the place of the mentation. So, we are not talking just about the cerebral cortex. We are thinking about the brain, in fact like a computer, like a natural intelligence. So we have the artificial one and we know how to do this more or less and we have on the other side the natural one. For the moment we don’t know of course everything about that, but we can see the difference and this difference makes the difference. So the point is, a rather small organ, imagine that we are more or less about one kilo for Anatole France to more than two kilos for Turgenev. So there is a difference. But if we consider this mass in relation with the mass of the body, it’s not so important. So, it’s impressive for me so few kilos can do so many things that we do not realize that. Of course we realize what we can do with our hands, with our feet, but with our brain? In fact there is no limit. The impressive fact with the brain is that it can do something which is beyond imagination. Of course we can say that imagination is from the brain. But in reality, the achievements of the brain are far away from the imagination of the previous guy. So in reality this small box, which is open to the world, is like a microcosm which is able to understand the macrocosm, the cosmos. So we have in our brain a little cosmos. Can you imagine that? Imagine that your neurons are like the stars in the darkness and imagine that they are connected, they are talking, they play symphonies, they can imagine more than imagination and this is the workplace of the genius. So if we imagine the brain just like an organ, it’s a very restrictive sense. Who cares? The point is that the brain can create many starting points, many flashpoints, many, in fact, bifurcations, splitting of the space-time with its acts and this is possible, because its complexity is unstoppable. It’s in fact unthinkable. That’s the problem. So the problem is not to understand the brain, it’s more for me is to use it as a tool, it can be also a weapon against barbarity for example. But the point is that the tool is so complex that in fact we don’t need to try to understand its complexity but just to use it to go further. Imagine that you want to understand the ocean, to learn how to swim. Use it. So the brain for us is just the beginning, not the end. So when we are thinking about the mentation of the human beings it’s very impressive to imagine that they are more intelligent than we think. They are also more lazy than we think. The combination is like a paradox. But in fact this the a point. This is the difference. I mean the other organs don’t have any pleasure. Imagine it, we are talking about real pleasure. It’s possible only in the brain. But the idea is, it is in a jail, but in this jail, I mean the head, it can do everything. So, it’s definition of the jail it’s only its home. For the other organs and sometimes human beings, their home is a jail. So the starting point is, how to do something outside when you are only inside. And this is a breakthrough position. This is the first innovation. The brain doesn’t want to go outside. It just wants to be mastering the outside world. So it looks like a slave in a jail and in fact it’s a master at his office. That’s the point.