Over the course of the past 100 years we've had a wide array of paradigm-shifting scientific discoveries, many of which shake the foundations of how we see reality, and some of which even sound like they are science fiction. We know that matter is 99% empty space and that quantum particles are zero dimensional points. We can verify that time travel into the future is possible at high speeds. We have quantum particles that can teleport through impenetrable walls, be in two places at the same time, and change their behavior when there is a conscious observer. Quantum mechanics is much more than theories and interpretations it provides undeniable and mathematical proof that everything we know and experience works in ways that are fundamentally surreal. And it isn't the only field in science that is making us think about our sense of reality. Neuroscience studies the nervous system and it has given us many insights about what is still the most profound mystery in biology - consciousness. The definition proposed in 2012 is that it is the sum of the electrical discharges occurring throughout the nervous system. When this activity becomes unusual due to, for example, brain injury, we experience things very differently. One rare disorder that can occur in association with migraine attacks and diabetes is called the Capgras delusion, which causes patients to believe that close friends and relatives are actually impostors. Even when patients who suffer this delusion seem to retain all their intellectual abilities they will still insist and create elaborate rationalizations to explain how their family and friends have been replaced by frauds. Other disorders can cause patients to lose the ability to describe or perceive the right-half of people's faces, but they will not be aware that they have this condition and instead come up with inaccurate descriptions that they believe to be correct. We traditionally and intuitively assume that our capacity for mathematical and rational thinking gives us the ability to make objective distinctions and while it is certainly responsible for our incredible spectrum of intellectual and scientific progress, the same intellects that can lead us to groundbreaking discoveries can just as well get us caught in delusions. The underlying patterns of our consciousness define our entire perception of reality. It also seems that our consciousness works more like a digital clock than an analog one. Rather than a constant flow of experience, our experiences could be broken up in intervals, or time quanta, of 0.042 seconds. Each of which make up one moment of consciousness. This is called quantization. It means that something can be broken up in small discrete building blocks. Each state of consciousness consists of a certain amount of information and can theoretically be stored on, for example, a hard drive. While not currently within reach, we are seeing tremendous progress in research that is aimed at simulating the brain. Some of the most reality shattering discoveries of the past century haven't even been absorbed in mainstream culture yet, and what we have found in only the past decades is starting to point to an understanding of consciousness that will change the way we look at life and death. This video explores this potential new understanding.
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