The Invisible Universe Inside Your Head

Close your eyes and imagine for a moment that you are a bat... You fly at dusk flapping your web-like arms, you perceive your surroundings through the echoes of high-frequency sound waves (with a sonar system) instead of seeing, and you spend the day hanging upside down from a dark ceiling. It might be fun to picture this in your mind, but there is a small problem: What you are doing right now is merely imagining how you would feel if you behaved like a bat. But is there any way for you to know what it is actually like to be a bat "for a bat"?

In this video, we pursue that famous question penned by American philosopher Thomas Nagel in 1974, which sent shockwaves through the philosophy of mind: What is it like to be a bat?

Today, neuroscience and physics work wonders. Just as water is explained as "H2O" and lightning as an "electrical discharge," we could flawlessly decode the physical functioning of the human or animal brain. However, according to Nagel, all these reductionist scientific explanations miss something very fundamental: Consciousness and "subjective experience"! While science approaches everything from an external and objective point of view, it can never put that feeling of experiencing from the "inside"—which lies at the very center of consciousness—on the laboratory table.

In this video where we explore the mysterious nature of the mind, we discuss the following mind-bending questions:

Is consciousness merely composed of physical reactions and neural networks in our brain?

Can we truly understand the pain, emotions, and ways of perceiving the world of others?

Does the brilliant scientist Mary, who has been confined to a black-and-white room all her life but knows all the physical and scientific facts about "color" by heart, learn something brand new when she steps out of the room and sees a red apple? (Mary's Room Thought Experiment)

If you are ready to dive into that mysterious sea of "consciousness" beyond your physical body and question your own mind from the very beginning, welcome to the video! Do you think science will one day be able to fully solve what consciousness exactly is? Don't forget to share your thoughts in the comments and subscribe to our channel. Enjoy listening!