Where Do Thoughts Really Come From? | Unveiled - video Dailymotion

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00:00 If thinking is akin to a mental workout, then thoughts are like reps, and humans can do

00:05 a lot of them.

00:06 A regular human can think about four to eight thoughts per minute.

00:09 That adds up to several thousand thoughts every day.

00:12 Whether we're conscious about it or not, we are constantly thinking.

00:16 This is Unveiled, and today we're answering the extraordinary question; where do thoughts

00:21 really come from?

00:25 Do you need the big questions answered?

00:27 Are you constantly curious?

00:28 Then why not subscribe to Unveiled for more clips like this one?

00:31 And ring the bell for more thought-provoking content!

00:35 Thoughts come to us in various flavours.

00:37 They can be spontaneous or deliberate.

00:40 They can also be provoked by associations we connect with specific objects or experiences.

00:45 We don't usually actively think about our thoughts; they just pop into our heads as

00:49 though from nowhere.

00:50 We're able to articulate them to others using words and actions, but it's rare that

00:55 we're genuinely aware of how or why we think as we do.

00:59 Physically, we can trace our thoughts back to our brain.

01:03 There is an explanation to be found, to some degree, as they and our behaviour are the

01:07 result of physical and chemical processes in our body.

01:11 According to some interpretations, this means that all individuals are ultimately defined

01:16 by their brains.

01:17 But, and if that is the case, then how does something immaterial like a thought arise

01:22 from something material like the brain?

01:25 What exactly is happening?

01:27 Many great thinkers have contemplated this question.

01:30 In the seventeenth century, the French philosopher René Descartes wrestled with the nature of

01:34 the mind.

01:35 Descartes considered it to be a separate, non-physical substance apart from the brain.

01:40 His take on the mind-body interaction is aptly named "Cartesian dualism".

01:44 In his perspective, the mind directs the brain, interacting via the pineal gland.

01:50 When a person dies, their mind continues to survive.

01:53 Descartes' view proved to be immensely influential.

01:56 However, things changed in the eighteenth century, when medical science began to uncover

02:00 the role of the brain in how we think.

02:03 Further technological advances demonstrated a physical basis for the origin of our thoughts.

02:08 Modern neuroscience describes the brain as primarily composed of neurons.

02:12 Neurons are cells that communicate by generating electrical impulses.

02:16 The human brain is composed of approximately 86 billion neurons.

02:20 Our brains are wired like electrical circuits.

02:23 Neurons release chemicals called neurotransmitters that generate electrical signals in neighbouring

02:28 neurons.

02:29 These signals then travel along thousands of neurons, generating thoughts.

02:33 Our individual personality is then linked to our neural patterns.

02:37 When a sequence of neurons fires, it reinforces that pattern.

02:40 That's why any one person tends to react in a similar way in a similar situation.

02:44 To some degree, we're predictable.

02:47 Memory can also be identified with a physical process.

02:50 Think from the outside, as molecular changes in neuronal connections.

02:53 A change in the firing pattern would mean new thoughts and new behaviours.

02:57 Our mind, consisting of all of our thoughts, is a functional product of our brain.

03:02 This physical theory remains a dominant player to this day, but it also has detractors.

03:07 A purely physicalist view reduces our existence, identity and personality down to solely events

03:14 in our brains.

03:15 Critics argue that this undermines our understanding of free will, and fails to explain subjective,

03:21 conscious experience… which philosophers call "falia".

03:24 Through neuroimaging, we can watch neural activity and write down what the brain does

03:29 when it "tastes an apple", for example.

03:31 But does that really capture what it's like to taste an apple?

03:34 The experience we have when we do so?

03:37 For some, electrical signals and neuronal patterns can't completely account for the

03:41 full human condition.

03:43 This then opens the door to other ideas on the origin of thoughts and the mind-brain

03:47 relationship.

03:48 There are some particularly notable theories.

03:51 One is called "property dualism", a theory articulated and popularised by the Australian

03:56 philosopher David Chalmers.

03:57 It holds that only one substance exists - the physical kind - but that the architecture

04:02 of the brain generates mental properties that supervene on the physical brain.

04:08 One version of this is "emergent materialism", the idea that novel properties can emerge

04:13 from certain complex structures.

04:15 In this view, the mind is more than just the physical process of the brain, but still bound

04:20 to it.

04:21 In the words of Dr. Dan Siegel, professor of psychiatry at UCLA School of Medicine,

04:26 the mind is "an emergent, self-organising process, both embodied and relational, that

04:32 regulates energy and information flow within and among us".

04:37 Another theory is "substance dualism", which again is what René Descartes advocated

04:41 for.

04:42 The idea has a long tradition in philosophy, taking us all the way back to the shores of

04:46 ancient Greece.

04:48 While Plato wasn't a substance dualist in the way that we understand the term, he did

04:52 see the world in physical and non-physical terms.

04:56 He wondered about our ability to know and understand things that don't exist in the

05:00 physical realm - for example, perfect geometrical shapes.

05:04 He argued that there must be a higher world - a world of ideas or forms.

05:09 According to him, physical objects are just imperfect approximations, rather than the

05:14 real, perfect things.

05:15 It's a short step from this idea to substance dualism, a popular concept for thousands of

05:20 years.

05:21 It was used by Christian thinkers to distinguish between the body and the soul, and explain

05:25 how the soul can survive the death of the body.

05:28 Advocates for dualism have differed on the relationship between the soul and the body.

05:32 The German polymath Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz argued for an unusual solution, stating that

05:37 the physical world of our body and the non-physical world of our thoughts only appear to interact.

05:43 In reality, they are synchronous and just run parallel to another.

05:46 How?

05:47 Well, according to Leibniz, the answer was simply "God".

05:50 Lastly, however, there is the theory of idealism.

05:54 Like physicalism, this is a version of monism, but instead of postulating that only physical

05:59 entities exist, it asserts that only mental entities do.

06:03 This idea is also often traced back to Plato's dualism, but found popular expression in the

06:07 works of Bishop George Berkeley in the 18th century, and endures today as panpsychism

06:13 - the view that consciousness is fundamental to reality.

06:17 All of this brings us back to where we started.

06:19 Where do our thoughts come from?

06:21 It's a difficult question, and a definitive answer remains elusive.

06:25 On one side of the divide, we find the dualists, who believe the mind and the brain are separate.

06:30 Either they are separate substances, or the mind is a special property that emerges from

06:35 physical processes in the brain.

06:37 On the other hand, we find the physicalists, who believe that the mind is the brain.

06:41 Thoughts are just electrochemical processes, nothing more and nothing less.

06:45 And then there are the idealists, who think that everything is mind.

06:50 Into which camp do you fall?

06:51 Dualist, physicalist, idealist, or somewhere in between?

06:55 Let us know in the comments!

06:57 Ultimately, in setting out to answer such a massive question, you can easily open a

07:01 Pandora's box filled with more questions and, well, thoughts about thoughts.

07:06 It's possible that with our current research and knowledge, we just can't know the answer

07:10 for sure.

07:11 It could be that it can't be relegated to a single concept, and our daily experiences

07:16 are just too complex to be constrained to one simple idea.

07:19 On the other hand, many believe that we will one day have such a firm grasp of human consciousness

07:25 that we'll be able to reproduce it at will.

07:27 Here we move into the realms of digital mind uploads and artificial intelligence.

07:31 Mind uploads could well prove to be our best bet toward achieving immortality… by storing

07:36 our thoughts onto a server when the brain is no more.

07:39 With AI, the true nature of thinking is set to become a key ethical issue.

07:44 Because if thoughts ever can be controlled and made, then does anybody own them?

07:49 How should we then view AI "thinking machines"?

07:52 And what happens if artificial thought generation ever outperformed the natural, neural pathways

07:57 inside our physical heads?

07:59 Thoughts are certainly something to think about.

08:01 But equally, can you question yourself too much?

08:04 For now, this is solid biological neurological science meets ethereal, unknowable philosophy.

08:10 Where do thoughts come from is a thought you probably don't often consider… and yet

08:14 it's crucial to every other thought you've ever had and ever will have.

08:18 Because without whatever it is that provides us with thoughts, we'd all be lifeless,

08:23 uninformed and unoriginal blobs of nothing much at all.

08:27 What do you think?

08:28 Is there anything we missed?

08:29 Let us know in the comments, check out these other clips from Unveiled, and make sure you

08:33 subscribe and ring the bell for our latest content.

Where Do Thoughts Really Come From? | Unveiled

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