00:00There's something living inside your body. Your brain. You think you're in control.
00:06But you're not. You can't control your heartbeat. You can't control your basic secretions.
00:1490% of its operations, you don't even have the right to know.
00:18Scientists once cut the connection between a person's left and right brain.
00:23Inside one body, two independent consciousnesses immediately appeared.
00:28They showed a picture to one side. A spoon. They asked, what did you see?
00:35Nothing, he said honestly. The speaking part of his brain genuinely didn't see it.
00:41But when they put a pen in his left hand, his left hand drew the spoon.
00:46Same skull. Two different versions of what just happened.
00:50This shatters your deepest assumption. You think you're a single, unified self.
00:56But when scientists cut the cable connecting the two hemispheres, they didn't get half a person.
01:03They got two. Two separate systems, each perceiving, each taking action.
01:09Some patients experienced something even stranger.
01:13One hand buttoning up a shirt.
01:15The other hand following behind, unbuttoning every button.
01:19Two hands, like two people fighting for the same body.
01:23That, I, you take for granted, might just be a cable holding it all together.
01:28But the truly terrifying part comes next.
01:32Scientists secretly gave an instruction to the non-speaking hemisphere, stand up and walk.
01:38The patient stood up.
01:40When they asked why he stood up, he didn't say, I don't know.
01:43He instantly invented a reason, I wanted to get a drink of water.
01:48And he believed it completely.
01:51That interpreter, that's what neuroscientists call it, does one thing only, wah.
01:57Cheese what the body does and instantly manufactures a believable story to explain it.
02:02He's a master liar.
02:04And he never admits he's guessing.
02:07You're probably thinking, fine, but that's a patient with a severed brain.
02:12Not me.
02:13I get that reaction.
02:16Who wants to admit the thing in charge of their head might not be them.
02:20But here's the thing, that machine was never installed by surgery.
02:24Surgery just exposed it.
02:27It's in your brain right now, running non-stop.
02:30Here's a classic experiment.
02:33A group of people pick their favorite from a row of identical stockings.
02:37They give detailed reasons, color, texture, workmanship.
02:42But the stockings were all identical.
02:45Their real choice was simply influenced by the position on the shelf.
02:49Every reason was invented after the fact.
02:52And not one person noticed.
02:55Every single person does this.
02:57Your interpreter is probably working overtime right now.
03:01Finding reasons to dismiss this.
03:04The experiment was flawed.
03:06I wouldn't do that.
03:08This video is nonsense.
03:11See.
03:12He's already scripting your rebuttal.
03:15But it goes deeper than making up reasons.
03:18The very feeling of making a decision might be an illusion.
03:22One groundbreaking experiment, scientists asked people to move their wrist whenever they decided to.
03:28They recorded the exact moment they felt the decision.
03:32Meanwhile, an EEG tracked their brain.
03:35The result stunned everyone.
03:38At the moment you feel, I decided to move, your brain had already sent the command about half a second
03:43earlier.
03:44You're not making a decision and then executing it.
03:48Your brain acts first.
03:50Then your conscious mind produces the feeling, I decided.
03:55This.
03:55Your supposedly independent decision is just retroactively confirming something already decided.
04:02This conclusion is still debated.
04:05But that half second delay is real.
04:08Measured, documented.
04:10There's an estimate.
04:12Your brain processes a massive amount of information every second.
04:16Only a tiny fraction ever enters your conscious awareness.
04:20The rest run silently in the background, completely unknown to you.
04:25Now put this together.
04:27Your heartbeat, your digestion, your hormonal surges, you never controlled them.
04:32The reasons you give for your choices, many fabricated after the fact.
04:37Even the feeling of making a decision arrives half a beat late.
04:41So what's left for the conscious you to do?
04:44One main job, watch what the body has already done, and tell yourself a smooth story.
04:50A story where you were in charge the whole time.
04:53That's the press secretary.
04:55He doesn't run the country.
04:58He just walks to the podium after every decision is made and confidently explains why the president's choice was brilliant.
05:05Here's where this hits you personally.
05:07Every time you think, I did this because, every time you're absolutely certain you know why you fell in love,
05:14why you suddenly got angry, there's a good chance that reason appeared after the action.
05:19Your interpreter is just that skilled.
05:21You didn't even see the gap.
05:23So back to the original question.
05:27Are you the boss, or the press secretary?
05:30Neuroscience keeps bringing back the same uncomfortable answer.
05:34You're most likely the one on stage, explaining to the only audience, yourself, decisions you never actually made.
05:42The IRO.
05:43New York.
05:45Even now that you understand this, tomorrow morning you'll wake up with that same feeling of being in total control.
05:51The interpreter will take the stage, as confident as ever.
05:55The split-brain experiment leaves you with one question.
05:59Not, who's really in charge, but rather, if the voice you call, me, is mostly just explaining things to you
06:06after the fact,
06:07then who exactly is the, you, reading these words, convinced they understand?
06:16The interpreter times in general, the premiere after the fact,
06:18and who's really in charge of being in the real world,
06:22The interpreter teacher wants us to understand, if they're going to share with you,
06:22The interpreter tells you that you never appreciate the otros çıkar.
06:22The interpreter was the same effort and is to say the one in charge in the studio.
06:23They trusted himmen for the視 Nered
06:24Smilex warns when it was theLANŋ one before the concert.
