CGP Grey
7 HN recommenders · recommended in 10 months, 2016–2025
4:58 · 20M views · May 31, 2016
CGP Grey explains split-brain patients, where severing the corpus callosum lets the two hemispheres act independently. He uses this to explore the idea of two minds in one head.
HN returns to it constantly in consciousness and decision-making threads as a clear, entertaining explanation of split-brain.
12 comments from Hacker News
If you just learned that "Split Brain" was thing, I recommend watching this video by GPGrey, one of the best educational channels on YouTube: this video
This reminds me of the following quote: "Coding largely involves the 'logical part' of your brain. It tends to not include the 'language part' of your brain. This is one reason why comments you add to code are so useful: they force you to engage both parts of your brain and therefore get better results. This is also why when you go to explain a problem to a colleague, you often have a flash of brilliance and solve the problem: you are reframing the problem using a different part of your brain and the different part of your brain helps solve the problem." I'm sure some readers here will say this is preposterous and there is no such thing as having "two parts of your brain". To them I suggest watching: 1. "You are are two" (about people with their corpus callosum being severed) this video 2. "Conscious Ants and Human Hives" by Peter Watts [LINK]
This reminds me of two mind-boggling discoveries I’ve had about the human mind. The first is that the two halves of your brain act somewhat independently. And in rare cases, people’s left and right halves are “split” apart, and they act entirely independently - e.g. their left and their right hands will act separately, or even argue with each other. CGP Grey made a great video about this: this video The other is that most people have a “voice” inside their head - e.g. when they read, they hear their own voice inside their head reading; their thoughts are like sentences they “hear;” they could look in the mirror have a conversation with themselves. Some ~10% of people do not have this internal monologue. [LINK] [LINK]
Kurzgesagt[0] and CGP Grey[1] did a fun little 2-part intro into "split mindedness" i.e. the idea that we may have multiple consciousnesses(?) contending for control. [0] [LINK] [1] this video
For mind bending check the great explanation from CGP Grey, "You are two"[1], which argues the two brain hemispheres can operate independently. [1]: this video