What does it mean to be conscious? What does it mean to BE? The crew explores the nature of consciousness, the self, and the experience we are all constantly having. The limited science behind consciousness is discussed along with some philosophy of being. To put it another way, a few sentient biological blobs ponder what it means to be awake.

Topics Discussed:

How can we define consciousness?

Thomas Nagel's thought experiment

The only thing Descartes was certain about

The emergence of consciousness. Where did it come from?

Artificial Intelligence and the Turing Test

Glasgow Coma Scale

Spirituality and the illusion of self

The corpus callosum and duel brain patients

Jill Bolte Taylor and her "stroke" of insight

Altered states of consciousness

End of episode banter and theory of mind