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EP 178 Anil Seth on A New Science of Consciousness

The Jim Rutt Show

CHAPTER

The Beast Machine in Descartes' Book

Having a personality is completely compatible with their being aspects of selfhood, but just not the same kind of self that we humans have. For Descartes, it was the presence of a rational mind conscious rational mind that was all important. And I think entirely the opposite is the case that we are conscious and we have conscious selves because of our living flesh and blood beast machine nature. The reason that brains are prediction machines is fundamentally because the basic biological imperative is drive to stay alive. All the predictive machinery then allows us to perceive the world and other more elaborate aspects of the self evolve from moment to moment in light of this fundamental drive to stay Alive.

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