We human beings are a remarkable species and capable of extraordinary things. If we let ourselves, we could, in fact, create infinite minds. We could become immortal beings living and loving forever. We could allow ourselves to travel across the cosmos unharmed. We could allow ourselves access to millions and millions of bytes of information within our very own heads. We could do all of these things- but only if we wanted to. 

I think its important that everyone has a cosmic perspective and understand how much we’re worth. Our knowledge and technology are advancing rapidly - just look at how much we’ve grown as a species in the past several thousand years.  Hence, my TEDx talk is all about making our time in the cosmos worthwhile. Its about time we became more ambitious. 

What if every neuron in our brain was directly connected to every other neuron? Considering that our brains constitute of about 86 billion neurons, our brains would end up being gigantic! Computational scientists have estimated that if each of our brains were fully connected in the shape of a sphere, they would have to be 20 km in diameter. You can imagine the metabolic costs that would be required to manage such a big head (at the moment, our brains use 20% of our bodies’ energy supplies). Another disadvantage would be a slow in processing speed and synchronizing activity because of longer axons. This also would result in longer dendrites in order to increase the number of synapses. 

It was because of all these reasons that our brains evolved to not allow all neurons to connect to one another. Hence, over the past several thousand years, as our brain size increased, the proportional connectivity of our brains decreased. 

“Our brains are a vastly parallel and distributed system, each with a gazillion decision-making points and centers of integration. The 24/7 brain never stops managing our thoughts, desires, and bodies. The millions of networks are a sea of forces, not single soldiers waiting for the commander to speak. It is also a determined system, not a freewheeling cowboy acting outside the physical, chemical forces that fill up our universe. And yet, these modern-day facts do not in the least convince us there is not a central “you,” a “self” calling the shots in each of us. Again, that is the puzzle, and our task is to try and understand how it all might work.” - Michael S.Gazzaniga 

What most of us often fail to realize is that a large portion of personalities and day-to-day decisions are controlled by our brain chemistry or in other words, the chemicals that are flowing in and out various pathways in our brains. The slightest bit of imbalance can often leave us feeling off, or can have even more drastic consequences. I think its a fascinating thought; our moods, emotions and feelings are all controlled by a whole range of chemicals that we are unaware of.

I’ll give you a few examples of these chemicals. One of them is serotonin, low levels of which are associated with depression. In fact, people who are diagnosed to be “clinically depressed” have naturally low levels of serotonin and have to take drugs to balance things out. Then you have dopamine, which is associated with rewards and is responsible for arousal and simulation. There are also Endorphins, which are released when we are stressed out or in pain. They are responsible for relaxing us and allowing us to feel euphoric. And the good news is that chocolate enhances the secretion of endorphins! 

These are only three examples of the innumerable types of chemicals that control who we are. Its important to keep in mind that our moods and emotions are not only controlled by each individual chemical but an interaction between many of them if not all… 

To an ordinary individual, consciousness may not be so much of a dilemma. We exist and we’re self-aware, what else could possibly matter? Well, the problem with consciousness in science is such a big deal that if anyone were to ever solve it would be a scientific revolution.

So what exactly is the problem? Well, There are two. The easy problem and the hard problem.

There are some aspects of your thought processing, like your daydreams and plans for the day that you can think and contemplate on and so are conscious thoughts. Others like the rate of your heart, the rules of the order of words you apply to language, how you hold a pencil etc are mostly unconscious. The problem here is to accurately identify what is conscious and unconscious and find its correlates in the brain along with explaining why they evolved. 

The hard problem is explaining why we feel a particular way when we are conscious. Why is there this rich subjective first-hand experience that allows us to experience ineffable things (like colors) and feel self-aware? How does such a subjective experience arise from neural computation and seemingly unaware matter? This problem is much harder because we have no idea what the solution to it would look like. Fascinatingly, many scientists argue on whether its a problem at all. 

When the human brain goes wrong, it often results to some very mind-blowing symptoms, many of which raise a whole series of profound questions. One example of this is with “split-brain” patients, who are basically patients whose corpus callosum has been cut, creating a disconnection between the left and right hemispheres. So In other words, you suddenly have not one but two conscious human beings in one body!

Whats intriguing here is that not only does each hemisphere have different capabilities and skills, but also personalities, likes and as a matter of fact, beliefs. For instance, when the right hemisphere of a patient is asked whether he believes in a God, it answers yes. But when the left is asked the same question, it answers no. So here you have an atheist AND a theist in one skull.

I wonder how the original religious view of the individual before the disconnection between the hemisphere influences the difference in opinion between them. Do we all have a part of all that is a theist and a part that is an atheist - but one is more dominant? What about agnostics? What does this tell us about how and why we humans choose to believe in a divine being?

But most fascinatingly, such a brain disorder raises a very profound theological question for those who believe in an afterlife. When such patients die - does the left hemisphere go to hell and the right to heaven? Has the so-called soul split into two as well?

The human brain is an unimaginably intricate and complex organ. The more we study it, the more mysteries we stumble upon. One of the many examples of this is in an captivating but rare disorder known as sudden artistic output. This is when a patient, usually after some sort of a brain injury, experiences an uncontrollable explosion of creativity. This can be in the form of poetry, written works, painting and even music. It is as if, out of the blue, patients are transformed into artists. They are described to be abnormal and seemingly possessed by uncontrollable drive to create, expressing their inner turmoils and ideas unlike anything we’ve ever seen before. 

There are very few documented case studies on this rare disorder. The term “disorder” here may sound negative, but these individuals are suddenly provided with a wonderful gift of creating some of the most beautiful and enchanting works of art. They often describe the process as a comforting way of throwing out all their emotions and thoughts. They become obsessed about their new passion whilst they frantically create and create and create… 

Sudden artistic output is thought to be a result of a chemical imbalance in the brain as a result of the injury or sometimes even a traumatizing event. By Studying such patients, scientists are better able to explain how creativity and the human ability to create marvelous works of art arises in the brain. 

George Widener may appear to be simply an autistic adult, but he is not. Give him a date and a year, either from the past or the future, and he can tell what day it was. He has an exceptional and extraordinary gift that makes him essentially a calculating calender. 

He is not the only human being with a rare but extraordinary skill. Kim Peek was another person with a cognitive brain abnormality that also made him extraordinary. Despite being socially isolated, He had a mind-blowing memory that allowed him to memorize about nine thousand books! 

Lesli memki is yet another autistic prodigy, that also happens to be blind. He, however, does not memorize books but has the ability of playing back any music on the piano upon hearing it once - without any training whatsoever. No one had taught him how to play the piano or identify notes, yet somehow he is able to do what he does. 

Such rare and remarkable individuals are known by psychologists as Savants ; Geniuses that also have a disability of some sorts. At this very moment, there are about 100 of these in the world. It appears that they are born with some sort of a inimitable skill installed into their brains, whether its to do with math, memory or music. Yet, one can’t help wondering what went wrong - or right- in their brains. How are they so different? Was it nature or nurture? Even though recent studies have conveyed that the brains of savants have a special and unique brain wiring, no one knows how this difference came into being. 

But what if all our brains have the potential of being so powerful? Could we, with the right techniques, be able to unleash such phenomenal skills in any individual? Could we allow ourselves prodigious abilities without sacrificing other crucial cognitive abilities? 

Imagine you lived in a black and white world. Or in other words, Imagine you belonged to a species that could not perceive colors. You all grew, evolved and advanced in a world that was only colored in dull shades of grey, white and black. Not you or anyone of your kind has a concept of what color means nor has anyone ever experienced it. Of course, you are in no way despondent or disappointed because you have absolutely no conception of what it is that you are missing out on. 

But then something rather remarkable happens to you only. Wether it was because you banged your head, underwent a genetic mutation or encountered a witch… Imagine you could, all of the sudden, see colors! Whereas you once lived in a grayscale world, you would now be perceiving vivid hues of all kinds. The sky would be a serene baby blue and flowers flourish in vibrant colors. All around you, people and things, would be like you’ve never seen them; vivid with hundreds of shades of colors. For a living being who’s lived his or her entire life in the black and white world, this would be a mind-blowing and overwhelming sensory experience. 

But then your experience ends and you’re back to the black and white world. Only you of your kind has experienced the colorful world and has truly seen what’s worth seeing. 

How do you tell the others? How do you explain to them what you saw? How you explain the difference between a red and a blue? You can explain the technical explanations with wavelengths and everything, but how do you get them to feel and perceive the redness of red or the blueness of blue? 

Scientists use the term qualia to explain such ineffable sensations of the mind. And it makes me wonder, what if there are other things and sensations out there that we have been unable to experience? Worlds in other dimensions perhaps or sensory inputs that are beyond what our limited brains have evolved to experiencing. It could easily be a sort of qualia that we can’t even begin to imagine… 

Human beings have come up with innumerable methods to soothe themselves of the terrifying concept of death or in other words; the thought of not existing. These include the different versions and concepts of an afterlife that different religions have. Very few of these methods have had any rational thinking behind them… until now.

Very few people are aware of the fact that cryonics are no longer science fiction; there are numerous companies that provide the facilities. For those of you who are unaware; cryonics is the process of freezing human bodies  in hope that one day our technology would be advanced enough to bring them back. This, in many countries, is only legal once the person has been officially declared dead. The Alcor life extension foundation, for instance, has about 111 bodies and heads in storage.

But I can’t help wondering whether we really will be able to bring these people back - even if we on day have the technology. Does freezing really maintain the 86 billion neurons and trillion synapses, in the exact same patterns? Are all the neural mechanisms that make up a certain individual really preserved? What if we one day have the technology to bring someone back, but it turns out that our preservation methods we’re drastically flawed?

Would you want your body and brain preserved with cryonics?

Think of everything you perceive around you; from the things you see to the scents you smell. What if it turned out that none of it was real? What if it turned out that it was all in your head? 

Such an analogy would explain what hallucinations would feel like. Imagine how terrifying or even exciting it would be; to sense and experience something that doesn’t really exist whilst being perfectly conscious and awake. In fact, they’re quite common and are associated with many things including sleep deprivation, drug use and various mental and neurological illnesses. 

There are some mild and commonly experienced ones like Hypnagogic hallucinations, which we all experience whilst falling asleep and Hypnopompic ones that occur when we are waking up. But the most intense and bizarre hallucinations occur when taking specific drugs (like alcohol, LSD, cocaine, heroin and marijuana).

Effects of these including seeing everyone and everything as the same color (chromatopsia), seeing imaginary miniature feelings (lilliputian) or even seeing everyone as giants (brodnegnagian). Seeing objects that aren’t there, not seeing objects that are there, hearing mysterious voices, tasting strange flavors, feeling sensations of overjoy or even sadness… the list is endless. 

From a neurological perspective, hallucinations are absolutely fascinating! They show how dramatic a tiny imbalance in brain chemistry can be, hence stressing on the intricacy of the human brain. Even though lots of studies have been able to locate brain regions and pharmaceuticals that lead to hallucinations, explaining why certain individuals have certain hallucinations remains a mystery.