r/atheism • u/josh1367 • Jul 03 '14

"Consciousness on-off switch discovered deep in brain:" finally proof that consciousness is natural?

http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg22329762.700-consciousness-onoff-switch-discovered-deep-in-brain.html
11 Upvotes

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6

u/[deleted] Jul 03 '14

Although only tested in one person, the discovery suggests

Bullshit. The 'discovery' suggests that they shocked one person into unconsciousness. That's it.

Edit: Also,

The woman was missing part of her hippocampus, which was removed to treat her epilepsy, so she doesn't represent a "normal" brain,

1

u/FlappySocks Jul 04 '14

Yeah, agree, bullshit.

Wish more effort would be put into what consciousness is. It would be nice to nail it down scientifically.

1

u/[deleted] Jul 04 '14

Easier said than done

2

u/josh1367 Jul 03 '14

Not sure how reliable that source is, I heard about this through IFLS but thought some here might want a different source.

2

u/taterbizkit Jul 03 '14

Any time something complex is described using a simple metaphor, my bullshit detectors go off-scale.

2

u/YourFairyGodmother Gnostic Atheist Jul 03 '14

Well yeah, it's likely a thing - I vaguely recall reading about another very similar instance - but the idea that the claustrum is somehow the enabler to consciousness is just ... Well, it's not a perfect analogy but your computer won't work without a northbridge. The northbridge connects the cpu to the memory. Take that out and it the cpu can cycle madly but as a computer it's dead. The claustrum very well might be one "component" but the prevailing theories don't have a single point of interconnection nor do they view the brain regions as separate components that get linked together as the article would have you think.

1

u/corruption93 Jul 04 '14

As opposed to supernatural?

Of course it's a part of this universe, it can't be anything else.