what's up everybody this is Chris from
the rewired soul where we talk about the
problem but focus on the solution and
welcome back to the black mirror season
4 playlist and in this video we're gonna
talk about the overarching theme of
consciousness in black mirror this is a
topic that I absolutely love because I'm
somebody who is really in to meditation
as well as Buddhist philosophy so in
season 4 quite a few episodes actually
touch on the topic of consciousness it
kicks it off pretty much in episode 1
the USS Callister where by the way if
you haven't watched any of these
episodes yet or or even episode 1 turn
this video off come back actually if you
haven't watched the season yet and
you're worried about spoilers go away
come back alright anyways and USS
Callister pretty much it is about a
video game designer and coder who is the
CTO of the company and he's kind of a
shy laid-back dude and he's very awkward
like typical nerd and what he does is he
has his own mod of the game at home and
what he does is he transfers the
consciousness of people into his own
modded version of the game where he
basically is God and he runs the whole
show he tortures people who don't play
along with him and when you think about
it the idea of consciousness is you
being transported somewhere else right
so these people are waking up in a game
and wondering what the hell is going on
and they realize what's happening but is
it really them and that goes into a
deeper conversation of who are we who am
i right some of the other episodes that
touch on consciousness is the hang the
DJ episode where it's pretty much about
a dating app but this dating app and I I
really want to re-watch this episode of
watch some other video breakdowns of it
but what it looks like this dating app
does is it transfers your consciousness
into this app to find you the perfect
match it runs you through a bunch of
simulations with other people and they
have a ninety nine point eight percent
success rate but it gauges and figures
out how you would react to different
people and in different situations
following
love heartbreak and things like that the
next episode that does this quite a bit
is the season finale which is black
museum black Museum is an episode that
kind of has like three mini episodes in
one and two of them are about
transferring consciousness first you
have the one of Jack and Carey where
Carrie gets hit by a bus she's in a coma
if you haven't watched my other video on
this episode click in the info card
above anyways she's in a coma and they
transfer her consciousness into Jack
right that is her baby daddy and
basically it's kind of like get out
where she's inside of Jack's head she
can talk to him she could feel and
experience everything that he does and
Jack can actually hear what she's saying
in the third part of black museum they
bring back consciousness to talk about
this guy who was convicted of murder or
murder
maybe wrongfully we don't know but
anyways they convict him a murder but he
decides to leave his family a bunch of
money by having his consciousness taken
out of his brain when he dies and what
we end up finding out is that this
consciousness is then put into a
simulation where people get to come to
black museum and basically make this guy
we live over and over and over he is
electrocution and some sick and twisted
stuff but what's interesting about this
is just the whole idea of self so if any
of you are familiar with Buddhist
philosophy you've probably heard of
non-self and this is something that's
just always fascinated me I'm currently
reading a book which I will put in the
description below
it's called waking up by sam harris and
basically it's a book about the
difference between spirituality and
religion how to be spiritual without
being religious which is what i am in
this book you know and in other books
that I've read about this idea of self
and non-self is just always fascinating
to me and anytime somebody really
articulates it well my mind literally
just it blows up right because this idea
of self and who we are this ownership
that we have we have this kind of false
idea that we are some kind of CEO of our
own
mind in our body and all these things
but a question lost you right now is
where do thoughts come from because if
we're in control if we're the CEO for
the king or queen of our own mind how
come so many thoughts come through our
head that we didn't conjure up right
when I'm sitting there at work and I get
distracted by something or when I'm
sitting there having a conversation with
somebody and I can't stop thinking about
what I have to do later where are these
thoughts coming from Who am I and where
does that I begin and end right like
this is my skin these are my organs
right but am I in control of them my
organs you know for example my digestive
system it's doing its thing
automatically based on system setup in
my body right now one of the best parts
of waking up that I've read so far is
when it talks about this thought
experiment from a British philosopher
named Derek Parfit right and what Derek
Parfit
talks about is this idea this thought
experiment of you can trip you can
teleport to Mars okay you hit this
little button you teleport to Mars your
friends have told you about it they're
on Mars and like yeah man it works you
teleport straight there so you're like
okay cool
I'll do that so you teleport to Mars
every part about you teleport some arts
your thoughts your experiences your um
your memories all these things your
wants your desires everything but
there's one little catch the Earth's you
the one that hit that button you find
out after you hit that button that they
actually kill you they're on earth on a
crazy right so some of you would sit
there and kind of second-guess is to say
what I really want to do this
teleportation and that brings up an
interesting question who are you are you
the one on earth or this other duplicate
of you that's been created on Mars is
that to you because of psychological
continuity it has only thoughts and
memories experiences desires fears all
those things which one is you are they
both you so when thinking about it in
this context let's talk about
episode USS Callister real quick one of
the ways that the main character kind of
keeps these people hostage is not only
through torturing them but his business
partner out on the outside world Walton
he threatens him by bringing his sons
consciousness into the game and what he
does is when he threatens him basically
he's like you're gonna play along with
me or I'm going to kill your son over
and over and over again and what he does
is he makes a guy watch as he hits the
airlock and his son flies out into space
and he dies a terrible death right so
one of the reasons that Walton keeps
playing along is because he doesn't want
his son to have to go through that
experience again but this brings up that
question who is his son right I'm very
interested one of the one of the things
that I would love to see is like how
would how would somebody who follows
Buddhist philosophy react in that
situation right because somebody who
understands that the self is something
that's constantly changing and nothing
you know very tangible that is not
actually his son it's basically a
simulation right one of the things that
they're perfect talks about with this
psychological continuity of you know
that is our idea of self is that we're
not the same as we were even five
minutes ago we're constantly changing
this idea of self this this static thing
that always stays the same it's not
we're constantly changed by our thoughts
but mainly our experiences right you've
heard that saying what doesn't kill you
makes you stronger right when you
persevere when you get through something
difficult you are different than you
were before that experience happen so
the self is something that is constantly
changing now let's talk a little bit
about the other episode black Museum
right so one of the things that happens
in the third story of black museum is
that the prisoners consciousness is
transferred into this simulation where
he keeps getting electrocuted over and
over and over again and he's suffering
and even the people who come through
there and pull that switch they get to
keep a little keepsake and watch this
guy suffer over and over again now in
all of these and all these talking about
consciousness what's interesting is and
when you dive into this thing about who
are we and what is this idea of self
there to this day science cannot find
where the self actually is in the brain
and I'm not gonna go into that because I
love black mirror and just the sci-fi
ideas of it but the brain is a series of
systems and neurons and all these other
things working together and costly
changing for example we have trillions
of neurons in our brain and they are
constantly growing changing creating new
ones based on our personal experiences
then there are different parts of the
brain such as the hippocampus that is
the part of the brain that stores our
memories right now let's think about the
idea of pain what the guy in black
museum was going through
how can one experience pain if they have
no nerves right because the nerves are
what send signals to your brain the
amygdala to trigger the fight flight or
freeze mechanism right so that's
something interesting to think about too
and one of the one of the interesting
topics that they brought up in this was
in the second part of black museum when
Kerry is transferred first to Jack and
then to this stuffed animal and they
talk about how the ACLU cracked down and
said you can't quote-unquote kill Kerry
because unless they have ability to have
five or more emotions it's not right to
kill this person and when Kerry's
transferred into this stuffed animal she
only has two emotions and this is
something that's just interesting and
not much about mental health or anything
but something that I took away from this
is you know just thinking about a life
what White's what a consciousness half
right because Kerry technically died her
physical body died when she was
transferred over to Jack so that brings
up the other topic
what is consciousness what is the idea
of self is it the psychological
continuity or is it the physical
continuity of a person right and that's
where a lot of debates you know moral
debates come up about you know somebody
being a vegetable or on life support and
you know a family pulling the plug like
what is a person is it their physical
being being alive operating on its own
or even with the assistance of machines
or is it a certain amount of brain
activity right but anyways anyways I
know this this video was a little bit
deeper than some of the other ones I go
to but I'm always really excited when I
get to talk about the Buddhist
philosophy of of non-self
and something that I will touch on real
quick just because at the rewired soul
we're here to talk about mental health
is when you start detaching yourself
from this idea of self which is
interesting because we talked about you
I am hurt right but anyways is detaching
yourself from these these thoughts that
we have these troubling thoughts those
of you who struggle with depression
these are these my thoughts these
thoughts tend to think themselves right
if you have struggle with anxiety these
fears sometimes irrational fears right
are these really mind if they're coming
out of nowhere and what meditation helps
us do and what understanding the idea of
non-self does it helps me sit back and
watch I get to watch it like I'm
watching a movie rather than being the
person inside the movie and that is why
I meditate meditation is such a valuable
tool for anybody anybody who struggles
with mental illness but anyways like I
said in the description down below I'm
going to link you to the book by Sam
Harris called waking up great book if
you want to check it out but you know
what I'm feeling a little bit great so
what I'm gonna do I'm gonna link some of
my other favorite books just about
Buddhist philosophy and the idea of nine
non-self so if this is the kind of stuff
that interest you if you're like really
into philosophy and stuff like that
check out some of the books they'll be
in the description I will also link you
over to the rewired soul page or I have
a whole list of my recommended reading
so if you're a reader like I am and you
want to check them out go on click one
of those links check some of those out
anyways have you watched season four of
black mirror yet what are your thoughts
on consciousness I would love to know
your thoughts leave a comment down below
alright but anyways if you like this
video please give it a thumbs up and if
you're new here I'm always making videos
to help you out with your mental health
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right there on that film thumbnail to
check out the full playlist of black
mirror season 4 or click or tap on the
one below to check out some of the other
videos on this channel thanks for
watching I'll see you next time
