#128 - Meet the Neuroscientist Proving Scientists Got Conscious Ai WRONG

Get Jenni, Your Intelligent Research Assistant (GIANT20 for 20% off): http://jenni.ai/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=inf&utm_campaign=thegiantsshoulderGet the Muse EEG Headband (15% off): https://choosemuse.com/giantsshoulderPaul Cisek is a control neuroscientist at the University of Montreal who records from single neurons in the brains of monkeys as they think, and who has spent decades reconstructing how the brain evolved across hundreds of millions of years. His verdict cuts against everything Silicon Valley believes: the brain was never a computer — it's a control system built to keep a body alive, and the most advanced AI on Earth understands nothing it says.Expect to learn why Richard Dawkins is wrong that Claude could be conscious, why every era wrongly compares the brain to its fanciest technology, how a baseball outfielder reveals what the brain is really doing, why large language models are "Eliza on steroids" and 100% illusion, where meaning actually comes from and why LLMs can never have it, why the real danger isn't ChatGPT but the agentic systems that come next, whether a paramecium could be conscious, what Michael Levin's neuron-growing biobots tell us about minds, and much more…Timestamps0:00:00 Trailer0:02:33 Why Paul Rescheduled to Watch a Monkey Learn0:06:13 Probing Electrodes Into a Living Brain0:13:42 What a Single Neuron Actually Sounds Like0:20:41 The Brain Is Not a Camera Plugged Into a Computer0:24:55 How an Outfielder Catches a Ball Without Doing Physics0:33:24 Why Federer "Lets the Cerebellum Run the Show"0:38:09 Richard Dawkins Says Claude Might Be Conscious0:39:11 Every Era Thinks the Brain Is Its Latest Gadget0:42:36 Why AI Is "Eliza on Steroids" and 100% Illusion0:45:38 The Mechanical Turk and the Stage Magician0:48:09 The Mimicry Irony at the Heart of Dawkins' Mistake0:52:32 The One Thing AlphaFold and ChatGPT Both Lack0:53:30 Where Meaning Actually Comes From0:57:55 Language Is Persuasion: The Crying Baby Problem1:03:14 The Paper With Friston and Clark on What AI Misses1:04:48 Could You Build a Machine That Wants Things?1:10:23 Build a Mind, Build a Rival: Do We Even Want To?1:13:32 Is a Paramecium Conscious?1:18:11 Why There's No Line Between a Lump of Cells and You1:23:18 Population Thinking: It's All Continuums1:30:36 The Mad Scientist Won't Be Sam Altman — It'll Be Michael Levin1:36:29 Does Synthetic Biology Deserve Its Own Doomsday?1:39:37 Why Real Intelligence Would Be a Competitor We Should Fear1:43:20 Why the Real World Humbles Every Robot...Want a full breakdown of your own conscious inner experience?Join the Giant's Shoulder community: https://www.skool.com/the-giants-shoulder-6526/aboutEmail for sponsorship enquiries: evan@thegiantsshoulder.com...GS Episodes MentionedPaul Cisek Round 1: https://youtu.be/C6frE6nj1tYMichael Levin — Meet the Scientist Creating New Forms of Synthetic Life! Dr Michael Levin: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LTBZRVKUwyMAnil Seth — No. 1 Consciousness Expert: Optical Illusions that Prove Reality is a Lie, Emotions, Books and AI: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lOSA06K0l1oKarl Friston — Meet The Neuroscientist Who Created The Best Universal Theory Of Brain Function: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R-IZOFs4qmYMark Solms — Meet the Scientist Proving Dreams Hold the Key to Consciousness! Dr Mark Solms: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nMWaQ1U6dcc...Guest LinksPaul Cisek — Faculty page, Université de Montréal: https://neurosciences.umontreal.ca/en/our-team/staff-directory/staff/cisek-paul/Cisek Lab: https://www.ciseklab.umontreal.ca/Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=Bbk0DEcAAAAJX / Twitter: https://x.com/PaulCisek...