Rap Guide to Consciousness

[Music] so I'm doing an off-broadway performance right now it's called the rap guide to consciousness and it is a tour of perceptual and hallucinatory and experiential neuroscience through hip-hop and comedy and storytelling I work with a neuroscientist to try to figure it out what I want to know as an artist is how free am I to create the traditional version of free will a lot of debates going on I mean physics is deterministic or in deterministic either way how can we ever take credit for anything we do now neuroscience tells us that every one of our behaviors has precursors in the physical brain that we are not aware of how do we get freewill out of that like all right humans have at least one kind of freedom and it's embodied in freestyle rap the question is whether we should call that free will so let's do it experimentally I'd like to ask you if we can bring up the house lights what you would like to get out of this conference a couple of people feel free to shout things out and then I will work your aspirations and intentions into a freestyle improvised rap before we say something remember this logically at this point in history one of two things must be true either all of your suggestions and all of my improvised rhymes were predetermined since the beginning of the universe or there's a kind of freedom that's real and we're about to use it so go ahead shout out anything inspiration yeah so I heard heart hope okay related but not exactly the same inspiration hope and connection anymore we there all right this hit what was the last one chaos beautiful all right but let's hit it let's hit it I'll try to work in synchronicity to say do drop that when I was a young aspiring rap artists in Western Canada picture of myself on MTV with the platinum chain this is the exact rap say listen to this lyric it isn't freestyle it's written I wrote it over my own free will it was my decision every intimate constituent part of it was deliberate I considered how to scripted and how to stand and deliver it and all I knew was I would stand up here and be kicking a dope flow actually I didn't really know that but I was extremely hopeful see what I'm saying that's right I step up and burn flows open I'm not gonna screw it up hope springs eternal that's for thought but that doesn't mean nothing comes before thought take a look at the source of your thoughts you might find the doors blocked if every decision is made in a part of my brain that's invisible to me that's well but with the subliminal origin I'm not thinking is to free how do I have the freedom to kick a dope verse what is hope just a slogan like a Shepard Fairey poster I don't know all I know right now is I got raps that I'm blazing hopefully you're taking from it a little bit of inspiration but what am I doing here why am i busting a rhyme am i a puppet on a string who could not have done otherwise as slave to my subliminal reptilian amygdala forces with no self control coming out of my neocortex I don't know all I know is that I got a couple of lyrics right now and that I'm killing them and part of my brain that's producing it is probably reptilian yeah that's the way that I kick it my memory gives me different answers I am drawing on the frontal cortex and hippocampus but I can't stop believing in my option to choose my molecules I choose words and deeds but not wants or moods freedom is like a muscle that's only strong when it's used I can't stop and neither can you so let's continue I'll keep on pulling your concepts out of my lyrical menu check it this is the way that I get it people ask me questions I try to answer real quick using a lot of my neural connections like the connections that you're gonna make a second from now at this summit people are gonna come up to you and say what's your story run it you gotta be ready every second to drop something elevator speech just try to make it in freestyle rap and keep it sweet I don't know come on I'm just making it up and rapping but this is something that I got the freedom to do after lots of practice I was a little kid thinking about rap writing with crayons that's how I got to a place like this inciting this chaos it's random it's random and that's kind of good it's kind of basic because you can't have evolution without random mutation so mutations happening in my brain every second check it this is my neuroscientific we highly informed method I'm trying to test it see yeah I'm kind of kick it though it's a sick flow it is so infused with hope that hopefully it's the way that I pictured it before but better ever after kind of like I pictured it but there was more laughter but I can't stop believing in my option to choose neither can you you feel that down in your molecules you can choose words and deeds but not once or moods freedom is like a muscle it's only strong when it's good stop just demonstrating that I could stop y'all want me to stop now is he stopping is not recommended not before a song is ended because I spent a lot of time training my brain to rhyme at the drop of a dime now that's a kind of freedom I can claim his mind freedom is an amended physical state at the level of atoms it's a collection of talents that each of us can develop and manage freedom evolves natural selection gave us the building blocks absolute freedom maybe not but more than a digger wasp and more than three frontal cortex lesion patients living today I'll take the freedom of God over the non freedom of Phineas Gage freedom is having a brain that can reject options detect Impostors dodge sucker punches like boxers freedom is having a brain that can navigate obstacles in a continuous exploration of the adjacent possible a brain that's free enough to identify goals and pursue them and know the reasons why even if it's prone to illusions freedom if you have that kind of mind and it's at fault congratulations you can now be tried as an adult free will it's similar to freestyle they're both learn about systems that are probably deterministic deep down but even if every syllable has a physical cause freewill is just the belief that I should still [Applause] [Music] [Applause] you

Channel: Future of StoryTelling

Views: 5,330

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Id: B3wnq-TYR78

Length: 6min 45sec (405 seconds)

Published: Tue Dec 18 2018