Simon Lewis: Don't take consciousness for granted

64,600 views ・ 2011-07-07

TED


Please double-click on the English subtitles below to play the video.

00:15
There was a time in my life
0
15260
3000
00:18
when everything seemed perfect.
1
18260
3000
00:21
Everywhere I went, I felt at home.
2
21260
2000
00:23
Everyone I met,
3
23260
2000
00:25
I felt I knew them for as long as I could remember.
4
25260
3000
00:28
And I want to share with you how I came to that place
5
28260
3000
00:31
and what I've learned since I left it.
6
31260
2000
00:33
This is where it began.
7
33260
3000
00:36
And it raises an existential question,
8
36260
2000
00:38
which is, if I'm having this experience of complete connection and full consciousness,
9
38260
3000
00:41
why am I not visible in the photograph,
10
41260
3000
00:44
and where is this time and place?
11
44260
3000
00:47
This is Los Angeles, California, where I live.
12
47260
3000
00:50
This is a police photo. That's actually my car.
13
50260
3000
00:53
We're less than a mile from one of the largest hospitals in Los Angeles,
14
53260
3000
00:56
called Cedars-Sinai.
15
56260
2000
00:58
And the situation is that a car full of paramedics
16
58260
2000
01:00
on their way home from the hospital after work
17
60260
3000
01:03
have run across the wreckage,
18
63260
2000
01:05
and they've advised the police
19
65260
2000
01:07
that there were no survivors inside the car,
20
67260
2000
01:09
that the driver's dead, that I'm dead.
21
69260
3000
01:12
And the police are waiting for the fire department to arrive
22
72260
3000
01:15
to cut apart the vehicle
23
75260
2000
01:17
to extract the body of the driver.
24
77260
2000
01:19
And when they do, they find that behind the glass,
25
79260
3000
01:22
they find me.
26
82260
2000
01:24
And my skull's crushed and my collar bone is crushed;
27
84260
2000
01:26
all but two of my ribs,
28
86260
2000
01:28
my pelvis and both arms --
29
88260
2000
01:30
they're all crushed, but there is still a pulse.
30
90260
3000
01:33
And they get me to that nearby hospital,
31
93260
2000
01:35
Cedars-Sinai,
32
95260
2000
01:37
where that night I receive, because of my internal bleeding,
33
97260
3000
01:40
45 units of blood --
34
100260
2000
01:42
which means full replacements of all the blood in me --
35
102260
2000
01:44
before they're able to staunch the flow.
36
104260
2000
01:46
I'm put on full life support,
37
106260
2000
01:48
and I have a massive stroke,
38
108260
3000
01:51
and my brain drops into a coma.
39
111260
2000
01:53
Now comas are measured
40
113260
2000
01:55
on a scale from 15 down to three.
41
115260
2000
01:57
Fifteen is a mild coma. Three is the deepest.
42
117260
3000
02:00
And if you look, you'll see that there's only one way you can score three.
43
120260
3000
02:03
It's essentially there's no sign of life
44
123260
2000
02:05
from outside at all.
45
125260
2000
02:07
I spent more than a month in a Glasgow Coma Scale three,
46
127260
3000
02:10
and it is inside that deepest level of coma,
47
130260
2000
02:12
on the rim between my life and my death,
48
132260
3000
02:15
that I'm experiencing the full connection and full consciousness
49
135260
3000
02:18
of inner space.
50
138260
2000
02:20
From my family looking in from outside,
51
140260
3000
02:23
what they're trying to figure out
52
143260
2000
02:25
is a different kind of existential question,
53
145260
3000
02:28
which is, how far is it going to be possible to bridge
54
148260
3000
02:31
from the comatose potential mind that they're looking at
55
151260
3000
02:34
to an actual mind,
56
154260
2000
02:36
which I define simply
57
156260
2000
02:38
as the functioning of the brain
58
158260
2000
02:40
that is remaining inside my head.
59
160260
2000
02:42
Now to put this into a broader context,
60
162260
2000
02:44
I want you to imagine that you are an eternal alien
61
164260
3000
02:47
watching the Earth from outer space,
62
167260
2000
02:49
and your favorite show on intergalactic satellite television
63
169260
3000
02:52
is the Earth channel,
64
172260
2000
02:54
and your favorite show is the Human Show.
65
174260
3000
02:57
And the reason I think it would be so interesting to you
66
177260
2000
02:59
is because consciousness is so interesting.
67
179260
2000
03:01
It's so unpredictable
68
181260
2000
03:03
and so fragile.
69
183260
2000
03:05
And this is how we began.
70
185260
2000
03:07
We all began in the Awash Valley in Ethiopia.
71
187260
3000
03:10
The show began with tremendous special effects,
72
190260
2000
03:12
because there were catastrophic climate shifts --
73
192260
3000
03:15
which sort of sounds interesting as a parallel to today.
74
195260
2000
03:18
Because of the Earth tilting on its axis
75
198260
2000
03:20
and those catastrophic climate shifts,
76
200260
3000
03:23
we had to figure out how to find better food,
77
203260
2000
03:25
and we had to learn -- there's Lucy; that's how we all began --
78
205260
3000
03:28
we had to learn how to crack open animal bones,
79
208260
3000
03:31
use tools to do that, to feed on the marrow,
80
211260
2000
03:33
to grow our brains more.
81
213260
2000
03:35
So we actually grew our consciousness
82
215260
2000
03:37
in response to this global threat.
83
217260
2000
03:39
Now you also continue to watch
84
219260
2000
03:41
as consciousness evolved to the point
85
221260
2000
03:43
that here in India, in Madhya Pradesh,
86
223260
3000
03:46
there's one of the two oldest known pieces of rock art found.
87
226260
4000
03:50
It's a cupule that took 40 to 50,000 blows with a stone tool to create,
88
230260
4000
03:54
and it's the first known expression of art
89
234260
2000
03:56
on the planet.
90
236260
2000
03:58
And the reason it connects us with consciousness today
91
238260
2000
04:00
is that all of us still today,
92
240260
2000
04:02
the very first shape we draw as a child
93
242260
3000
04:05
is a circle.
94
245260
2000
04:07
And then the next thing we do is we put a dot in the center of the circle.
95
247260
3000
04:10
We create an eye --
96
250260
2000
04:12
and the eye that evolves through all of our history.
97
252260
2000
04:14
There's the Egyptian god Horus,
98
254260
2000
04:16
which symbolizes prosperity, wisdom and health.
99
256260
3000
04:19
And that comes down right way to the present
100
259260
3000
04:22
with the dollar bill in the United States,
101
262260
2000
04:24
which has on it an eye of providence.
102
264260
3000
04:27
So watching all of this show from outer space,
103
267260
2000
04:29
you think we get it, we understand
104
269260
2000
04:31
that the most precious resource on the blue planet
105
271260
2000
04:33
is our consciousness.
106
273260
2000
04:35
Because it's the first thing we draw;
107
275260
2000
04:37
we surround ourselves with images of it;
108
277260
2000
04:39
it's probably the most common image on the planet.
109
279260
2000
04:41
But we don't. We take our consciousness for granted.
110
281260
3000
04:44
While I was producing in Los Angeles, I never thought about it for a second.
111
284260
3000
04:47
Until it was stripped from me, I never thought about it.
112
287260
2000
04:49
And what I've learned since that event
113
289260
2000
04:51
and during my recovery
114
291260
2000
04:53
is that consciousness is under threat on this planet
115
293260
3000
04:56
in ways it's never been under threat before.
116
296260
2000
04:58
These are just some examples.
117
298260
2000
05:00
And the reason I'm so honored to be here
118
300260
2000
05:02
to talk today in India
119
302260
2000
05:04
is because India has the sad distinction
120
304260
2000
05:06
of being the head injury capital of the world.
121
306260
3000
05:09
That statistic is so sad.
122
309260
2000
05:11
There is no more drastic and sudden gap created
123
311260
3000
05:14
between potential and actual mind
124
314260
2000
05:16
than a severe head injury.
125
316260
2000
05:18
Each one can entail up to a decade of rehabilitation,
126
318260
3000
05:21
which means that India, unless something changes,
127
321260
2000
05:23
is accumulating a need
128
323260
2000
05:25
for millennia of rehabilitation.
129
325260
3000
05:29
What you find in the United States
130
329260
2000
05:31
is an injury every 20 seconds -- that's one and a half million every year --
131
331260
3000
05:34
stroke every 40 seconds,
132
334260
2000
05:36
Alzheimer's disease, every 70 seconds somebody succumbs to that.
133
336260
3000
05:39
All of these represent gaps
134
339260
2000
05:41
between potential mind and actual mind.
135
341260
3000
05:45
And here are some of the other categories, if you look at the whole planet.
136
345260
3000
05:48
The World Health Organization tells us
137
348260
2000
05:50
that depression is the number one disease on Earth
138
350260
3000
05:53
in terms of years lived with disability.
139
353260
3000
05:56
We find that the number two source of disability
140
356260
3000
05:59
is depression in the age group
141
359260
2000
06:01
of 15 to 44.
142
361260
2000
06:03
Our children are becoming depressed
143
363260
2000
06:05
at an alarming rate.
144
365260
2000
06:07
I discovered during my recovery
145
367260
2000
06:09
the third leading cause of death amongst teenagers
146
369260
2000
06:11
is suicide.
147
371260
2000
06:13
If you look at some of these other items -- concussions.
148
373260
2000
06:15
Half of E.R. admissions from adolescents
149
375260
2000
06:17
are for concussions.
150
377260
2000
06:19
If I talk about migraine,
151
379260
2000
06:21
40 percent of the population
152
381260
2000
06:23
suffer episodic headaches.
153
383260
2000
06:25
Fifteen percent suffer migraines
154
385260
2000
06:27
that wipe them out for days on end.
155
387260
2000
06:29
All of this is leading -- computer addiction,
156
389260
2000
06:31
just to cover that: the most frequent thing we do
157
391260
2000
06:33
is use digital devices.
158
393260
2000
06:35
The average teenager
159
395260
2000
06:37
sends 3,300 texts every [month].
160
397260
3000
06:40
We're talking about a society that is retreating
161
400260
2000
06:42
into depression and disassociation
162
402260
3000
06:45
when we are potentially confronting
163
405260
2000
06:47
the next great catastrophic climate shift.
164
407260
3000
06:50
So what you'd be wondering, watching the Human Show,
165
410260
2000
06:52
is are we going to confront and address
166
412260
2000
06:54
the catastrophic climate shift that may be heading our way
167
414260
2000
06:56
by growing our consciousness,
168
416260
2000
06:58
or are we going to continue to retreat?
169
418260
2000
07:00
And that then might lead you
170
420260
2000
07:02
to watch an episode one day
171
422260
2000
07:04
of Cedars-Sinai medical center
172
424260
3000
07:07
and a consideration of the difference between potential mind and actual mind.
173
427260
3000
07:10
This is a dense array EEG MRI
174
430260
3000
07:13
tracking 156 channels of information.
175
433260
2000
07:15
It's not my EEG at Cedars;
176
435260
3000
07:18
it's your EEG tonight and last night.
177
438260
3000
07:21
It's the what our minds do every night
178
441260
2000
07:23
to digest the day
179
443260
2000
07:25
and to prepare to bridge from the potential mind when we're asleep
180
445260
2000
07:27
to the actual mind when we awaken the following morning.
181
447260
3000
07:30
This is how I was when I returned from the hospital
182
450260
3000
07:33
after nearly four months.
183
453260
2000
07:35
The horseshoe shape you can see on my skull
184
455260
2000
07:37
is where they operated and went inside my brain
185
457260
2000
07:39
to do the surgeries they needed to do to rescue my life.
186
459260
3000
07:42
But if you look into the eye of consciousness, that single eye you can see,
187
462260
3000
07:45
I'm looking down,
188
465260
2000
07:47
but let me tell you how I felt at that point.
189
467260
3000
07:50
I didn't feel empty; I felt everything simultaneously.
190
470260
2000
07:52
I felt empty and full, hot and cold,
191
472260
3000
07:55
euphoric and depressed
192
475260
2000
07:57
because the brain is the world's first
193
477260
2000
07:59
fully functional quantum computer;
194
479260
2000
08:01
it can occupy multiple states at the same time.
195
481260
3000
08:04
And with all the internal regulators of my brain damaged,
196
484260
3000
08:07
I felt everything simultaneously.
197
487260
3000
08:10
But let's swivel around and look at me frontally.
198
490260
3000
08:13
This is now flash-forward to the point in time
199
493260
2000
08:15
where I've been discharged by the health system.
200
495260
3000
08:18
Look into those eyes. I'm not able to focus those eyes.
201
498260
2000
08:20
I'm not able to follow a line of text in a book.
202
500260
3000
08:23
But the system has moved me on
203
503260
2000
08:25
because, as my family started to discover,
204
505260
3000
08:28
there is no long-term concept
205
508260
2000
08:30
in the health care system.
206
510260
2000
08:32
Neurological damage, 10 years of rehab,
207
512260
3000
08:35
requires a long-term perspective.
208
515260
2000
08:37
But let's take a look behind my eyes.
209
517260
2000
08:39
This is a gamma radiation spec scan
210
519260
2000
08:41
that uses gamma radiation
211
521260
2000
08:43
to map three-dimensional function within the brain.
212
523260
3000
08:46
It requires a laboratory to see it in three dimension,
213
526260
2000
08:48
but in two dimensions I think you can see
214
528260
2000
08:50
the beautiful symmetry and illumination
215
530260
2000
08:52
of a normal mind at work.
216
532260
2000
08:54
Here's my brain.
217
534260
2000
08:56
That is the consequence of more than a third of the right side of my brain
218
536260
3000
08:59
being destroyed by the stroke.
219
539260
2000
09:01
So my family, as we moved forward
220
541260
2000
09:03
and discovered that the health care system had moved us by,
221
543260
3000
09:06
had to try to find solutions and answers.
222
546260
2000
09:08
And during that process -- it took many years --
223
548260
3000
09:11
one of the doctors said that my recovery, my degree of advance,
224
551260
3000
09:14
since the amount of head injury I'd suffered,
225
554260
2000
09:16
was miraculous.
226
556260
2000
09:18
And that was when I started to write a book,
227
558260
2000
09:20
because I didn't think it was miraculous.
228
560260
2000
09:22
I thought there were miraculous elements,
229
562260
2000
09:24
but I also didn't think it was right
230
564260
2000
09:26
that one should have to struggle and search for answers
231
566260
2000
09:28
when this is a pandemic within our society.
232
568260
3000
09:31
So from this experience of my recovery,
233
571260
3000
09:34
I want to share four particular aspects --
234
574260
3000
09:37
I call them the four C's of consciousness --
235
577260
2000
09:39
that helped me grow my potential mind
236
579260
3000
09:42
back towards the actual mind that I work with every day.
237
582260
3000
09:45
The first C is cognitive training.
238
585260
2000
09:47
Unlike the smashed glass of my car,
239
587260
3000
09:50
plasticity of the brain
240
590260
2000
09:52
means that there was always a possibility, with treatment,
241
592260
3000
09:55
to train the brain
242
595260
2000
09:57
so that you can regain and raise your level of awareness and consciousness.
243
597260
3000
10:00
Plasticity means that there was always
244
600260
2000
10:02
hope for our reason --
245
602260
2000
10:04
hope for our ability to rebuild that function.
246
604260
3000
10:07
Indeed, the mind can redefine itself,
247
607260
2000
10:09
and this is demonstrated by two specialists called Hagen and Silva
248
609260
3000
10:12
back in the 1970's.
249
612260
2000
10:14
The global perspective
250
614260
2000
10:16
is that up to 30 percent of children in school
251
616260
2000
10:18
have learning weaknesses
252
618260
2000
10:20
that are not self-correcting,
253
620260
2000
10:22
but with appropriate treatment,
254
622260
2000
10:24
they can be screened for and detected and corrected
255
624260
3000
10:27
and avoid their academic failure.
256
627260
2000
10:29
But what I discovered is it's almost impossible to find anyone
257
629260
3000
10:32
who provides that treatment or care.
258
632260
2000
10:34
Here's what my neuropsychologist provided for me
259
634260
2000
10:36
when I actually found somebody who could apply it.
260
636260
3000
10:39
I'm not a doctor, so I'm not going to talk about the various subtests.
261
639260
3000
10:42
Let's just talk about full-scale I.Q.
262
642260
2000
10:44
Full-scale I.Q. is the mental processing --
263
644260
2000
10:46
how fast you can acquire information,
264
646260
2000
10:48
retain it and retrieve it --
265
648260
2000
10:50
that is essential for success in life today.
266
650260
3000
10:53
And you can see here there are three columns.
267
653260
2000
10:55
Untestable -- that's when I'm in my coma.
268
655260
3000
10:58
And then I creep up to the point that I get a score of 79,
269
658260
3000
11:01
which is just below average.
270
661260
3000
11:04
In the health care system, if you touch average, you're done.
271
664260
3000
11:07
That's when I was discharged from the system.
272
667260
2000
11:09
What does average I.Q. really mean?
273
669260
3000
11:12
It meant that when I was given two and a half hours
274
672260
3000
11:15
to take a test that anyone here
275
675260
2000
11:17
would take in 50 minutes,
276
677260
2000
11:19
I might score an F.
277
679260
3000
11:22
This is a very, very low level
278
682260
2000
11:24
in order to be kicked out of the health care system.
279
684260
2000
11:26
Then I underwent cognitive training.
280
686260
2000
11:28
And let me show you what happened to the right-hand column
281
688260
2000
11:30
when I did my cognitive training over a period of time.
282
690260
3000
11:33
This is not supposed to occur.
283
693260
3000
11:36
I.Q. is supposed to stabilize and solidify
284
696260
3000
11:39
at the age of eight.
285
699260
2000
11:41
Now the Journal of the National Medical Association
286
701260
2000
11:43
gave my memoir a full clinical review,
287
703260
2000
11:45
which is very unusual.
288
705260
2000
11:47
I'm not a doctor. I have no medical background whatsoever.
289
707260
3000
11:50
But they felt the evidences
290
710260
2000
11:52
that there was important, valuable information in the book,
291
712260
3000
11:55
and they commented about it when they gave the full peer review to it.
292
715260
3000
11:58
But they asked one question. They said, "Is this repeatable?"
293
718260
3000
12:01
That was a fair question
294
721260
2000
12:03
because my memoir was simply how I found solutions that worked for me.
295
723260
3000
12:06
The answer is yes, and for the first time,
296
726260
2000
12:08
it's my pleasure to be able to share two examples.
297
728260
2000
12:10
Here's somebody, what they did as they went through cognitive training
298
730260
2000
12:12
at ages seven and 11.
299
732260
2000
12:14
And here's another person in, call it, high school and college.
300
734260
3000
12:17
And this person is particularly interesting.
301
737260
2000
12:19
I won't go into the intrascatter that's in the subtests,
302
739260
2000
12:21
but they still had a neurologic issue.
303
741260
2000
12:23
But that person could be identified
304
743260
2000
12:25
as having a learning disability.
305
745260
2000
12:27
And with accommodation, they went on to college
306
747260
2000
12:29
and had a full life in terms of their opportunities.
307
749260
3000
12:32
Second aspect:
308
752260
2000
12:34
I still had crushing migraine headaches.
309
754260
2000
12:36
Two elements that worked for me here
310
756260
2000
12:38
are -- the first is 90 percent, I learned, of head and neck pain
311
758260
4000
12:42
is through muscular-skeletal imbalance.
312
762260
2000
12:44
The craniomandibular system is critical to that.
313
764260
4000
12:48
And when I underwent it and found solutions,
314
768260
3000
12:51
this is the interrelationship between the TMJ and the teeth.
315
771260
3000
12:54
Up to 30 percent of the population
316
774260
2000
12:56
have a disorder, disease or dysfunction in the jaw
317
776260
3000
12:59
that affects the entire body.
318
779260
2000
13:01
I was fortunate to find a dentist
319
781260
2000
13:03
who applied this entire universe
320
783260
2000
13:05
of technology you're about to see
321
785260
2000
13:07
to establish that if he repositioned my jaw,
322
787260
2000
13:09
the headaches pretty much resolved,
323
789260
2000
13:11
but that then my teeth weren't in the right place.
324
791260
2000
13:13
He then held my jaw in the right position
325
793260
2000
13:15
while orthodontically he put my teeth into correct alignment.
326
795260
4000
13:19
So my teeth actually hold my jaw in the correct position.
327
799260
3000
13:22
This affected my entire body.
328
802260
3000
13:25
If that sounds like a very, very strange thing to say
329
805260
2000
13:27
and rather a bold statement --
330
807260
2000
13:29
How can the jaw affect the entire body? --
331
809260
2000
13:31
let me simply point out to you,
332
811260
2000
13:33
if I ask you tomorrow
333
813260
2000
13:35
to put one grain of sand between your teeth
334
815260
2000
13:37
and go for a nice long walk,
335
817260
2000
13:39
how far would you last
336
819260
2000
13:41
before you had to remove that grain of sand?
337
821260
2000
13:43
That tiny misalignment.
338
823260
2000
13:45
Bear in mind, there are no nerves in the teeth.
339
825260
2000
13:47
That's why the same between the before and after that this shows,
340
827260
3000
13:50
it's hard to see the difference.
341
830260
2000
13:52
Now just trying putting a few grains of sand between your teeth
342
832260
2000
13:54
and see the difference it makes.
343
834260
2000
13:56
I still had migraine headaches.
344
836260
2000
13:58
The next issue that resolved
345
838260
2000
14:00
was that, if 90 percent of head and neck pain
346
840260
2000
14:02
is caused by imbalance,
347
842260
2000
14:04
the other 10 percent, largely --
348
844260
2000
14:06
if you set aside aneurysms, brain cancer
349
846260
2000
14:08
and hormonal issues --
350
848260
2000
14:10
is the circulation.
351
850260
2000
14:12
Imagine the blood flowing through your body --
352
852260
2000
14:14
I was told at UCLA Medical Center --
353
854260
2000
14:16
as one sealed system.
354
856260
2000
14:18
There's a big pipe with the blood flowing through it,
355
858260
2000
14:20
and around that pipe are the nerves
356
860260
2000
14:22
drawing their nutrient supply from the blood.
357
862260
2000
14:24
That's basically it.
358
864260
2000
14:26
If you press on a hose pipe in a sealed system,
359
866260
2000
14:28
it bulges someplace else.
360
868260
2000
14:30
If that some place else where it bulges
361
870260
2000
14:32
is inside the biggest nerve in your body, your brain,
362
872260
3000
14:35
you get a vascular migraine.
363
875260
2000
14:37
This is a level of pain that's only known
364
877260
2000
14:39
to other people who suffer vascular migraines.
365
879260
3000
14:42
Using this technology,
366
882260
2000
14:44
this is mapping in three dimensions.
367
884260
2000
14:46
This is an MRI MRA MRV,
368
886260
2000
14:48
a volumetric MRI.
369
888260
2000
14:50
Using this technology, the specialists at UCLA Medical Center
370
890260
3000
14:53
were able to identify
371
893260
2000
14:55
where that compression in the hose pipe was occurring.
372
895260
2000
14:57
A vascular surgeon removed most of the first rib on both sides of my body.
373
897260
4000
15:01
And in the following months and years,
374
901260
2000
15:03
I felt the neurological flow of life itself returning.
375
903260
3000
15:06
Communication, the next C. This is critical.
376
906260
3000
15:09
All consciousness is about communication.
377
909260
3000
15:12
And here, by great fortune,
378
912260
2000
15:14
one of my father's clients
379
914260
2000
15:16
had a husband who worked
380
916260
2000
15:18
at the Alfred Mann Foundation for Scientific Research.
381
918260
3000
15:21
Alfred Mann is a brilliant physicist and innovator
382
921260
2000
15:23
who's fascinated with bridging gaps in consciousness,
383
923260
3000
15:26
whether to restore hearing to the deaf, vision to the blind
384
926260
3000
15:29
or movement to the paralyzed.
385
929260
2000
15:31
And I'm just going to give you an example today
386
931260
2000
15:33
of movement to the paralyzed.
387
933260
2000
15:35
I've brought with me, from Southern California,
388
935260
3000
15:38
the FM device.
389
938260
2000
15:40
This is it being held in the hand.
390
940260
2000
15:42
It weighs less than a gram.
391
942260
2000
15:44
So two of them implanted in the body would weigh less than a dime.
392
944260
3000
15:47
Five of them would still weigh less
393
947260
2000
15:49
than a rupee coin.
394
949260
2000
15:51
Where does it go inside the body?
395
951260
2000
15:53
It has been simulated and tested to endure in the body corrosion-free
396
953260
2000
15:55
for over 80 years.
397
955260
2000
15:57
So it goes in and it stays there.
398
957260
2000
15:59
Here are the implantation sites.
399
959260
2000
16:01
The concept that they're working towards -- and they have working prototypes --
400
961260
3000
16:04
is that we placed it throughout the motor points of the body
401
964260
2000
16:06
where they're needed.
402
966260
2000
16:08
The main unit will then go inside the brain.
403
968260
2000
16:10
An FM device in the cortex of the brain, the motor cortex,
404
970260
3000
16:13
will send signals in real time
405
973260
2000
16:15
to the motor points in the relevant muscles
406
975260
2000
16:17
so that the person will be able to move their arm, let's say, in real time,
407
977260
3000
16:20
if they've lost control of their arm.
408
980260
2000
16:22
And other FM devices implanted in fingertips,
409
982260
3000
16:25
on contacting a surface,
410
985260
2000
16:27
will send a message back to the sensory cortex of the brain,
411
987260
3000
16:30
so that the person feels a sense of touch.
412
990260
3000
16:33
Is this science fiction? No,
413
993260
2000
16:35
because I'm wearing the first application of this technology.
414
995260
3000
16:38
I don't have the ability to control my left foot.
415
998260
2000
16:40
A radio device is controlling every step I take,
416
1000260
3000
16:43
and a sensor picks up my foot for me
417
1003260
2000
16:45
every time I walk.
418
1005260
2000
16:47
And in closing, I want to share
419
1007260
2000
16:49
the personal reason why this meant so much to me
420
1009260
2000
16:51
and changed the direction of my life.
421
1011260
2000
16:53
In my coma, one of the presences I sensed
422
1013260
2000
16:55
was someone I felt was a protector.
423
1015260
2000
16:57
And when I came out of my coma, I recognized my family,
424
1017260
3000
17:00
but I didn't remember my own past.
425
1020260
3000
17:03
Gradually, I remembered the protector was my wife.
426
1023260
3000
17:06
And I whispered the good news
427
1026260
2000
17:08
through my broken jaw, which was wired shut,
428
1028260
2000
17:10
to my night nurse.
429
1030260
2000
17:12
And the following morning, my mother came to explain
430
1032260
2000
17:14
that I'd not always been in this bed, in this room,
431
1034260
2000
17:16
that I'd been working in film and television
432
1036260
2000
17:18
and that I had been in a crash
433
1038260
2000
17:20
and that, yes, I was married,
434
1040260
3000
17:23
but Marcy had been killed instantly in the crash.
435
1043260
3000
17:26
And during my time in coma,
436
1046260
2000
17:28
she had been laid to rest in her hometown of Phoenix.
437
1048260
4000
17:32
Now in the dark years that followed, I had to work out what remained for me
438
1052260
3000
17:35
if everything that made today special was gone.
439
1055260
3000
17:38
And as I discovered these threats to consciousness
440
1058260
3000
17:41
and how they are surrounding the world
441
1061260
2000
17:43
and enveloping the lives of more and more people every day,
442
1063260
3000
17:46
I discovered what truly remained.
443
1066260
2000
17:48
I believe that we can overcome the threats to our consciousness,
444
1068260
3000
17:51
that the Human Show can stay on the air
445
1071260
2000
17:53
for millennia to come.
446
1073260
2000
17:55
I believe that we can all rise and shine.
447
1075260
3000
17:58
Thank you very much.
448
1078260
2000
18:00
(Applause)
449
1080260
6000
18:06
Lakshmi Pratury: Just stay for a second. Just stay here for a second.
450
1086260
3000
18:09
(Applause)
451
1089260
4000
18:13
You know,
452
1093260
3000
18:16
when I heard Simon's --
453
1096260
4000
18:20
please sit down; I just want to talk to him for a second --
454
1100260
3000
18:23
when I read his book, I went to LA to meet him.
455
1103260
3000
18:26
And so I was sitting in this restaurant,
456
1106260
3000
18:29
waiting for a man to come by
457
1109260
3000
18:32
who obviously would have some difficulty ...
458
1112260
2000
18:34
I don't know what I had in my mind.
459
1114260
2000
18:36
And he was walking around.
460
1116260
2000
18:38
I didn't expect that person that I was going to meet
461
1118260
2000
18:40
to be him.
462
1120260
2000
18:42
And then we met and we talked,
463
1122260
2000
18:44
and I'm like, he doesn't look
464
1124260
2000
18:46
like somebody who was built out of nothing.
465
1126260
4000
18:50
And then I was amazed
466
1130260
2000
18:52
at what role technology played
467
1132260
2000
18:54
in your recovery.
468
1134260
2000
18:56
And we have his book outside
469
1136260
2000
18:58
in the bookshop.
470
1138260
2000
19:00
The thing that amazed me
471
1140260
2000
19:02
is the painstaking detail
472
1142260
3000
19:05
with which he has written
473
1145260
2000
19:07
every hospital he has been to,
474
1147260
2000
19:09
every treatment he got,
475
1149260
2000
19:11
every near-miss he had,
476
1151260
3000
19:14
and how accidentally he stumbled upon innovations.
477
1154260
4000
19:18
So I think this one detail
478
1158260
5000
19:23
went past people really quick.
479
1163260
2000
19:25
Tell a little bit about what you're wearing on your leg.
480
1165260
3000
19:28
Simon Lewis: I knew when I was timing this
481
1168260
2000
19:30
that there wouldn't be time for me to do anything about --
482
1170260
2000
19:32
Well this is it. This is the control unit.
483
1172260
3000
19:35
And this records every single step I've taken
484
1175260
2000
19:37
for, ooh, five or six years now.
485
1177260
2000
19:39
And if I do this, probably the mic won't hear it.
486
1179260
3000
19:44
That little chirp followed by two chirps is now switched on.
487
1184260
3000
19:47
When I press it again, it'll chirp three times,
488
1187260
3000
19:50
and that'll mean that it's armed and ready to go.
489
1190260
3000
19:54
And that's my friend. I mean, I charge it every night.
490
1194260
3000
19:57
And it works. It works.
491
1197260
2000
19:59
And what I would love to add because I didn't have time ...
492
1199260
3000
20:02
What does it do? Well actually, I'll show you down here.
493
1202260
3000
20:05
This down here, if the camera can see that,
494
1205260
3000
20:08
that is a small antenna.
495
1208260
3000
20:11
Underneath my heel, there is a sensor
496
1211260
3000
20:14
that detects when my foot leaves the ground --
497
1214260
2000
20:16
what's called the heel lift.
498
1216260
2000
20:18
This thing blinks all the time; I'll leave it out, so you might be able to see it.
499
1218260
3000
20:21
But this is blinking all the time. It's sending signals in real time.
500
1221260
3000
20:24
And if you walk faster, if I walk faster,
501
1224260
3000
20:27
it detects what's called the time interval,
502
1227260
2000
20:29
which is the interval between each heel lift.
503
1229260
2000
20:31
And it accelerates the amount and level of the stimulation.
504
1231260
4000
20:35
The other things they've worked on -- I didn't have time to say this in my talk --
505
1235260
3000
20:38
is they've restored functional hearing
506
1238260
2000
20:40
to thousands of deaf people.
507
1240260
2000
20:42
I could tell you the story: this was going to be an abandoned technology,
508
1242260
3000
20:45
but Alfred Mann met the doctor who was going to retire,
509
1245260
2000
20:47
[Dr. Schindler.]
510
1247260
2000
20:49
And he was going to retire -- all the technology was going to be lost,
511
1249260
3000
20:52
because not a single medical manufacturer would take it on
512
1252260
3000
20:55
because it was a small issue.
513
1255260
2000
20:57
But there's millions of deaf people in the world,
514
1257260
3000
21:00
and the Cochlear implant has given hearing to thousands of deaf people now.
515
1260260
3000
21:03
It works.
516
1263260
2000
21:05
And the other thing is they're working on artificial retinas for the blind.
517
1265260
3000
21:08
And this, this is the implantable generation.
518
1268260
3000
21:11
Because what I didn't say in my talk
519
1271260
2000
21:13
is this is actually exoskeletal.
520
1273260
2000
21:15
I should clarify that.
521
1275260
2000
21:17
Because the first generation is exoskeletal,
522
1277260
2000
21:19
it's wrapped around the leg,
523
1279260
2000
21:21
around the affected limb.
524
1281260
2000
21:23
I must tell you, they're an amazing --
525
1283260
2000
21:25
there's a hundred people who work in that building --
526
1285260
2000
21:27
engineers, scientists,
527
1287260
2000
21:29
and other team members -- all the time.
528
1289260
2000
21:31
Alfred Mann has set up this foundation
529
1291260
3000
21:34
to advance this research
530
1294260
2000
21:36
because he saw
531
1296260
2000
21:38
there's no way venture capital would come in for something like this.
532
1298260
3000
21:41
The audience is too small.
533
1301260
2000
21:43
You'd think, there's plenty of paralyzed people in the world,
534
1303260
2000
21:45
but the audience is too small,
535
1305260
2000
21:47
and the amount of research, the time it takes,
536
1307260
3000
21:50
the FDA clearances,
537
1310260
2000
21:52
the payback time is too long
538
1312260
2000
21:54
for V.C. to be interested.
539
1314260
2000
21:56
So he saw a need and he stepped in.
540
1316260
2000
21:58
He's a very, very remarkable man.
541
1318260
3000
22:01
He's done a lot of very cutting-edge science.
542
1321260
3000
22:04
LP: So when you get a chance, spend some time with Simon.
543
1324260
2000
22:06
Thank you. Thank you.
544
1326260
2000
22:08
(Applause)
545
1328260
2000
About this website

This site will introduce you to YouTube videos that are useful for learning English. You will see English lessons taught by top-notch teachers from around the world. Double-click on the English subtitles displayed on each video page to play the video from there. The subtitles scroll in sync with the video playback. If you have any comments or requests, please contact us using this contact form.

https://forms.gle/WvT1wiN1qDtmnspy7