Being No One – The Self as Pattern and Myth

What exactly do we mean when we say we are someone? Do we really have something like a stable, unchangeable core of our personality? In light of today’s dramatic advances in brain research, many people begin to ask themselves what the basis of the feeling of “me-ness” is, and what it means to have a conscious self, a subjective identity. This film develops a philosophical vision of how the feeling of “me-ness” is formed, in an accessible and easy-to-understand way that is oriented towards the newest insights from brain research, cognitive science, philosophy of mind, and artificial intelligence research: The „Self“ is a dancing pattern in the brain and a myth an ongoing narrative that we tell ourselves. The contents of our self-awareness are the contents of a „self-model“ emerging in the conscious brain, and because we do not recognize it as an internal model we constantly confuse ourselves with it. A highly-topical collection of testimonials from well-known philosophers of consciousness, neuropsychologists, and brain researchers is presented – by Daniel Dennett, Ned Block, David Chalmers, Patricia Churchland, Petra Stoerig, Rodolfo Llinás, and others who take different positions on the formation of self-awareness.