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The Rest Is Science
The Rest Is Science

Hannah Predicted a Pandemic

May 20, 2026 • 1h 3m

Summary

⏱️ 9 min read

Overview

In this Field Notes episode, Michael Stevens and Hannah Fry tackle listener questions about consciousness, quantum spin, and atomic density before Hannah shares an extraordinary story about accidentally predicting the COVID-19 pandemic in a 2018 BBC documentary. The discussion explores the hard problem of consciousness, the counterintuitive nature of quantum mechanics, and Hannah's reflections on vaccine hesitancy and institutional trust during the pandemic.

The Nature of Self and Consciousness

Michael and Hannah explore whether swapping sensory inputs would fundamentally change one's sense of self. They discuss experiments where skin grafts initially create confusion about location but the brain adapts, and examine research showing the brain's decision to act precedes conscious awareness. This leads to a broader discussion about whether there's truly a unified "self" or just a brain creating the illusion of one after the fact.

  • Skin graft patients initially feel sensations in the wrong location - touching transplanted leg skin feels like touching the butt where the nerves originated
  • The brain eventually adapts and remaps sensations to the correct location through neuroplasticity
  • Experiments show people's brains decide to press a button before they're consciously aware of the decision
  • Ancient dream reports suggest people experienced dreams differently - more as literal visitations rather than fantastical experiences
  • Children dream more literally in their actual location, only later developing the ability to dream as disembodied observers
" There might not be a you. There's a you-ing that your brain does where it looks at what it's done and what's happening. And it goes, oh, yes, yes, yes, that's what I meant to do. "
" Your lived experience in your body with your sensory inputs and your backstory and your emotional history is completely and totally unique to you. "

Dreams and the Development of Self

An intriguing tangent explores how historical dream reports differ from modern ones, and how children's dreams evolve. Ancient texts describe dreams as literal visitations rather than fantastical experiences, and young children dream similarly - staying in their actual location. Only later do humans develop the ability to dream as disembodied observers in impossible scenarios.

  • Ancient dream reports describe literal visitations while in bed, not fantastical journeys to different places
  • Young children dream literally about their actual location, similar to ancient reports
  • The ability to dream as a disembodied observer going to different places develops later in childhood
  • This developmental pattern may reveal something about how we learn to conceive of a disembodied self

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