Cultural Intelligence? – Dec 3
How can we explain humanity's extraordinary evolutionary success? In this talk, psychologist Jan Engelmann will explain and explore a series of experimental studies comparing humans to one of our closest living relatives, chimpanzees. He will argue and present evidence that — maybe surprisingly — humans are not individually but are collectively smarter than other animals. Counterintuitively, our cooperative nature also gives rise to novel and powerful forms of competition among individuals and whole groups.
Jan Engelmann is Assistant Professor of Psychology at UC Berkeley. Dr. Engelmann earned his PhD at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, and has received numerous awards and grants for his research.
Dr. Jan Engelmann
Please take part in this admission-free event via the Zoom link ("WHERE") above. And please consider contributing to Wonderfest, below, in accord with the value this experience has for you.
Incomplete Nature: Consciousness, and Purpose?
Prof. Deacon's presentation will focus on the central idea of his new book, "Incomplete Nature," namely that key elements of consciousness (values, feelings, meanings, etc.) emerge from specific CONSTRAINTS on the physical processes of a nervous system. "Incomplete Nature" is the inaugural selection of the brand new Wonderfest Book Club. As physicists work toward completing a theory of the universe and biologists unravel the molecular complexity of life, a glaring incompleteness in this scientific vision becomes apparent. The "Theory of Everything" that appears to be emerging includes everything but us: the feelings, meanings, consciousness, and purposes that make us (and many of our animal cousins) what we are. These most immediate and incontrovertible phenomena are left unexplained by the natural sciences because they lack the physical properties—such as mass, momentum, charge, and location—that are assumed to be necessary for something to have physical consequences in the world. This is an unacceptable omission. We need a "theory of everything" that does not leave it absurd that we exist.