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Experience Machine – May 6

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My previous encounters with reality contribute to my internal mental predictions about the world that, in turn, help to shape my actual future experiences. So, seeing the "real world" (or hearing sounds, or feeling pain, or ...) involves a personal, ideosyncratic filter/kaleidoscope. This prediction-based theory of mind is quite hopeful. More than a facile version of "positive thinking," it suggests a realistic optimism where well-tuned expectations can actively help to bring about desired states and experiences.

Our speaker, Dr. Andy Clark, is Professor of Cognitive Philosophy at England's University of Sussex. He will present ideas from — and answer questions about — his new book, The Experience Machine: How Our Minds Predict and Shape Reality.


Dr. Andy Clark

WHAT: The Experience Machine: Mental Prediction & Perceived Reality
WHO: Dr. Andy Clark, Professor of Cognitive Philosophy, University of Sussex [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andy_Clark]
WHERE: ONLINE, via Zoom [https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83352160955]
WHEN: 2023-05-06 — 1pm PDT, Sat, May 6th (1 hour)
HOW:

This free, unticketed event is a joint production of Wonderfest and San Francisco's BookShop West Portal. In the space below, please support Wonderfest's nonprofit work in science outreach. (NOTE: Despite the Eventbrite wording, your thoughtful donation is not a "sale.")


Collaborators:
BookShop West Portal [https://www.bookshopwestportal.com]
secret-of-our-success-wonderfest

The Secret of Our Success: How Culture is Driving Human Evolution, Feb 2

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Humans are a puzzling species. On the one hand, we struggle to survive on our own in the wild. On the other hand, humans have produced innovative technologies, sophisticated languages, and complex institutions. Joseph Heinrich — co-director of Harvard’s Human Evolution, Cognition, and Culture Center — explores how our cultural and social development produce a collective intelligence that explains both our uniqueness and our success.

Joseph Henrich

WHAT: The Secret of Our Success: How Culture is Driving Human Evolution
WHO: Joseph Henrich, Professor of Human Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University
WHERE: Schultz Cultural Hall, Oshman Family JCC, 3921 Fabian Way, Palo Alto
Map: [https://goo.gl/maps/Xmfhfi52pvx]
WHEN: 2016-02-02 — 6:30pm check-in, 7:00 program, 8:00 book signing
HOW:
Collaborators:
Co-presented with The Commonwealth Club Silicon Valley
TICKETS:
http://bit.ly/1JhBG6T

Love Among the Neurons

The Neuroscience of Love, Aug 4

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Love Among the Neurons

This is a ticketed event.  Please purchase tickets here: http://bit.ly/1OqWGFX

Love is defined as a feeling of deep affection for someone or something, but why can it mean so much more to us? Why does who we are, and who we become, often depend on whom we love? Dr. Thomas Lewis, co-author of A General Theory of Love, will answer this and many other questions as he explores our human development, the nature of togetherness, and the multifaceted bonds that connect us. Join us as we learn how the human race evolved from solitary predators into the intensely social creatures we are today.

This is a ticketed event.  Please purchase tickets here: http://bit.ly/1OqWGFX

——————————–

Wonderfest works every day to promote the scientific outlook. For as little as $1/month, why not become a Wonderfest Patron? As the Medici family were patrons of popular art in old Italy, you can become a patron of popular science and rationality in the modern Bay Area. (And you’ll get that tax-deduction that the Medici never did!) Please become a regular supporter of Wonderfest, and help enlarge the concept of scientific community.

If you shop at Amazon.com, why not shop at AmazonSmile? It doesn’t cost you a dime extra, selection and prices are the same, and a small percent supports Wonderfest and science!  http://amazon.wonderfest.org.

Watch more videos: http://videos.wonderfest.org

Join us on:
http://facebook.com/wonderfest
http://twitter.com/wonderfest

Love in the Time of Facebook

Love in the Time of Facebook

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Facebook is a great way to share news, keep in touch with friends, and make fun of old photos. It’s also a gold mine of information about human relationships. Data scientists have studied the communications of people who change their Facebook relationship status from “Single” to “In a relationship.” We now know how their timeline posts change, and how their use of positive wording (“love,” “nice,” “happy,” etc.) evolve. Aggregate, anonymized Facebook data tells us a lot about the formation of love, its duration, its stages, and the role of other factors like religion and age. Join Facebook scientist Dr. Carlos Diuk as he mines the data to explore love and relationships in the modern era.

  • WHAT:  Love in the Time of Facebook
  • WHO: Dr. Carlos Diuk, Facebook Data Scientist
  • WHEN: 7pm, Wednesday, March 18, 2015
  • WHERE:  Patreon HQ, 230 – 9th Street, San Francisco (close to BART Civic Center) <http://tinyurl.com/lljx2da>
  • HOW:  Purchase $5 tickets via Eventbrite, below. Complimentary snacks & drinks provided by Patreon. Co-produced with Ask a Scientist.
  • WHY:  Because we’re curious creatures.

Wonderfest works every day to promote the scientific outlook. For as little as $1/month, why not become a Wonderfest Patron? As the Medici family were patrons of popular art in old Italy, you can become a patron of popular science and rationality in the modern Bay Area. (And you’ll get that tax-deduction that the Medici never did!) Please become a regular supporter of Wonderfest, and help enlarge the concept of scientific community.

If you shop at Amazon.com, why not shop at AmazonSmile? It doesn’t cost you a dime extra, selection and prices are the same, and a small percent supports Wonderfest and science!  http://amazon.wonderfest.org.

Watch more videos: http://videos.wonderfest.org

Join us on:
http://facebook.com/wonderfest
http://twitter.com/wonderfest

Love Among the Neurons

LOVE AMONG THE NEURONS: A Neuroscience Guide to Valentine’s Day – Feb 13

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Love Among the NeuronsMathematician Blaise Pascal famously wrote, “The heart has reasons that reason cannot comprehend.” Perhaps. But, on Valentine’s Day Eve, and with the expert help of UCSF’s Thomas Lewis, Wonderfest and Ask a Scientist will give comprehension a try.

How did the human race evolve from solitary predators into the intensely social creatures that we are now? Where in the brain can we find the roots of our multiple connections to each other, and how do those connections reverberate within and between us? Join Dr. Thomas Lewis, assistant clinical professor at UCSF and professor at USF’s Fromm Institute, and coauthor of A General Theory of Love, as we explore the nature of togetherness and the multifaceted bonds that connect us.

  • WHAT:  Love Among the Neurons: A Neuroscience Guide to Valentine’s Day
  • WHO: Thomas Lewis, MD, Assistant Clinical Professor of Psychiatry, UCSF
  • WHEN: 7:00 PM, Friday, Feb 13, 2015
  • WHERE:  StrEat Food Park, 428 – 11th Street, San Francisco 94103 <http://goo.gl/maps/u6fVu>
  • HOW:   FREE admission, but please register with Eventbrite. Co-produced with Ask a Scientist.
  • WHY:  Because we’re curious creatures.

Wonderfest works every day to promote the scientific outlook. For as little as $1/month, why not become a Wonderfest Patron? As the Medici family were patrons of popular art in old Italy, you can become a patron of popular science and rationality in the modern Bay Area. (And you’ll get that tax-deduction that the Medici never did!) Please become a regular supporter of Wonderfest, and help enlarge the concept of scientific community.

If you shop at Amazon.com, why not shop at AmazonSmile? It doesn’t cost you a dime extra, selection and prices are the same, and a small percent supports Wonderfest and science!  http://amazon.wonderfest.org.

Watch more videos: http://videos.wonderfest.org

Join us on:
http://facebook.com/wonderfest
http://twitter.com/wonderfest

Incomplete Nature Lecture with Terrence Deacon

Incomplete Nature: Consciousness, and Purpose?

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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.

WHAT: Incomplete Nature: How Mind Emerged From Matter
WHO: Terrence Deacon, Professor of Anthropology at UC Berkeley
WHEN: 2012-04-18