Podcasts about Churchland

What if you could own a stunning oceanfront property without actually owning the land beneath it? Our latest episode peels back the layers of leasehold property ownership, transforming this often intimidating real estate concept into an intriguing opportunity. From the breathtaking shores of Manly to the historic estates owned by institutions like the Catholic Church, we spotlight the hidden potential of leasehold properties. You'll learn why this unique form of property ownership is not only prevalent in the UK and Canberra but also offers unexpected financial benefits, such as potential land tax exemptions.Our discussion tackles the common myths surrounding leasehold properties, such as the fear of lease expiration and misconceptions about their value appreciation. We share real-world examples, including a recently sold leasehold property on Churchland in Manly fetching a mind-boggling $35 million, proving that leasehold can indeed be a lucrative investment. Whether you're a seasoned investor or a curious newcomer, this episode promises to change the way you view property ownership, revealing why leasehold might just be the perfect fit for your next real estate venture.

Send us a textReady to catch the latest buzz in local sports and beyond? Tune in as we unravel the thrilling triumphs and unexpected upsets from the VHSL playoffs, spotlighting key victories like Salem's against George Washington and Phoebus' commanding win over Churchland. We'll guide you through the highlights of teams like Sherando and Strasburg, and reflect on the bittersweet moments of supporting local teams despite some disappointing outcomes. Plus, take a peek into the high-energy playoff structure of West Virginia, where every game keeps you on the edge of your seat.Next, we stir up some spirited debate about who deserves a spot in the NFL Hall of Fame. We passionately argue for legends like Antonio Gates, Steve Smith Sr., and Adam Vinatieri, while also giving some love to players whose brilliance often flies under the radar, like Fred Taylor and Hines Ward. The discussion gets heated and hilarious as we weigh Super Bowl bling and overall impact, all while playfully owning up to our personal biases and preferences.Finally, we take a serious look at history and education, starting with the harrowing tale of the Tulsa Massacre and the ongoing fight for reparations. We shine a light on the gaps in school curriculums and push for a more honest, inclusive approach to teaching history, drawing comparisons to how Germany confronts its past. Wrapping things up, we blend history and sports by discussing NFL picks and the ever-entertaining team rivalries, especially the iconic Dallas vs. Washington showdown. Get ready for a mix of laughter, learning, and lively discussion that's sure to keep you engaged from start to finish.Support the showThanks for all the support and please subscribe to our podcast. Subscribe and we will give you a shoutout. Give feedback as well. Subscription :https://www.buzzsprout.com/1737579/support↗️Website:https://brotherswithopinionsbwo.buzzsprout.com↗️Email: brotherswithopinions@gmail.com Facebook: Brothers With Opinions-B.W.O.Instagram: @brotherswithopinionspodcastX: @browopodcastTikTok: @brotherswithopinionsIntro and Outro music credit to Wooka Da Don

Despite being STRONGLY encouraged to find a home elsewhere, Speaker Don Scott finds a community that embraces all of him. 

Mrs. Sharlene experienced a poverty of wealth and of love in her early years.  Despite it all, she found a way to raise her daughter differently, without ever forgetting where she came from. 

From chickens to cheerleading, Tamara finds her way out of the country and into Churchland. Her love of I.C. Norcom continues in her work on the Portsmouth School Board.

Benjamin Bratton writes about world-spanning intelligences, grinding geopolitical tectonics, “accidental megastructures” of geotechnical cruft, the millienia-long terraforming project through which humans rendered an earth into a world, and the question of what global-scale order means in the twilight of the Westphalian nation-state.Candidly, if either of us were to recommend a book to help you understand the present state of ‘politics' or ‘technology', we'd probably start with Bratton's The Stack — written 10 years ago, but still very much descriptive of our world and illuminative of its futures.If the first 10 minutes are too “tech industry” for you — just skip ahead. The whole conversation is seriously fire, and it spikes hit after hit of takes on privacy, bias, alignment, subjectivity, the primacy of the individual … all almost entirely unrepresented within the Discourse.Some references:We briefly talk about EdgeML, which essentially means the execution of ML models on small computers installed in a field location.Benjamin mentions his collaboration with renowned computer scientist and thinker Blaise Agüera y Arcas, whose work on federated learning is relevant to this stage of the conversation. Federated learning involves a distributed training approach in which a model is updated by field components who only transmit changes to a model therefore retaining the security of local training sets to their own environments only. Also - here's a link to their collaboration on “The Model is the Message."Benjamin calls himself a bit of an “eliminative materialist” “in the Churchland mode,” meaning someone who believes that “folk psychologies” or “folk ontologies” (theories of how the mind works from metaphysics, psychoanalysis, or generalized psychology) will be replaced by frameworks from cognitive science or neuroscience.Benjamin calls out a collaboration with Chen Quifan. Check out Waste Tide — it's excellent sci-fi.The collaboration with Anna Greenspan and Bogna Konior discussed in the pod is called “Machine Decision is Not Final” out on Urbanomic.Shoshana Zuboff is a theorist who coined the term “surveillance capitalism,” referring to capital accumulation through a process of ‘dispossession by surveillance.' The implicit critique of “surveillance capitalism” in this episode hinges on its overemphasis on individual sovereignty.“Tay” was the infamous AI Twitter Chatbot Microsoft rolled out for 16 hours before pulling back for its controversial content.Antihumanism refers to a rejection of the ontological primacy and universalization of the human afforded to it through the philosophical stance of “humanism.” An “antihumanist" is someone who challenges the stability of the concept of the “human” or at very least its salience in cosmic affairs.Check out Benjamin's new piece on Tank Mag (Tank.tv), it's fire. And check out Anna Kornbluh's AWESOME “Immediacy, or The Style of Too Late Capitalism” on Verso.

Link to bioRxiv paper: http://biorxiv.org/cgi/content/short/2023.07.04.547681v1?rss=1 Authors: International Brain Lab,, Benson, B., Benson, J., Birman, D., Bonacchi, N., Carandini, M., Catarino, J. A., Chapuis, G. A., Churchland, A. K., Dan, Y., Dayan, P., DeWitt, E. E., Engel, T. A., Fabbri, M., Faulkner, M., Fiete, I. R., Findling, C., Freitas-Silva, L., Gercek, B., Harris, K. D., Hausser, M., Hofer, S. B., Hu, F., Hubert, F., Huntenburg, J. M., Khanal, A., Krasniak, C., Langdon, C., Lau, P. Y. P., Mainen, Z. F., Meijer, G. T., Miska, N. J., Mrsic-Flogel, T. D., Noel, J.-P., Nylund, K., Pan-Vazquez, A., Pouget, A., Rossant, C., Roth, N., Schaeffer, R., Schartner, M., Shi, Y., Socha Abstract: A key challenge in neuroscience is understanding how neurons in hundreds of interconnected brain regions integrate sensory inputs with prior expectations to initiate movements. It has proven difficult to meet this challenge when different laboratories apply different analyses to different recordings in different regions during different behaviours. Here, we report a comprehensive set of recordings from 115 mice in 11 labs performing a decision-making task with sensory, motor, and cognitive components, obtained with 547 Neuropixels probe insertions covering 267 brain areas in the left forebrain and midbrain and the right hindbrain and cerebellum. We provide an initial appraisal of this brain-wide map, assessing how neural activity en- codes key task variables. Representations of visual stimuli appeared transiently in classical visual areas after stimulus onset and then spread to ramp-like activity in a collection of mid- and hindbrain regions that also encoded choices. Neural responses correlated with motor action almost everywhere in the brain. Responses to reward delivery and consumption versus reward omission were also widespread. Representations of objective prior expectations were weaker, found in sparse sets of neurons from restricted regions. This publicly available dataset represents an unprecedented resource for understanding how computations distributed across and within brain areas drive behaviour. Copy rights belong to original authors. Visit the link for more info Podcast created by Paper Player, LLC

Link to bioRxiv paper: http://biorxiv.org/cgi/content/short/2023.07.04.547684v1?rss=1 Authors: Findling, C., Hubert, F., International Brain Laboratory,, Acerbi, L., Benson, B., Benson, J., Birman, D., Bonacchi, N., Carandini, M., Catarino, J. A., Chapuis, G. A., Churchland, A. K., Dan, Y., DeWitt, E. E., Engel, T. A., Fabbri, M., Faulkner, M., Fiete, I. R., Freitas-Silva, L., Gercek, B., Harris, K. D., Hausser, M., Hofer, S. B., Hu, F., Huntenburg, J. M., Khanal, A., Krasniak, C., Langdon, C., Latham, P. E., Lau, P. Y. P., Meijer, G. T., Miska, N. J., Mrsic-Flogel, T. D., Noel, J.-P., Nylund, K., Paninski, L., Pan-Vazquez, A., Pillow, J., Rossant, C., Roth, N., Schaeffer, R., Schartn Abstract: The neural representations of prior information about the state of the world are poorly understood. To investigate this issue, we examined brain-wide Neuropixels recordings and widefield calcium imaging collected by the International Brain Laboratory. Mice were trained to indicate the location of a visual grating stimulus, which appeared on the left or right with prior probability alternating between 0.2 and 0.8 in blocks of variable length. We found that mice estimate this prior probability and thereby improve their decision accuracy. Furthermore, we report that this subjective prior is encoded in at least 20% to 30% of brain regions which, remarkably, span all levels of processing, from early sensory areas (LGd, VISp) to motor regions (MOs, MOp, GRN) and high level cortical regions (ACCd, ORBvl). This widespread representation of the prior is consistent with a neural model of Bayesian inference involving loops between areas, as opposed to a model in which the prior is incorporated only in decision making areas. This study offers the first brain-wide perspective on prior encoding at cellular resolution, underscoring the importance of using large scale recordings on a single standardized task. Copy rights belong to original authors. Visit the link for more info Podcast created by Paper Player, LLC

Link to bioRxiv paper: http://biorxiv.org/cgi/content/short/2023.06.26.546404v1?rss=1 Authors: Yin, C., Melin, M., Rojas-Bowe, G., Couto, J., Sun, X., Gluf, S., Kostiuk, A., Musall, S., Churchland, A. K. Abstract: Neural activity during sensory-guided decision-making is strongly modulated by animal movements. Although the impact of movements on neural activity is now well-documented, the relationship between these movements and behavioral performance remains unclear. To understand this relationship, we first tested whether the magnitude of animal movements (assessed with posture analysis of 28 individual body parts) was correlated with performance on a perceptual decision-making task. No strong relationship was present, suggesting that task performance is not affected by the magnitude of movements. We then tested if performance instead depends on movement timing and trajectory. We partitioned the movements into two groups: task-aligned movements that were well predicted by task events (such as the onset of the sensory stimulus or choice) and task independent movements (TIM) that occurred independently of task events. TIM had a reliable, inverse correlation with performance in head-restrained mice and freely moving rats. This argues that certain movements, defined by their timing and trajectories relative to task events, might indicate periods of engagement or disengagement in the task. To confirm this, we compared TIM to the latent behavioral states recovered by a hidden Markov model with Bernoulli generalized linear model observations (GLM-HMM) and found these, again, to be inversely correlated. Finally, we examined the impact of these behavioral states on neural activity measured with widefield calcium imaging. The engaged state was associated with widespread increased activity, particularly during the delay period. However, a linear encoding model could account for more overall variance in neural activity in the disengaged state. Our analyses demonstrate that this is likely because uninstructed movements had a greater impact on neural activity during disengagement. Taken together, these findings suggest that TIM is informative about the internal state of engagement, and that movements and state together have a major impact on neural activity. Copy rights belong to original authors. Visit the link for more info Podcast created by Paper Player, LLC

Neurofilozofka Patricia Churchland přichází s nezvyklým pohledem na to, odkud se bere morálka, a s ní i  solidarita a péče o druhé. Její zdroj při zkoumání fungování mozku nenachází jen v náboženství, výchově a společenské etice, ale i v biologických procesech a evoluci. Důležitým souvisejícím objevem přitom je, že tyto schopnosti nejsou dány pouze člověku. Najdeme je také u dalších savců i jiných druhů živočichů. Jaké implikace to má pro fungování společnosti?Patricia Churchland je filozofka, průkopnice na poli neurofilozofie – oboru, který filozofické problémy promýšlí ve světle vědeckých poznatků o fungování lidského mozku. Churchland vychází z předpokladu, že naše mentální procesy mají základ v neurobiologických mechanismech. Ve své nejnovější knize Svědomí: původ morální intuice dochází k závěru, že i svědomí je produktem evolučního vývoje mozku a určitou morální intuicí tak nedisponují pouze lidé. Churchland je emeritní profesorkou na University of California v San Diegu a od roku 2015 členkou Americké akademie umění a věd.Sledujte nás na sociálních sítích Facebook, Instagram, YouTube a Twitter.

Acts 10:34-48

Link to bioRxiv paper: http://biorxiv.org/cgi/content/short/2023.02.01.526664v1?rss=1 Authors: Trautmann, E. M., Hesse, J. K., Stine, G., Xia, R., Shude Zhu, S., O'Shea, D. J., Karsh, B., Colonell, J., Lanfranchi, F., Vyas, S., Zimnik, A., Steinemann, N. A., Wagenaar, D. A., Andrei, A., Mora Lopez, C., OCallaghan, J. M., Putzeys, J., Raducanu, B. C., Welkenhuysen, M., Churchland, M., Moore, T., Shadlen, M. N., Shenoy, K. V., Tsao, D., Dutta, B., Harris, T. Abstract: High-density, integrated silicon electrodes have begun to transform systems neuroscience, by enabling large-scale neural population recordings with single cell resolution. Existing technologies, however, have provided limited functionality in nonhuman primate species such as macaques, which offer close models of human cognition and behavior. Here, we report the design, fabrication, and performance of Neuropixels 1.0-NHP, a high channel count linear electrode array designed to enable large-scale simultaneous recording in superficial and deep structures within the macaque or other large animal brain. These devices were fabricated in two versions: 4416 electrodes along a 45 mm shank, and 2496 along a 25 mm shank. For both versions, users can programmably select 384 channels, enabling simultaneous multi-area recording with a single probe. We demonstrate recording from over 3000 single neurons within a session, and simultaneous recordings from over 1000 neurons using multiple probes. This technology represents a significant increase in recording access and scalability relative to existing technologies, and enables new classes of experiments involving fine-grained electrophysiological characterization of brain areas, functional connectivity between cells, and simultaneous brain-wide recording at scale. Copy rights belong to original authors. Visit the link for more info Podcast created by Paper Player, LLC

This episode is the third in our three part series on consciousness. While we do figure out that it's a brain process, more importantly, we learn how to succeed in neuroscience. The Churchland method of scientific husbandry will have you breeding A-class neuroscientists! You might not get published, but your DNA will. Alternatively, you can try splitting your brain and accomplish twice as much. If you get hungry, just pop some pup brains in your mouth. And finally, don't forget to make one of the figures in your next manuscript just a picture of two middle fingers. Also, go beg for me, baby.

This episode is the third in our three part series on consciousness. While we do figure out that it's a brain process, more importantly, we learn how to succeed in neuroscience. The Churchland method of scientific husbandry will have you breeding A-class neuroscientists! You might not get published, but your DNA will. Alternatively, you can try splitting your brain and accomplish twice as much. If you get hungry, just pop some pup brains in your mouth. And finally, don't forget to make one of the figures in your next manuscript just a picture of two middle fingers. Also, go beg for me, baby.

Co-hosts, Brian & Jennifer, recap our fall series on Churchland stewardship, episodes 20-21 with Norman Wirzba, Ian McSweeney, Canon Abbott Bailey, and Bishop Megan Traquair. 

Why do we care for others? Why did morality evolve? Is unselfish behaviour possible in a Darwinian world? Patricia Churchland joins to discuss these topics with your host, Ilari Mäkelä. Author of Conscience: Origins of Moral Intuition, Patricia Churchland is an emerita professor of Philosophy at UC San Diego. Ilari and Professor Churchland discuss topics such as: Warm-bloodedness and morality Psychological egoism vs unselfish behaviour Neurobiology of care: Oxytocin, cannabinoids, opioids Elements of morality: How much of morality is about care, vs problem-solving, cooperation, and social learning? Churchland's criticism of Western moral philosophy Neurophilosophy: is studying the brain all that useful? Free will: does studying the brain show that free will does not exist? Technical terms mentioned: Endothermy (i.e. warm-bloodedness) Cortex Oxytocin, vasopressin Endogenous opioids and cannabinoids Utilitarian ethics Kantian ethics (i.e. deontology) Metta meditation Vitalism Names mentioned: Christophe Boesch (chimpanzee adoption) Peggy Mason (helping behaviour in rats) Sue Carter (oxytocin and stress) David Hume & Adam Smith Mencius (early Confucian philosopher) [For Ilari's article on Mencius, see An Empirical Argument for Mencius' Theory of Human Nature] The Dalai Lama (H.H. the 14th) Simon Blackburn (contemporary Cambridge philosopher) Dan Bowling (placebo and oxytocin) Olivia Goldhill (review of Conscience for the New York Times) Lidija Haas (review of Conscience for the Harper Magazine) Other scholars to follow (Churchland's recommendations) Topics in this interview Frans de Waal Owen Flanagan Philosophy & neuroscience more generally Nick Lane (genetics and evolution) Ann-Sophie Barwich (neurophilosophy of smell) Gregory Berns (soon to appear on the podcast) Ned Block (philosophy of cognition)

Link to bioRxiv paper: http://biorxiv.org/cgi/content/short/2022.09.01.506091v1?rss=1 Authors: Yi, D., Musall, S., Churchland, A., Padilla-Coreano, N., Saxena, S. Abstract: Effectively modeling and quantifying behavior is essential for our understanding of the brain. Modeling behavior in naturalistic settings in social and multi-subject tasks in a unified manner remains a significant challenge. Modeling the behavior of different subjects performing the same task requires partitioning the behavioral data into features that are common across subjects, and others that are distinct to each subject. Modeling social interactions between multiple individuals in a freely-moving setting requires disentangling effects due to the individual as compared to social investigations. To achieve flexible disentanglement of behavior into interpretable latent variables with individual and across-subject or social components, we build on a semi-supervised approach to partition the behavioral subspace, and propose a novel regularization based on the Cauchy-Schwarz divergence to the model. Our model, known as the constrained subspace variational autoencoder (CS-VAE), successfully models distinct features of the behavioral videos across subjects, as well as continuously varying differences in social behavior. Our approach vastly facilitates the analysis of the resulting latent variables in downstream tasks such as uncovering disentangled behavioral motifs and the efficient decoding of a novel subject's behavior. Copy rights belong to original authors. Visit the link for more info Podcast created by PaperPlayer

Review game at Churchland, Preview Home Game vs Granby, talk about Bruin alums in College and NFL Level

Pope Francis is the first Jesuit Pope and he has been pushing his counterfeit unity since he arrived on the scene. In 2014 he was permitted to do a live video with Kenneth Copeland ministries, where he talked his "We Are Brothers" lingo to the entire congregation. Pope Francis is not the first Pope to seduce Christians into joining hands in brotherhood with Rome though. Pope John Paul II grabbed the hand of Billy Graham at the Vatican and told him "Graham, we are brothers." Folks, it is getting scary out there in "Churchland" is it not?

Welcome back to Neurotech Pub!This episode is part two of a two part series on optical methods for recording and stimulating neural activity. Our guests on this episode are Elizabeth Hillman, PhD,  Mark Schnitzer, PhD, and Jacob Robinson, PhD. Last time we talked about optical recording methods, but in this episode we focus on optical stimulation methods. Cheers!Check out video and full transcript here: https://www.paradromics.com/podcast/episode-12-mind-control-with-lasers00:00 | Intro1:37 | Aspirational Papers1:56 | Packer Lab 2:10 | What is the claustrum?2:30 | Ian's paper (but only part of it!)3:02 | Two-Photon Bidirectional Control and Imaging In Vivo3:29 | Inferring Spikes from Calcium Imaging5:45 | Neuropixels are now in humans7:12 | Paper by Pachitariu et al 7:55 | Ian Oldenburg10:02 | Kaufman Lab11:21 | Cortical activity in the null space: permitting preparation without movement12:08 | Motor cortical dynamics shaped by multiple distinct subspaces during naturalistic behavior12:33 | Tickling Cells with Light14:41 | Light-activated ion channels for remote control of neuronal firing14:50 | Remote Control of Behavior through Genetically Targeted Photostimulation of Neurons15:20 | Millisecond-timescale, genetically targeted optical control of neural activity16:03 | Red-shifted Opsins16:52 | eNpHR: a Natronomonas halorhodopsin enhanced for optogenetic applications17:26 | Genetically Targeted Optical Control of an Endogenous G Protein-Coupled Receptor18:16 | Neural Dust18:41 | Wireless magnetothermal deep brain stimulation19:05 | Neural Stimulation Through Ultrasound19:20 | Methods and Modalities: Sculpting Light21:35 | Recent advances in patterned photostimulation for optogenetics22:50 | Two-photon microscopy is now over 30 years old (Denk 1990)25:22 | Optical Recording State of the Art27:06 | Challenges of Deep Tissue 2-Photon Imaging28:21 | Deisseroth Lab28:29 | Temporal Precision of Optical Stimulation29:09 | Simultaneous all-optical manipulation and recording 30:40 | Targeted Ablation in Somatosensory Cortex 33:29 | Commercially Available Fast Opsins34:41 | Recent paper from Deisseroth Lab41:17 | Cortical layer–specific critical dynamics triggering perception42:21 | The Utah Array from Blackrock Neurotech44:52 | Principles of Corticocortical Communication50:43 | The Cost of Cortical Computation51:27 | Behaviour-dependent recruitment of long-range projection neurons in somatosensory cortex (2013) | Spatiotemporal convergence and divergence in the rat S1 "barrel" cortex (1987) | Diverse tuning underlies sparse activity in layer 2/3 vibrissal cortex of awake mice (2019) 52:56 | Gollisch and Meister 200853:22 | Spike Timing-Dependent Plasticity (STDP)1:05:09 | Neurotech Pub Episode 11 -  Let There Be Light1:05:20 | Forecasting the Future1:05:41 | Temporally precise single-cell-resolution optogenetics1:06:16 | Large Scale Ca++ Recordings from Vaziri Lab1:07:11 | Cohen Lab1:07:19 | All Optical Electrophysiology 1:14:19 | Emiliani et al 20151:16:33 | All-Optical Interrogation of Neural Circuits1:16:53 | Mice Strains @ Jackson Lab1:17:00 | The Allen Institute1:20:39 | Neuroscience and Engineering Collaborations1:18:39 | Nicolas Pegard1:18:47 | Adesnik Lab1:24:41 | Shenoy, Sahani, and Churchland 20131:24:52 | Dimensionality reduction for large-scale neural recordings1:25:17 | Matlab: Understanding Kalman Filters1:25:58 | Two-photon excitation microscopy1:26:37 | Emiliani Lab Holography course1:26:57 | Optics by Eugene Hecht1:28:05 | Intro to Optics Course1:29:41 | What the Heck Is a Claustrum?1:33:53 | Cortical activity in the null space: permitting preparation without movement1:34:33 | Neural Manifolds and Learning1:35:19 | Locked-in Syndrome1:36:58 | Sabatini Lab1:37:07 | Probing and regulating dysfunctional circuits using DBS1:39:36 | Sliman Bensmaia | Nicho Hatsopoulos1:39:43 | The science and engineering behind sensitized brain-controlled bionic hands1:41:20 | Michael Long's singing rodents1:42:12 | Engram1:43:06 | Chang Lab1:43:19 | Tim Gardner | Michale FeeWant more? Follow Paradromics & Neurotech Pub on Twitter  Follow Matt A, Ian, Adam, & Matt K on Twitter

Mr Gaines talks about starting at Churchland then moving on to VT and going on to teaching at WBHS and being inducted into VT HOF

This is the fourth and final episode of a book club series on Peter Gärdenfors's book Conceptual Spaces. In this episode, we will discuss chapters 7 and 8, in which Gärdenfors discusses computational aspects his theory of conceptual spaces, and provides a general discussion of the topics covered in the book.For this series, I'm joined by Koen Frolichcs, who was already my cohost for the books club series on Lee Child's Killing Floor. Koen and I are PhD students in the same lab.Podcast linksWebsite: https://geni.us/bjks-podTwitter: https://geni.us/bjks-pod-twtKoen's linksGoogle Scholar: https://geni.us/frolichs-scholarTwitter: https://geni.us/frolichs-twtBen's linksWebsite: https://geni.us/bjks-webGoogle Scholar: https://geni.us/bjks-scholarTwitter:  https://geni.us/bjks-twtReferencesFirst AI conference: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dartmouth_workshopBauby, J. D. (2008). The diving bell and the butterfly. Vintage.Bellmund, J. L., Gärdenfors, P., Moser, E. I., & Doeller, C. F. (2018). Navigating cognition: Spatial codes for human thinking. Science, 362(6415).Churchland, P. S., & Sejnowski, T. J. (1994). The computational brain. MIT press. Gärdenfors, P. (2004). Conceptual spaces: The geometry of thought. MIT press. Hafting, T., Fyhn, M., Molden, S., Moser, M. B., & Moser, E. I. (2005). Microstructure of a spatial map in the entorhinal cortex. Nature, 436(7052), 801-806.Kriegeskorte, N., & Kievit, R. A. (2013). Representational geometry: integrating cognition, computation, and the brain. Trends in cognitive sciences, 17(8), 401-412.Kriegeskorte, N., Mur, M., & Bandettini, P. A. (2008). Representational similarity analysis-connecting the branches of systems neuroscience. Frontiers in systems neuroscience, 2, 4.LeCun, Y., Bengio, Y., & Hinton, G. (2015). Deep learning. Nature, 521(7553), 436-444.O'Keefe, J., & Dostrovsky, J. (1971). The hippocampus as a spatial map: preliminary evidence from unit activity in the freely-moving rat. Brain research.Quiroga, R. Q. (2012). Concept cells: the building blocks of declarative memory functions. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 13(8), 587-597.Rumelhart, D. E., Hinton, G. E., & Williams, R. J. (1986). Learning representations by back-propagating errors. Nature, 323(6088), 533-536.Silver, D., Schrittwieser, J., Simonyan, K., Antonoglou, I., Huang, A., Guez, A., ... & Hassabis, D. (2017). Mastering the game of go without human knowledge. Nature, 550(7676), 354-359.

After the past two years, many of us now have a deeper appreciation of the power and importance of social interactions, social relationships, and strong community. This week, renowned neuroscientist, Larry J. Young, and pioneering neurophilosopher, Pat Churchland, join for a fascinating discussion about the science of social behavior and social bonding. Through the conversation, … Continue reading Oxytocin, Social Behavior, Community, & Mental Health with Larry Young and Pat Churchland →

In this episode, Dr. Mark Churchland talks with MPFI postdocs Jeremy Chang and Alex Gribizis about his research into the function of the motor cortex. Dr. Churchland's lab at Columbia University studies the role of neural activity that affects movement. He takes us through a brief history of this field of study, the limitations of brain-machine interfaces, and talks about where he sees his research going in the future.

Discussing AI-First Company and AI First mentality with Ash Fontana. He sheds light on how organizations could embrace analytics, data, and AI to retain a competitive edge. Bio: Ash Fontana became one of the most recognized startup investors in the world after launching online investing at AngelList. He then became a Managing Director of Zetta, the first investment fund that focused on AI. The firm was the lead investor in category-defining AI companies such as Kaggle, Domino, Tractable, Lilt, and Invenia. He has appeared in Fast Company, Bloomberg, Forbes, CNBC, and at the UN. This is his first book. Ash's Book: The AI-First Company: How to Compete and Win with Artificial Intelligence by Ash Fontana https://amzn.to/33C2OL5 Ash's Recommendations: On Intelligence: How a New Understanding of the Brain Will Lead to the Creation of Truly Intelligent Machines by Jeff Hawkins, Sandra Blakeslee https://amzn.to/3vZhksk Neurophilosophy: Toward a Unified Science of the Mind-Brain by Patricia S. Churchland https://amzn.to/2RiKrYO Discussion Timeline: TIMELINE Some questions we covered: 1. Starter: Give your starter pitch 1 point that this book points to: 2. Vishal briefly introduce guest Stage 2: Subject Matter Expertise 3. What is the state of startups today? 4. State of AI in mature organization? 5. AI and Enterprise outlook? Cautionary tale or hopeful story 6. Who will win the AI race? 7. Challenges in AI adoption? Stage 3: Introduction as an author 8. What is an AI-First company? 9. Why write AI First? 10. Why does every company need to prioritize AI over the next decade? 11. What are the most common mistakes companies make when trying to become AI First? 12. What's the difference between “lean-startup” and “lean AI”? 14. How do AI-First companies retain more of the “first mover” advantage than others? 15. AI + Business, will make it more science or art? 16. Can AI be a competitive edge Stage 4: Rapid Fire with Ben Pring [Say what comes to your mind] 17 a. #MachineLearning 17 b. #Technology 17 c. #Leadership 17 d. #FutureOfWork 17 e. #Culture 17 f. #DigitalTransformation 17 g. #Disruption 17 h. #JobsOfFuture 17 i. #FutureofStartup 17 j. #FutureofOrganization 17 k. #AIFirst Stage 5: Closing 18. What are 1-3 best practices that you think are the key to success in your journey? 19. Do you have any favorite read? 20. As a closing remark, what would you like to tell our audience? About TAO.ai[Sponsor]: TAO is building the World's largest and AI-powered Skills Universe and Community powering career development platform empowering some of the World's largest communities/organizations. Learn more at https://TAO.ai About WorkPod: Work Pod takes you on the journey with leaders, experts, academics, authors, and change-makers designing the future of work, workers, and the workplace. About Work2.org WorkPod is managed by Work2.org, a #FutureOfWork community for HR and Organization architects and leaders. Sponsorship / Guest Request should be directed to info@tao.ai Keywords: #FutureofWork #Work2.0 #Work2dot0 #Leadership #Growth #Org2dot0 #Work2 #Org2

This episode is also available as a blog post: http://kingdablog.com/2014/02/20/the-churchlands-consciousness-and-naturalised-epistemology/

A constraint on intelligences.   Subscribe at: paid.retraice.com    Details: what intelligence can't do; taking care seriously; two beings, one doesn't care; `computers don't give a damn'; common-sense; existence; a tar pit of creatures and language; logical, causal and `volitional' necessity; things you're not going to do. ALSO MENTIONED (in mp3 or PDF notes):  Oren Etzioni, Gary Marcus.  Complete notes and video at: https://www.retraice.com/segments/re13   Air date: Tuesday, 10th Nov. 2020, 1 : 25 PM Pacific/US.   Chapters: 00:00 what intelligence can't do; 00:56 taking care seriously; 01:55 two beings, one doesn't care; 04:37 `computers don't give a damn'; 07:24 common-sense; 08:40 existence; 09:51 a tar pit of creatures and language; 12:14 logical, causal and `volitional' necessity; 16:08 things you're not going to do.   References:    Adams, Z., & Browning, J. (Eds.) (2017). Giving a Damn: Essays in Dialogue with John Haugeland. MIT. ISBN: 978-0262035248. Searches: https://www.amazon.com/s?k=978-0262035248 https://www.google.com/search?q=isbn+978-0262035248 https://lccn.loc.gov/2016016598      Churchland, P., & Churchland, P. (2000). Foreward to the second edition of Von Neumann’s The Computer and the Brain. In von Neumann (1958).      Ford, M. (2018). Architects of Intelligence: The truth about AI from the people building it. Packt. ISBN: 978-1789131512. Searches: https://www.amazon.com/s?k=978-1789131512 https://www.google.com/search?q=isbn+978-1789131512      Frankfurt, H. G. (1988). The Importance of What We Care About. Cambridge. ISBN: 978-0521336116. Searches: https://www.amazon.com/s?k=978-0521336116 https://www.google.com/search?q=isbn+978-0521336116 https://lccn.loc.gov/87026941      Haugeland, J. (1998). Having Thought: Essays in the Metaphysics of Mind. Harvard. ISBN: 0674382331. Searches: https://www.amazon.com/s?k=0674382331 https://www.google.com/search?q=isbn+0674382331 https://lccn.loc.gov/97044542      Retraice (2020/09/07). Re1: Three Kinds of Intelligence. retraice.com. https://www.retraice.com/segments/re1 Retrieved 22nd Sep. 2020.      von Neumann, J. (1958). The Computer and the Brain. Yale, 3rd ed. First published 1958. Third edition 2012. ISBN: 978-0300181111. Searches for this edition: https://www.amazon.com/s?k=978-0300181111 https://www.google.com/search?q=isbn+978-0300181111 https://lccn.loc.gov/2011943281 Different editions available at: https://archive.org/search.php?query=The%20Computer%20and%20the%20Brain   Copyright: 2020 Retraice, Inc. https://retraice.com

In her second talk, Churchland outlines her group’s studies of the relationship between decision-making and action. She notes that in addition to methods to track neural activity, high-resolution videos of the decision-making process in mice provide valuable movement data. Using labeled calcium to visualize neural activity across the dorsal cortex, Churchland’s group finds that maps of the visual world are represented up to six times in each mouse brain! The Churchland group also found that neural activity appeared to be the same across novice and expert decision-makers. They developed a mathematical model to predict the influence of numerous variables on neural activity and found that movement-related variables accounted for a greater proportion of the variance in neural activity than decision-related variables. Specifically, spontaneous (non-instructed) movements had the greatest predicted influence on neural activity. They then validated their results at the single-neuron level using two-photon microscopy. Dr. Churchland ends her talk by highlighting a significant remaining question: what are the neural differences between novice and expert decision-makers?

How do brains make decisions? In this seminar, Dr. Anne Churchland tells us why understanding decision-making is important, and outlines common approaches to study decision-making in the lab using a variety of mammals. She describes findings that suggest accurate decision-making results from a combination of visual and auditory stimuli in both humans and rats, and tells of the discovery of an explore-exploit tradeoff that allows rats to respond optimally to changing environments. Dr. Churchland then outlines the major methods for tracking neural activity in the brain and shows how they have been used to determine that many brain areas are active during decision-making. She ends her talk with an overview of new directions in the field.

How do brains make decisions? In this seminar, Dr. Anne Churchland tells us why understanding decision-making is important, and outlines common approaches to study decision-making in the lab using a variety of mammals. She describes findings that suggest accurate decision-making results from a combination of visual and auditory stimuli in both humans and rats, and tells of the discovery of an explore-exploit tradeoff that allows rats to respond optimally to changing environments. Dr. Churchland then outlines the major methods for tracking neural activity in the brain and shows how they have been used to determine that many brain areas are active during decision-making. She ends her talk with an overview of new directions in the field.

In her second talk, Churchland outlines her group's studies of the relationship between decision-making and action. She notes that in addition to methods to track neural activity, high-resolution videos of the decision-making process in mice provide valuable movement data. Using labeled calcium to visualize neural activity across the dorsal cortex, Churchland's group finds that maps of the visual world are represented up to six times in each mouse brain! The Churchland group also found that neural activity appeared to be the same across novice and expert decision-makers. They developed a mathematical model to predict the influence of numerous variables on neural activity and found that movement-related variables accounted for a greater proportion of the variance in neural activity than decision-related variables. Specifically, spontaneous (non-instructed) movements had the greatest predicted influence on neural activity. They then validated their results at the single-neuron level using two-photon microscopy. Dr. Churchland ends her talk by highlighting a significant remaining question: what are the neural differences between novice and expert decision-makers?

Link to bioRxiv paper: http://biorxiv.org/cgi/content/short/2020.10.19.346353v1?rss=1 Authors: Ashwood, Z. C., Roy, N. A., Stone, I. R., International Brain Laboratory, T., Churchland, A. K., Pouget, A., Pillow, J. W. Abstract: Classical models of perceptual decision-making assume that animals use a single, consistent strategy to integrate sensory evidence and form decisions during an experiment. Here we provide analyses showing that this common view is incorrect. We use a latent variable modeling framework to show that decision-making behavior in mice reflects an interplay between different strategies that alternate on a timescale of tens to hundreds of trials. This model provides a powerful alternate explanation for "lapses" commonly observed during psychophysical experiments. Formally, our approach consists of a Hidden Markov Model (HMM) with states corresponding to different decision-making strategies, each parameterized by a distinct Bernoulli generalized linear model (GLM). We fit the resulting model (GLM-HMM) to choice data from two large cohorts of mice in different perceptual decision-making tasks. For both datasets, we found that mouse decision-making was far better described by a GLM-HMM with 3 or 4 states than by a traditional psychophysical model with lapses. The identified states were highly consistent across animals, consisting of a single "engaged" state, in which the strategy relied heavily on the sensory stimulus, and multiple biased or disengaged states in which accuracy was low. These states persisted for many trials, suggesting that lapses were not independent, but reflected state dynamics in which animals were relatively engaged or disengaged for extended periods of time. We found that for most animals, response times and violation rates were positively correlated with disengagement, providing independent correlates of the identified changes in strategy. The GLM-HMM framework thus provides a powerful lens for the analysis of decision-making, and suggests that standard measures of psychophysical performance mask the presence of slow but dramatic alternations in strategy across trials. Copy rights belong to original authors. Visit the link for more info

On natural, artificial and strategic intelligence; intellectual hazards; secrets.    Subscribe at: paid.retraice.com    Details: Russell on knowledge; Retraice; three kinds of intelligence; natural intelligence; artificial intelligence; strategic intelligence; hazards—secrets, minefields, blind spots; tests and reminders; knowledge; evidence; fallacies; secrets—likely and unlikely; the price of information; deception; intelligence in warfare; next. Complete notes and video at: https://www.retraice.com/segments/re1 Air date: Monday, 7th Sep. 2020, 3pm Pacific/US.   00:00 Russell on knowledge; 01:26 Retraice; 02:23 three kinds of intelligence; 04:45 natural intelligence; 07:09 artificial intelligence; 09:49 strategic intelligence; 15:00 hazards—secrets, minefields, blind spots; 17:03 tests and reminders; 17:29 knowledge; 18:09 evidence; 20:15 fallacies; 23:36 secrets—likely and unlikely; 24:09 the price of information; 30:11 deception; 31:49 intelligence in warfare; 32:47 next.   References:   Ames, R. T. (1993). Sun Tzu: The Art of Warfare. Random House. ISBN: 034536239X. Searches: https://www.amazon.com/s?k=034536239X https://www.google.com/search?q=isbn+034536239X https://lccn.loc.gov/92052662   Churchland, P., & Churchland, P. (2000). Foreward to the Second Edition of Von Neumann’s ‘The Computer and the Brain’. In von Neumann (1958).   Ferguson, N. (2017). The Square and the Tower: Networks and Power, from the Freemasons to Facebook. Penguin. ISBN: 978-0735222915. Searches: https://www.amazon.com/s?k=978-0735222915 https://www.google.com/search?q=isbn+978-0735222915 https://lccn.loc.gov/2018418429   Grabo, C. M. (2002). Anticipating Surprise: Analysis for Strategic Warning. Center for Strategic Intelligence Research. ISBN: 0965619567 https://www.ni-u.edu/ni_press/pdf/Anticipating_Surprise_Analysis.pdf Retrieved 7th Sep. 2020.   Hamblin, C. L. (1970). Fallacies. Vale. First published 1970. This Vale Press edition 2004. ISBN: 0916475247. Different edition available at: https://archive.org/details/fallacies0000hamb/page/12/mode/2up.   Horwich, P. (1982). Probability and Evidence. Cambridge. First published 1982; first paperback 2011; this Cambridge Philosophy Classics edition 2016. ISBN: 978-1316507018. Searches: https://www.amazon.com/s?k=978-1316507018 https://www.google.com/search?q=isbn+978-1316507018 https://lccn.loc.gov/2015049717   Lowenthal, M. M. (2020). Intelligence: From Secrets to Policy. CQ Press / SAGE Publications, 8th ed. ISBN: 978-1544358345. Searches: https://www.amazon.com/s?k=978-1544358345 https://www.google.com/search?q=isbn+978-1544358345 https://lccn.loc.gov/2019027254 Other editions available at: https://archive.org/search.php?query=Intelligence%3A%20From%20Secrets%20to%20Policy   O’Shea, M. (2005). The Brain: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford. ISBN: 978-0192853929. Searches: https://www.amazon.com/s?k=978-0192853929 https://www.google.com/search?q=isbn+978-0192853929 https://lccn.loc.gov/2005027741   Russell, B. (1921). The Analysis of Mind. Macmillan. No ISBN. https://books.google.com/books?id=4dYLAAAAIAAJ Retrieved 6th May. 2019.   Russell, B. (1992). Human Knowledge: Its Scope and Limits. Routledge. First published in 1948. This edition 1992. ISBN: 0415083028. Different editions available at: https://archive.org/search.php?query=Human%20Knowledge%3A%20Its%20Scope%20and%20Limits   Vallee, J. (1979). Messengers of Deception: UFO Contacts and Cults. And/Or Press. ISBN: 0915904381. A different edition available at: https://archive.org/details/MessengersOfDeceptionUFOContactsAndCultsJacquesValle1979/mode/2up   von Neumann, J. (1958). The Computer and the Brain. Yale, 3rd ed. First published 1958. Third edition 2012. ISBN: 978-0300181111. Searches for this edition: https://www.amazon.com/s?k=978-0300181111 https://www.google.com/search?q=isbn+978-0300181111 https://lccn.loc.gov/2011943281 Different editions available at: https://archive.org/search.php?query=The%20Computer%20and%20the%20Brain   Weston, A. (2000). A Rulebook for Arguments. Hackett, 3rd ed. ISBN: 0872205525. Also available at: https://archive.org/details/rulebookforargum00west_3   Copyright 2020, Retraice, Inc.  https://retraice.com

This episode features Megan’s interview with Anne, who studies the neural circuits and computations underlying decision-making at Cold Spring Harbor (and will soon be moving her lab to the University of California - Los Angeles).

Link to bioRxiv paper: http://biorxiv.org/cgi/content/short/2020.06.09.143040v1?rss=1 Authors: Zimnik, A. J., Churchland, M. M. Abstract: Rapid execution of motor sequences is believed to depend upon the fusing of movement elements into cohesive units that are executed holistically. We sought to determine the contribution of motor cortex activity to this ability. Two monkeys performed highly practiced two-reach sequences, interleaved with matched reaches performed alone or separated by a delay. We partitioned neural population activity into components pertaining to preparation, initiation, and execution. The hypothesis that movement elements fuse makes specific predictions regarding all three forms of activity. We observed none of these predicted effects. Instead, two-reach sequences involved the same set of neural events as individual reaches, but with a remarkable temporal compression: preparation for the second reach occurred as the first was in flight. Thus, at the level of motor cortex, skillfully executing a rapid sequence depends not on fusing elements, but on the ability to perform two computations at the same time. Copy rights belong to original authors. Visit the link for more info

In Philosophy, it’s useful to sometimes step back and ask yourself: ‘Wait, what exactly are we talking about? Can I get some clear examples of the thing I’m trying to understand?’This lecture: Scene setting, filling in some historical information, and honing in on the target of inquiry...Brief characterization of so-called “eliminative materialism”Characterizing the Target Phenomena......in phenomenal terms (Unit 2): ‘feels’, ‘sensation’, ‘experience’, ‘hurts’, etc....in cognitive terms (Unit 3): ‘think’, ‘notice’, ‘wonder’, ‘consider’, ‘decide’, ‘goals’, ‘want’, ‘believes’, etc.Note: In everyday thought/talk about the mental, we often mix and match ideas/terms from these two lists. And some terms (e.g. ‘see’, ‘perceive’, ‘sense’, ‘desires’, ‘hopes’) maybe mean different things, depending on the context in which the term in used.(For the canonical characterization of this division, see Chapter 1 of Chalmers’ “The Conscious Mind”.)“Folk Psychology”In everyday thought/talk, we seem to use a basic belief/desire/rationality model for understanding one another and for predicting each other’s behavior.“Each of us understands others, as well as we do, because we share a tacit command of an integrated body of lore concerning the law-like relations holding among external circumstances, internal states, and overt behavior. Given its nature and functions, this body of lore may quite aptly be called "folk psychology.”“The Propositional Attitudes”When philosophers of mind and language have tried to unpack and analyze our pre-theroetical target, they often focus on something they call propositions: abstract ‘claims’/’sentences’/‘ideas’ that get expressed in our cognitive attitudes. Importantly, propositions (according to many philosophers) express ways the world may or may not be. You can think of them as ‘statements’ that are potentially true/false.Cognitive attitudes...Believe that...Desire that...Imagine that...Think that...Hope that....(many more...)The So-Called ‘Cognitive Revolution’The so-called “computer model of the mind” can be thought of as directly tied to the so-called ‘cognitive revolution’ in psychology and it’s neighbors (mainly CS/AI and philosophy).Psychology: The triumph of the 'cognitivists' over ‘methodological behaviorists’ in psychology (cf. Noam Chomsky’s ‘poverty of the stimulus’ argument)CS: The rise of earnest attempts at ‘strong AI’Philosophy: The rise of science-loving functionalism in philosophy of mind.To some academics, this had the feeling of “the end of history", with ‘the computer model of the mind’ as the inevitable, final stop in a long march towards understanding the mind.Viva La Revolution?But it’s never that simple...In psychology: rise of social psychology, ‘cognitive biases’, and the emergance of alternatives to the standard computer model (e.g. parallel distributed processing.)In CS/AI: AI Winter!In philosophy: although functionalism became popular, it got attacked from all sides, and most self-ascribed functionalists have thought that they can’t really answer their opponents(Aside: I think the functionalists gave up too easy and can win the war with another sustained attempt to build out the theory...)Gallistel on Representation and ComputationOne key idea that I hope is brought out by the Gallistel reading: linking the problem of representation/intentionality to the problem of cognition/intelligence. A ton is packed into the abstract:“A mental representation is a system of symbols isomorphic to some aspect of the environment, used to make behavior-generating decisions that anticipate events and relations in that environment. A representational system has the following components: symbols, which refer to aspects of the environment, symbol processing operations, which generate symbols representing behaviorally required information about the environment by transforming and combining other symbols, representing computationally related information, sensing and measuring processes, which relate the symbolic variables to the aspects of the world to which they refer, and decision processes, which translate decision variables into observable actions. From a behaviorist perspective, mental representations do not exist and cannot be the focus of a scientfic psychology. From a cognitivist perspective, psychology is the study of mental representations, how they are computed and how they affect behavior.”The Upshot: Representations emerge in nature when computation emerges in nature. Representations are then to be understood as embedded in natural systems, which implement various cognitive strategies. In short, the cognitive goals of natural cognitive systems are either: a) explanatorily prior to representations, or b) conceptually linked to the nature of cognition.“Although mental representations are central to prescientific folk psychology, folk psychology does not provide a rigorous definition of representation, any more than folk physics provides a rigorous definition of mass and energy. Although mental representations are central to prescientific folk psychology, folk psychology does not provide a rigorous definition of representation, any more than folk physics provides a rigorous definition of mass and energy.”“A representation, mental or otherwise, is a system of symbols. The system of symbols is isomorphic to another system (the represented system) so that conclusions drawn through the processing of the symbols in the representing system constitute valid inferences about the represented system.”Cognitive states are often/usually (?) representational states, and so any story about cognition ought to be accompanied by a story about representation. Otherwise, you wouldn’t be able to distinguish, say, the belief that it is raining outside from the belief that the Taj Mahal is white. There’s a cognitive difference to be accounted for here in terms of a difference in representational content.My preferred framing...The problem of consciousness: What makes human brains (or anything else) ‘give rise’ to phenomenal experience?The problem of cognition/rationality/intelligence: What is it about a cognitive system that makes it truly think?The problem of representation/intentionality: What is it about a cognitive system that makes its internal states represent ‘the world out there’?Perhaps the problem of cognition and the problem of representation, in order to be properly appreciated, have to be handled separately. But they might also be the very same problem ‘deep down’. There is nothing like ‘expert consensus’ on the issue.As I read Churchland and Dennett, they both think that cognition and representation are connected in some deep and important way...Churchland will say: Yes, representation-talk is tied to cognition-talk. But these are bad, confused ways of talking! Drop it!The Big Problem: has a kind of self-undermining quality to it, since Churchland seems to be saying both “You can understand these sentences as expressing true thoughts” and “Sentences which rely (either implicitly or explicitly) on [the rational agent model] are, strictly speaking, false, because rational agents don’t exist.”Dennett will say: Must we choose between realism and anti-realism? Can’t we just say that different ways of thinking about the same underlying thing are useful in different ways, and leave it at that?The Big Problem: Dennett seems to want to have his cake and eat it too!Churchland’s Eliminative Materialism[illusionism : consciousness :: eliminative materialism : cognition/representation]“Eliminative materialism is the thesis that our common-sense conception of psychological phenomena constitutes a radically false theory”Folk psychology represents a kind of ‘common sense theory’ which advanced neurobiology/psychology will/should completely replace.And so folk psychology, according to Churchland, should be treated like any other ‘common sense' theory that gets thrown away once we develop a more sophisticated theory.“...the semantics of the terms in our familiar mentalistic vocabulary is to be understood in the same manner as the semantics of theoretical terms generally: the meaning of any theoretical term is fixed or constituted by the network of laws in which it figures.”“Recall the view that space has a preferred direction in which all things fall; that weight is an intrinsic feature of a body; that a force-free moving object will promptly return to rest; that the sphere of the heavens turns daily; and so on.”Upshot: While we may still talk/think in terms of ‘beliefs’ and ‘desires’ and ‘rationality’, such talk is, strictly speaking, false.

------------------Support the channel------------ Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/thedissenter SubscribeStar: https://www.subscribestar.com/the-dissenter PayPal: paypal.me/thedissenter PayPal Subscription 1 Dollar: https://tinyurl.com/yb3acuuy PayPal Subscription 3 Dollars: https://tinyurl.com/ybn6bg9l PayPal Subscription 5 Dollars: https://tinyurl.com/ycmr9gpz PayPal Subscription 10 Dollars: https://tinyurl.com/y9r3fc9m PayPal Subscription 20 Dollars: https://tinyurl.com/y95uvkao ------------------Follow me on--------------------- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thedissenteryt/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheDissenterYT Anchor (podcast): https://anchor.fm/thedissenter Dr. Patricia Churchland is a Canadian-American Philosopher noted for her contributions to neurophilosophy and the philosophy of mind. She is UC President's Professor of Philosophy Emerita at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD). She has also held an adjunct professorship at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies since 1989. She is a member of the Board of Trustees Moscow Center for Consciousness Studies of Philosophy Department, at Moscow State University. In 2015, she was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences. She's also the author of a number of books, including Neurophilosophy: Toward a Unified Science of the Mind-Brain, Braintrust: What Neuroscience Tells Us about Morality, and Conscience: The Origins of Moral Intuition. In this episode, we talk about Dr. Churchland's most recent book, Conscience. We go through what conscience is; the evolution of morality; and some of the neuroscience of morality. We also discuss how we go from our evolved morality to moral intuitions, and how we acquire social norms, and how they change. We talk briefly about the case of psychopaths, free will, and the legal system. Finally, we address how philosophy is limited in dealing with ethics and morality, Jonathan Haidt's moral foundations theory, and the case of disgust sensitivity. -- Follow Dr. Churchland's work: Faculty page: http://bit.ly/2L1iP3o Personal website: http://bit.ly/2MKJAeA ResearchGate profile: http://bit.ly/2Jn35Ia Amazon page: https://amzn.to/2p4jxGk Conscience: The Origins of Moral Intuition: https://amzn.to/2Pbqa5Q Twitter handle: @patchurchland -- A HUGE THANK YOU TO MY PATRONS/SUPPORTERS: KARIN LIETZCKE, ANN BLANCHETTE, SCIMED, PER HELGE HAAKSTD LARSEN, LAU GUERREIRO, RUI BELEZA, ANTÓNIO CUNHA, CHANTEL GELINAS, JERRY MULLER, FRANCIS FORDE, HANS FREDRIK SUNDE, BRIAN RIVERA, ADRIANO ANDRADE, YEVHEN BODRENKO, SERGIU CODREANU, ADAM BJERRE, ŁUKASZ STAFINIAK, AIRES ALMEIDA, BERNARDO SEIXAS, HERBERT GINTIS, RUTGER VOS, RICARDO VLADIMIRO, BO WINEGARD, JOHN CONNORS, VEGA GIDEY, CRAIG HEALY, OLAF ALEX, PHILIP KURIAN, JONATHAN VISSER, DAVID DIAS, ANJAN KATTA, JAKOB KLINKBY, AND ADAM KESSEL! A SPECIAL THANKS TO MY PRODUCERS, YZAR WEHBE, ROSEY, AND JIM FRANK!

PATRICIA S. CHURCHLAND (https://www.edge.org/memberbio/patricia_s_churchland) is professor emeritus of philosophy at the University of California, San Diego, and adjunct professor at the Salk Institute. Her research has centered on the interface between neuroscience and philosophy, with a current focus on the association of morality and the social brain. She is the author of Conscience: The Origins of Moral Intuition. The Conversation: https://www.edge.org/conversation/patriciaschurchland-the-nature-of-moral-motivation

Anne and I discuss her work elucidating how populations of neurons underly decision-making in mouse brains. We talk about how movement related activity dominates neural activity during decisions, how lapses may reflect exploration of options, a rubric for characterizing animal experiments, her Anne's List repository to help all of us invite female systems neuroscientists to speak at conferences, and a lot more

This is a recording from our live panel that took place at VanCAF 2019. We talked with Hwei Lim, Emma Rios, and Marian Churchland about their processes for developing stories and comics, as well as what inspires them. Thanks, VanCAF! Twitter: http://twitter.com/saltandhoneypod Hwei Lim: http://twitter.com/madaoba Emma Rios: http://twitter.com/emmartian Marian Churchland: https://marianchurchland.com/

------------------Support the channel------------ Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/thedissenter PayPal: paypal.me/thedissenter ------------------Follow me on--------------------- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thedissenteryt/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheDissenterYT Part 2 of the conversation with Dr. Patricia Churchland: Self, Morality, Reductionism, Meaning of Life. Time Links: 00:00 Is there a “self”? 02:36 Morality in the brain 09:33 Free will and personal responsibility 20:06 Reductionism vs emergentism 27:00 Can Philosophy become obsolete? 29:24 Science and the meaning of life 35:35 Follow Dr. Churchland's work -- A HUGE THANK YOU TO MY PATRONS: KARIN LIETZCKE, ANN BLANCHETTE, JUNOS, SCIMED, PER HELGE HAAKSTD LARSEN, LAU GUERREIRO, RUI BELEZA, MIGUEL ESTRADA, ANTÓNIO CUNHA, CHANTEL GELINAS, JIM FRANK, JERRY MULLER, FRANCIS FORD, AND HANS FREDRIK SUNDE! I also leave you with the link to a recent montage video I did with the interviews I have released until the end of June 2018: https://youtu.be/efdb18WdZUo And check out my playlists on: PSYCHOLOGY: https://tinyurl.com/ybalf8km PHILOSOPHY: https://tinyurl.com/yb6a7d3p ANTHROPOLOGY: https://tinyurl.com/y8b42r7g

Cassie Kyle Micah and Luke talk Game of Thrones, the Churchland copycat shooter in Pittsburgh (and the other 3 shootings that happened this week), personal accounts of witnessing antisemitism, incels, young men and violence in the U.S. and abroad, Indian schoolkids killing themselves over test scores and high Indian suicide rates, Biden and the culture around his appeal, Uber tweeting out hard-r n-bombs, a lust for bloodshed on the left, Russian surveillance spy whales, Venezuelan riots, more Nintendo switch success, Bloodborne board game crowdfunding success, and close with thoughts on the Sonic the Hedgehog movie trailer.

------------------Support the channel------------ Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/thedissenter PayPal: paypal.me/thedissenter ------------------Follow me on--------------------- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thedissenteryt/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheDissenterYT Dr. Patricia Churchland is a Canadian-American Philosopher noted for her contributions to neurophilosophy and the philosophy of mind. She is UC President's Professor of Philosophy Emerita at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD). She has also held an adjunct professorship at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies since 1989. She is a member of the Board of Trustees Moscow Center for Consciousness Studies of Philosophy Department, at Moscow State University. In 2015, she was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences. She's also the author of a number of books, including Neurophilosophy: Toward a Unified Science of the Mind-Brain, and Braintrust: What Neuroscience Tells Us about Morality. In this episode, we talk about neurophilosophy and the philosophy of mind. Topics include: how neuroscience informs philosophy; some implications to Epistemology; the issue with evolutionary psychology and cognitive modules; consciousness; the notion of “self”; morality in the brain; free will and moral responsibility; reductionism and emergentism; the future of Philosophy; science and the meaning of life. Time Links: 00:55 What is neurophilosophy? 04:50 The philosophical relevance of the structure of our nervous system 10:43 Does neurophilosophy give ground to other philosophical disciplines? 18:11 Kant's distinction between the phenomenon and the numenon 21:25 Do we have a priori knowledge? 27:36 Evolutionary Psychology and cognitive modules 37:02 The problems of consciousness 43:54 António Damásio's hierarchy of consciousness 52:45 Is there a “self”? 55:31 Morality in the brain 1:02:18 Free will and personal responsibility 1:12:51 Reductionism vs emergentism 1:19:45 Can Philosophy become obsolete? 1:22:09 Science and the meaning of life 1:28:20 Follow Dr. Churchland's work -- Follow Dr. Churchland's work: Website: http://patriciachurchland.com/ Books: https://tinyurl.com/y8zmcex9 Twitter handle: @patchurchland -- A HUGE THANK YOU TO MY PATRONS: KARIN LIETZCKE, ANN BLANCHETTE, JUNOS, SCIMED, PER HELGE HAAKSTD LARSEN, LAU GUERREIRO, RUI BELEZA, MIGUEL ESTRADA, ANTÓNIO CUNHA, CHANTEL GELINAS, JIM FRANK, JERRY MULLER, FRANCIS FORD, AND HANS FREDRIK SUNDE! I also leave you with the link to a recent montage video I did with the interviews I have released until the end of June 2018: https://youtu.be/efdb18WdZUo And check out my playlists on: PSYCHOLOGY: https://tinyurl.com/ybalf8km PHILOSOPHY: https://tinyurl.com/yb6a7d3p ANTHROPOLOGY: https://tinyurl.com/y8b42r7g

Last year I joined the board of Directors for the Vancouver Comic Art Festival. It’s been really fun getting more involved in supporting local events and comics happening. The first event we did outside of the regular festival, was this … Continue reading →

Hey Handsomites! Eric and Robbie are back, discussing Elephantmen this week! They talk about the rotating cast of artists, the trope of big giant monster men, and the structure of the comic. They also review Dry County #1 and Come Into Me #1! Floppies Fortnightly The Terrifics #2 Death Bed #2 VS #2 Come Into […] The post 210 – Elephantmen Vol 0-6 by Starkings, Moritat, Medellin, & Churchland appeared first on Handsome Boys Comics Hour.

Hey Handsomites! Eric and Robbie are back, discussing Elephantmen this week! They talk about the rotating cast of artists, the trope of big giant monster men, and the structure of the comic. They also review Dry County #1 and Come Into Me #1! Floppies Fortnightly The Terrifics #2 Death Bed #2 VS #2 Come Into […] The post 210 – Elephantmen Vol 0-6 by Starkings, Moritat, Medellin, & Churchland appeared first on Handsome Boys Comics Hour.

We have the good fortune of talking with the writer and director of a new documentary called “A Better Life: An Exploration of Joy and Meaning in a World Without God,” Chris Johnson.  You may have seen a screening of it at the Reason Reason Rally. Chris Johnson is a New York-based photographer and filmmaker. He received his undergraduate degree in film production (along with a minor in religious studies) from Concordia University in Montreal, Quebec. His photography has been seen in various outlets, including The New York Times. He is the author of the coffee table photography book, “A Better Life: 100 Atheists Speak Out on Joy & Meaning in a World without God” that later was made into this documentary. Chris has traveled the world with A Better Life, and continues to do so, speaking and screening the film in over 60 cities on four continents. For the book, Johnson interviewed many prominent atheist figures such as Richard Dawkins, Steven Pinker, Dan Dennett, Derren Brown, Pat Churchland, Julia Sweeney, David Silverman, Penn & Teller, to name a few, plus many every-day people. He has given talks on atheism and his work at conferences, universities, non-profit organizations, and community groups. In addition, he has also been a guest on numerous podcasts, radio and TV shows around the globe. Chris is the recipient of the Kodak Award for Excellence in Filmmaking as well as the B.F. Lorenzetti Scholarship for Excellence in Filmmaking. Additionally, Chris sits on the Secular Board of Advisors, as well as the board of Openly Secular. And he’s 8 episodes into his own podcast, A Better Life, and it’s really good. Chris is truly a professional. For more information on Chris’s work and how you can purchase or rent your own copy of the documentary , visit: www.theatheistbook.com We taped these conversations on August 27th, 2016. If you’re liking our show, please subscribe to it, give it 5 stars, and/or leave a review on iTunes, Stitcher, or wherever you listen to podcasts.  Also, you can support us monetarily on a per episode basis through our Patreon page. That’s www.patreon.com/eapodcast. Or leave a donation through PayPal at our website, www.everyonesagnostic.com. Credits: "Towering Mountain of Ignorance" intro by Hank Green https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w3v3S82TuxU Intro bumper "Never Know" by Jack Johnson The segue music is by Sam Maher recorded on a handpan in the NY subway. Thanks for listening and be a yes-sayer to what is. You can find more information on the book/film/podcast/tour at: www.theatheistbook.com You can support the tour/podcast here: https://www.patreon.com/theatheistbook Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vEJXD6r9d78 Who's in the film? The film version of A Better Life features a selection of those from the book — atheists from around the world from many different backgrounds and professions. They include best-selling authors, award winning artists and scientists, and many well-known public personalities and figures including: A.C. Grayling, Philosopher, author and Master of the New College of the Humanities. Adam Pascal, Musician/Actor, created the role of "Roger" in the musical RENT. AJ Johnson, Vice president and co-founder, Be Secular. Alex Honnold, Rock climber, featured on 60 Minutes & the cover of National Geographic Magazine. Andrew Copson, Chief Executive, British Humanist Association. Cara Santa Maria, Co-host and Producer, TakePart Live on Pivot TV. Dan Barker, Co-president, Freedom From Religion Foundation. Daniel Dennett, Philosopher, author, and cognitive scientist, Tufts University. Donald C. Johanson, Paleoanthropologist, Arizona State University. Discovered the fossil of the hominid australopithecine known as "Lucy." Helena Guzik, Online Publications Assistant, The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Julia Sweeney, Actress, comedian & author. Matt Dillahunty, Speaker/co-cost; The Atheist Experience. Nahla Mahmoud, Environmentalist/Human Rights Activist. Patricia S. Churchland, Neurophilosopher, University of California San Diego. Robert Llewellyn, Writer, TV presenter, speaker, actor (Red Dwarf), electric vehicle evangelist. Sean Carroll, Theoretical Physicist, California Institute of Technology. Tracie Harris, Speaker/co-cost; The Atheist Experience.  

Today, our guest is Anne Churchland, Associate Professor at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. We'll be speaking with her about finding science by teaching kids math, the neural basis of multisensory decision making, and the benefits of lab blogging.

On this episode of The Comics Alternative, Gene is back in the cohosting chair after a long absence. (He was last on the show for the interview with Joshua Hale Fialkov and Kody Chamberlain, but he hasn't been on a review show since October of last year.) This week, the Two Guys look at three new, yet very different, comics. They begin with Josh Simmons's Black River (Fantagraphics), a beautiful yet disturbing post-apocalyptic narrative. It follows a group of women trying to survive after some sort of catastrophic event -- we're never sure what -- the deadly travails that await them, and how the experience changes the group. Although the subject matter is violent and unsettling, Simmons's artwork is visually compelling. Next, the guys check out the first issue of 8House: Arclight, Brandon Graham and Marian Churchland's new series from Image Comics. Issue #1 reveals a detailed and fantastical world, complete with its own physics, as well as its own alphabet. Graham provides just enough story to satisfy, while at the same time teasing the narrative to come. But it's Churchland's art that captures Gene and Derek's attention, working seamlessly into the complex world-building apparent in this nascent series. Finally, Gene and Derek spend a lot of time discussing a small-press anthology series, Kilgore Quarterly (Kilgore Books and Comics). This is the 6th issue in the title, and as with the previous issues, this one contains a nice balance of known names, first-time-published cartoonists, and creators whose work you may not know, but you definitely should. Both Noah Van Sciver and Eleanor Davis have contributions in this issue, as do lesser-known artists such as Rich Sparks, Susan Choi, Matias San Juan, Sarah Leitten, and Amara Leipzig. But a full appreciation of Kilgore Quarterly #6 wouldn't be possible without delving into the work of all of its contributors -- and Derek and Gene do just that -- including Meg Golding, Alex Graham, Joe Leonard, Alex Nall, and Ryan the Truck. Of the three titles discussed on this week's show, Kilgore Quarterly is the one the guys spend the most time discussing...and for a reason.

Dr. Patricia Churchland is UC President's Professor of Philosophy Emerita at the University of California, San Diego. He popular books such as “Braintrust: What Neuroscience Tells Us about Morality” grapple with issues at the intersection of philosophy and neuroscience. In this interview, Dr. Churchland explains how the evolution of the mammalian brain may have influenced our underlying core moral values, and her belief that society must be strong yet flexible enough to deal with the moral quagmire of new technologies / values / ways of living as we transition into the future..