COGS Seminars provide a forum for internationally recognised researchers from all corners of cognitive science research to present and discuss their latest findings. All are welcome to attend.
Spring 2025
Tuesdays 16:00-17:30
Date | Seminar | Venue |
---|---|---|
Feb 5th |
The Thinking Game Abstract: The Thinking Game takes you on a fascinating journey into the heart of DeepMind, one of the world’s leading AI labs, as it strives to unravel the mysteries of artificial general intelligence (AGI).Inside DeepMind’s London headquarters, founder Demis Hassabis and his team are relentlessly pursuing the creation of AI that matches or surpasses human abilities on a wide range of tasks. Filmed over five years, the documentary puts viewers in the room for the pivotal moments of this quest, including the groundbreaking achievement of AlphaFold, a program that solved a 50-year grand challenge in biology. This film captures the exhilaration of historic breakthroughs like AlphaFold, the crushing weight of disappointment during setbacks, and the unwavering pursuit of knowledge that defines Demis’ commitment to scientific innovation. This film invites viewers to witness one of the most important scientific adventures of our time, exploring the potential of AGI to reshape our world. |
Chichester 1 Lecture Theatre Passcode: 889984 |
Feb 18 |
The cognitive foundations of the attention economy Abstract: Herbert Simon’s slogan that information abundance implies attention scarcity is generally taken to be foundational to the very concept of the attention economy, the economic system in which human attention is the scarce resource. My first aim in this talk is to assess how fitting Simon’s framework is for understanding attending in the attention economy. I will argue that it is not, and in the second half will draw upon predictive processing and other more action-oriented frameworks to better understand the challenges faced by human attention in the attention economy. |
online Passcode: 924265 |
Feb 25 |
Out-Of-Distribution Thinking: Philosophical Insights From Machine Learning Abstract: Why do people struggle to agree on metaphysical questions? In this talk, I propose the hypothesis that metaphysical reasoning in humans resembles "out-of-distribution" (OOD) generalisation in machine learning (ML). According to this hypothesis, our conceptual structures are well-enough aligned for practical purposes because there are strong external pressures (from embodied experience and social context) towards convergence in our everyday conceptual practices. Unfortunately, our conceptual practices in metaphysical domains are only weakly constrained by those forces; in consequence, sophisticated thinkers can disagree profoundly (and apparently irresolvably) on highly abstract conceptual questions. |
Pevensey 1-2D4 Passcode: 183366 |
Mar 4 |
tba Abstract: Tba |
online Passcode: 068196 |
Mar 11 |
tba Abstract: tba |
Pevensey 1-2D4 Passcode: 614864 |
Mar 18 |
tba Abstract: tba |
Pevensey 1-2D4 Passcode: 172549 |
Apr 1 |
tba Abstract: tba |
Pevensey 1-2D4 Passcode: 941352 |
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