III CINET International Workshop

Biological cognition and “Artificial Intelligence”

31 August__3 September > 2024

The third CINET international workshop will delve into the unique aspects of human cognition as revealed by comparison with ‘artificial intelligence’ (AI). Whether in academic, industrial, or political circles, there is a growing recognition of the extraordinary impact that AI will have, and is already having, on human life.

Activities that only a few years ago were the exclusive domain of humans—such as medical decision making, artistic creation, caregiving—are now being assigned to artificial systems. In some cases the benefits of AI are clear, but even their creators admit that we do not understand these systems well enough to predict what their long-term impact will be. The ‘alignment problem’ refers to widespread concern for the unforeseeable consequences of depending on AI systems without understanding how they diverge from human minds. The ‘alignment problem’ is not just about AI, however. As argued by neuroscientist Rafael Yuste, we cannot hope to solve the alignment problem if we cannot say what ‘natural intelligence’ is. Beyond the enormous regulatory and policy challenges presented by AI, then, there is an urgent need for interdisciplinary reflection on the differences between living systems and machines and the kinds of ‘intelligence’ they support—on the difference between biological cognition and AI.

From August 31 to September 3, 2024, in Santander (Spain), CINET will host an invitation-only workshop in which these questions will be explored by world-leading researchers in multiple fields of neuroscience and philosophy. As in previous workshops, the program includes a mixture of round tables and traditional talks, but in all sessions our goal is to have a rich and open conversation in which all participants are involved.

Program

17:30
Presentation of the workshop

17:45
The place of human experience in science. A colloquium on “The Blind Spot,” by Adam Frank, Marcelo Gleiser and Evan Thompson

Evan Thompson
Claudia Vanney
Tom Froese
Mazviita Chirimuuta

The human mind as revealed by its challenges, pitfalls and maladies

9:00 – 10:15
The valuative nature of experience and
the ‘alignment problem’ for humans
Nathaniel F. Barrett

10:45 – 12:15
Round Table #1: Disorders of affect, attention and selfhood as viewed from the perspectives of phenomenology, philosophy and cognitive neuroscience
Participants:
Shaun Gallagher
Rebecca Todd
Dan Zahavi
Moderator:
Nathaniel Barrett

12:30 – 13:30
Rage against the machine:
Substitution, Authority, and Resistance
Alva Noë

Intersubjectivity and human uniqueness

15:00 – 16:30
Social-interactive aspects of sense-making in humans
Joanna Rączaszek-Leonardi

16:45 – 18:15
Round Table #2: Human-human interactions in embryonic development, personal identity and therapy
Participants:
Fran Güell
Marya Schechtman
Thomas Fuchs

18:30
Visit: Botín Centre

Thermodynamics: Living Brains vs Artificial Intelligences

9:00 – 9:30
Brain thermodynamics and the concept of information
Javier Sánchez-Cañizares

9:30 – 10:15
Updates on the Irruption Theory of Consciousness
Tom Froese

10:45 – 12:15
Round Table #3: Thermodynamics: Living brains vs artificial intelligences
Participants:
Tom Froese
Lorena Chanes
Scott Kelso
Moderator: Javier Sánchez-Cañizares

12:30 – 13:45
The evolution of consciousness and the brain circuits that subserve consciousness
Peter U. Tse

Brains, computers and metaphors

15:15 – 16:45
Round Table #4: The pros and cons of computational neuroscience
Participants:
Jorge Sepulcre
Ignacio Sáez
Guillermo Horga

17:00 – 18:30
The Brain Abstracted
Mazviita Chirimuuta

18:30 – 19:30
Putting together world, brain and consciousness
Georg Northoff

Towards a better understanding of mental disorder: exploring the common space between neurobiology and phenomenology

9:30– 10:00
Presentation of the course by academic authorities

10:00 – 11:00
Why does mental illness exist? Reflections on human vulnerability
Thomas Fuchs

11:15 – 13:00
Round Table: The need for a shared space to
mental illness
Participants:
Marya Schechtman
Scott Kelso
Georg Northoff

13:00 – 14:30
The evolution of consciousness and the brain
subserve consciousness
Peter U. Tse

14:30 – 16:00
Neurobiological bases of schizophrenia
Guillermo Horga

16:15
Phenomenology of schizophrenia
Shaun Gallagher

Participants

Alva Nöe

University of California-Berkeley

Carmen Cavada

Universidad Autónoma de Madrid

Claudia Vanney

Universidad Austral

Dan Zahavi

University of Copenhagen

Evan Thompson

University of British Columbia

Francisco Güell

Gabriel Madirolas

CINET / University of Toulouse

Georg Northoff

University of Ottawa

Guillermo Horga

Columbia University

Ignacio Sáez

Mount Sinai Hospital

Javier Bernácer

Scientific Director of CINET

Javier Sánchez-Cañizares

Joanna Rączaszek-Leonardi

Jorge Sepulcre

Yale University

José Ignacio Murillo

José Manuel Muñoz

Principal Investigator at CINET

Lorena Chanes

Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona

Marya Schechtman

University of Illinois-Chicago

Mazviita Chirimuuta

University of Edimburgh / University of Pittsburgh

Miguel Ángel García Cabezas

Universidad Autónoma de Madrid

Moisés Pérez-Marcos

CINET / Universidad de Sevilla

Nathaniel F. Barrett

Universidad de Navarra

Peter Tse

Rebecca Todd