On 2010-12-13, at 7:08 PM, Gerald Edelman wrote:
Dear Stevan,
Many thanks for sending on the description of the Cognitive Sciences Summer
School. At present, I must be as provisional as you have been by saying that
I am interested in principle, but I cannot make a commitment at present. If
I cannot attend I hope that I may suggest someone from the Institute,
subject of course, to your own decisions.
With kind regards I am,
Yours ever,
Gerald M. Edelman
Begin forwarded message:
From: Stevan Harnad <harnad@ecs.soton.ac.uk>
Date: November 21, 2011 8:44:16 PM EST
ToSubject: First Draft of Programme of Summer Institute on Evolution and
Function of Consciousness
Dear Speakers,
This is the first daft of our programme for the Summer Institute on Evolution and
Function of Consciousness June 29 - July 8 (followed by a 3-day satellite
workshop on measuring consciousness).
Please check your time and title. If it's UPPER CASE, it's the title you gave me. If
it's lower case, then it's a provisional one I invented.
Feel free to change your titles as you wish, and let me know. I also have some
degrees of freedom for changing the day of your paper, but the programme is
quite quite remarkably coherent now, so I hope you will only change times if
really necessary. (If I have made a mistake in your time constraints, though,
please let me know right away so I can fix it.
We will soon be announcing the programme far and wide. Please do tell your
colleagues and students about the Summer Institute. If demand is really high, we
will try to web-stream it (with your permission, of course).
Please note that a few of the talks will be piped to and from Brighton to the ASSC
16 meeting which will take place Monday July 2 to Friday July 6. The Institute is
also one of the official Allan Turing Year 2012 centenary commemorative
events.
Looking forward to a very exciting and memorable event.
Best wishes,
Stevan
PROVISIONAL DRAFT PROGRAM
Jun 29 OPENING
Damasio - FEELINGS AND SENTIENCE
Jun 30 FEELINGS AND SENTIENCE
Ledoux - THE PERPLEXING RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN EMOTIONS AND CONSCIOUSNESS
Armony - Neural Bases of Emotion
Cervero - CELLULAR AND MOLECULAR MECHANISMS OF PAIN
Jackson - THE BRAIN RESPONSE TO THE PAIN OF OTHERS: FLEEING VERSUS CARING
Nader - Fear and motivational memory
Floreano - EVOLUTION OF ADAPTIVE BEHAVIOR IN AUTONOMOUS ROBOTS
Jul 1 TURING TESTING KNOW-HOW
Harnad - HOW AND WHY THE PROBLEM OF EXPLAINING THE CAUSAL ROLE OF CONSCIOUSNESS IS H
Harvey - NO HARD FEELINGS -- WHY SHOULD AN EVOLVED ROBOT CARE?
Dudek - Autonomous Robotics
Jacobs - Evolution of Sense Organs
MacIver - SENSORY AND MOTOR SPACES AND THE EMERGENCE OF MULTIPLE FUTURES
Ptito - NEURAL MECHANISMS OF BLINDSIGHT AFTER HEMISPHERECTOMY: TAPPING INTO THE UNCON
Jul 2 HIGH-LEVEL KNOW-HOW
Freedman - BRAIN MECHANISMS OF VISUAL CATEGORIZATION AND DECISION-MAKING
Cleermans - Consciousness and Learning
Tallon-Beaudry - IS CONSCIOUSNESS AN EXECUTIVE FUNCTION?
Edelman-S - BEING IN TIME:
Franklin - AFFORDANCES THAT PROVIDE ADAPTIVE ADVANTAGES FOR THE EVOLUTION OF CONSCIOU
Graziano - CONSCIOUSNESS AND THE ATTENTION SCHEMA
Jul 3 EVOLUTION OF CONSCIOUSNESS
Mancuso - Evolution of Plant Intelligence
Sossin - APLYSIA: IF WE UNDERSTAND CELLULAR MECHANISMS UNDERLYING SENSATION AND LEARN
Edelman-D - STUDYING CONSCIOUSNESS IN CEPHALOPODS
Mather - EVOLUTIONARY PRESSURES AND CEPHALOPOD CONSCIOUSNESS
Finlay - CONTINUITIES/DISCONTINUITIES IN VERTEBRATE BRAIN EVOLUTION AND COGNITIVE CAPAC
Haggard - VOLITION AND AGENCY: WHAT IS IT, AND WHAT IS IT FOR?
Jul 4 WHAT'S FEELING FOR?
Rosenthal - DOES CONSCIOUSNESS HAVE ANY UTILITY?
Seth - Causal density and consciousness
Baars - PSYCHO-BIOLOGICAL RISKS/BENEFITS OF CONSCIOUSNESS
Baumeister - THE WHY, WHAT AND HOW OF CONSCIOUSNESS
Merker - THE BRAIN'S NEED FOR SENSORY CONSCIOUSNESS: FROM PROBABILITIES TO ESTIMATES
Shadlen - CONSCIOUSNESS AS A DECISION TO ENGAGE
Jul 5 NEURAL MECHANISMS
Singer - CONSCIOUSNESS: UNITY IN TIME RATHER THAN SPACE?
Cook - ARE NEURAL FLUCTUATIONS IN CORTEX CAUSALLY LINKED TO VISUAL PERCEPTION?
Cisek - NEURAL MECHANISMS FOR SURVIVING LONG ENOUGH TO CONTEMPLATE CONSCIOUSNESS
Jablonka - EVOLUTIONARY ORIGINS OF EXPERIENCING
Martinez - VOLUNTARY ATTENTION AND WORKING MEMORY IN THE PRIMATE BRAIN: RECORDING FRO
Pack - NEURAL CORRELATES OF CONSCIOUSNESS IN PRIMATE CORTEX
July 6 DOING THINGS BECAUSE YOU FEEL LIKE IT
Dennett - Causality/schmausality where there's no fact to matter
Brembs - BEHAVORAL FREEDOM AND DECISION-MAKING IN FLIES: EVOLUTIONARY PRECURSOR OF "F
Lau - VOLITION AND THE FUNCTION OF CONSCIOUSNESS
Balaguer - A SCIENTIFICALLY REPUTABLE VERSION OF INDETERMINISTIC, LIBERTARIAN FREE WILL
Ebert - The feeling of free will
Mele - DO CONSCIOUS DECISIONS EVER PLAY A ROLE IN ACTION PRODUCTION?
July 7 CONSCIOUSNESS AND CAUSALITY
Searle - Consciousness and Causality
Baron-Cohen, S Mind Reading
Strawson - Panpsychism
Metzinger - The relevance of OBE/VR-experiments to consciousness research
Morsella - THE PRIMARY FUNCTION OF CONSCIOUSNESS IN THE BRAIN
Piccinini - IS CONSCIOUSNESS A SPANDREL?
July 8 NEURAL CORRELATES
Edelman-G - Neural basis of consciousness
Campbell - WHAT DOES VISUAL EXPERIENCE HAVE TO DO WITH VISUAL SCIENCE?
Pessoa - COGNITIVE-EMOTIONAL INTERACTIONS
Plourde - General anesthetics for the study of consciousness
Shmuel - FUNCTIONAL NEURO-IMAGING: NEUROPHYSIOLOGICAL MECHANISMS OF HEMODYNAMIC SI
Jul 9 - 11 Satellite Workshop on Measuring Correlates of Consciousness
Begin forwarded message:
From: Stevan Harnad <harnad@ecs.soton.ac.uk>
Date: October 18, 2011 11:14:45 AM EDT
To: Diana Eshelman <eshelman@nsi.edu>
Cc: Montréal Summer Inst Consciousness <summer12.isc@uqam.ca>
Subject: Re: Evolution and Function of Consciousness
On 2010-12-13, at 7:08 PM, Gerald Edelman wrote:
Dear Stevan,
Many thanks for sending on the description of the Cognitive Sciences Summer
School. At present, I must be as provisional as you have been by saying that
I am interested in principle, but I cannot make a commitment at present. If
I cannot attend I hope that I may suggest someone from the Institute,
subject of course, to your own decisions.
With kind regards I am,
Yours ever,
Gerald M. Edelman
Dear Gerald,
It is now coming time to finalize the programme for the Summer Institute of the
Evolution and Function of Consciousness (June 30-July 8, 2012).
Below is the list of speakers, preferred date and titles or topics. I think you will
agree that this has become a rather remarkable convergence of experts on this
very focussed aspect of the problem of consciousness (its causal role) -- what
has come to be called "the hard problem" from consciousness, as distinct from
the many "easy" problems of consciousness researchers usually address:
Armony, Jorge
Baars, Bernard
Balaguer, Mark
Baron-Cohen, Simon
Baumeister, Roy
Brembs, Bjorn
Campbell, John
Cook, Erik
Cervero, Fernando
Cisek, Paul
Craig, AD Bud
Damasio, Antonio
Dudek, Gregory
Ebert, Jeffrey
Edelman, David
Edelman, Gerald
Edelman, Shimon
Finlay, Barbara
Floreano, Dario
Franklin, Stan
Freedman, David
Graziano, Michael
Haggard, Patrick
Harnad, Stevan
Harvey, Inman
Jablonka, Eva
Jackson, Phillip
Jacobs, David
Lau, Hakwan
Ledoux, Joseph
MacIver, Malcolm
Mancuso, Stefano
Martinez, Julio
Mather, Jennifer
Mele, Alfred
Merker, Bjorn
Metzinger, Thomas
Morsella, Ezequiel
Nader, Karim
Pack, Christopher
Pessoa, Luiz
Plourde, Gilles
Ptito, Alain
Rosenthal, David
Seth, Anil
Searle, John
Shadlen, Michael
Shmuel, Amir
Singer, Wolfgang
Sossin, Wayne
Strawson, Galen
Tallon-Beaudry, Catherine
Could you let us know whether you will be speaking (and if so, could you give me
a provisional title for your talk?) or whether you will be suggesting someone from
the institute instead.
(Once you've looked over the list, please let me know if any last-minute musthear invitees come to mind that you think ought to also be invited!)
Further correspondence will come to you from summer12.isc@uqam.ca
The details about the programme will be updated regularly at the Summer
Institute's
website: http://www.summer12.isc.uqam.ca/page/renseignement.php?lang_id=2
Looking forward to what I hope will be an exciting and memorable event.
Best wishes,
Stevan
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Diana Eshelman
Executive Assistant to Gerald M. Edelman, M.D., Ph.D.
The Neurosciences Institute
10640 John Jay Hopkins Drive
San Diego, CA 92121
Tel: (858) 626-2000
Fax: (858) 626-2099
Email: eshelman@nsi.edu
www.nsi.edu
From: Stevan Harnad <harnad@ecs.soton.ac.uk>
Date: Tue, 30 Nov 2010 18:38:15 -0500
Subject: Evolution and Function of Consciousness
To: gedelman@scripps.edu
Dear Gerry,
I apologize for the "generic" tone of this
letter (it's being sent to a number of colleagues who work on
consciousness).
I am planning an international cognitive
sciences summer school for the end of June 2012
at the Institute of Cognitive Sciences (ICS) at
Université du Québec à Montréal (UQaM) .
4th ICS/UQaM International Cognitive Sciences Summer School (2012):
"Evolution and Function of Consciousness"
At this point I would just like to ask whether
you might be interested in principal in
participating. (This is not yet a formal
invitation, so your reply does not mean a formal commitment on your part.)
This summer school will be rather different from
the many conferences and meetings that have been
taking place in recent years on the subject of
consciousness. It will be on the causal role of
consciousness in brain and behavioral evolution
and function -- with a very specific focus on
the "hard problem" of explaining the causal status of consciousness itself.
I will be inviting neuroscientists, evolutionary
biologists, neural modellers, computer
scientists, roboticists, engineers,
psychologists, and philosophers. The challenge
will be to explain, functionally, what it means
to be conscious, and how and why (some)
organisms need to be conscious in order to be
able to do what they are able to do to survive,
reproduce and function adaptively.
This 4th summer school in 2012 is taking its cue
from this year's highly successful 3rd summer
school in 2010 on the Origins of Language. For
two weeks in June, most of the world experts on
that topic were here in Montreal addressing a
large and highly motivated international
collection of researchers and students:
3rd ICS/UQaM International Cognitive Sciences Summer School (2010):
"Origins of Language"
<http://www.summer10.isc.uqam.ca/page/programme.php?lang_id=2>http://www
.su
mmer10.isc.uqam.ca/page/programme.php?lang_id=2
The 2nd and 1st summer schools have been, respectively:
2nd ICS/UQaM International Cognitive Sciences Summer School (2008):
"Minds and Societies"
<http://www.er.uqam.ca/nobel/eteisc/ocs/index.php/eteisc/SS2008>http://www.
er.uqam.ca/nobel/eteisc/ocs/index.php/eteisc/SS2008
1st ICS/UQaM International Cognitive Sciences Summer School (2003):
"Categorization"
<http://www.unites.uqam.ca/sccog/indexen.html>http://www.unites.uqam.ca/scc
og/indexen.html
The ICS/UQaM summer schools are attended by a
rich international and cross-disciplinary
spectrum of researchers and students
(approximately 200). The 10-day event is
something in between a symposium and a series of
academic seminars. Researchers share findings
and ideas at a high level, while keeping it
accessible to the students who are enrolled for
academic credit. Presenters travel and lodgings
are covered in Montreal (and the summer school
is always scheduled to coincide with the
Montreal International Jazz Festival).
(Presenters need not stay for the entire 10-day
event, but it is hoped they will stay for the
2-3 days surrounding their own contribution.)
The summer schools each generate a
<http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/bookdescription.cws_home/705263/descripti
on#description>Handbook
with a major publisher in the year following the
event (but contributing a chapter is optional.)
Please let me know whether you would be
interested in principle in being invited to
present, and if so, what topic you would
address. I would also be grateful to hear your
recommendations as to who else we should invite,
in any of the fields I mentioned above (and any fields you feel I omitted).
Best wishes,
Stevan Harnad
Canada Research Chair in Cognitive Sciences
Institut des sciences cognitives (ISC)
Universite du Quebec a Montreal
Montreal, Quebec, Canada H3C 3P8
<http://www.crsc.uqam.ca/>http://www.crsc.uqam.ca/
Professor of Cognitive Science
School of Electronics and Computer Science
University of Southampton
Highfield, Southampton
SO17 1BJ UNITED KINGDOM
<http://www.ecs.soton.ac.uk/~harnad/>http://www.ecs.soton.ac.uk/~harnad/