Cognitive Computing, Consciousness, Science Philosophy and Mind Video Lectures

Okay, this time I have gathered video lectures on cognitive computing, philosophy, and mind research.


IBM's Lectures on Cognitive Computing

• Lecture 1: From Brain Dynamics to Consciousness by Gerald Edelman (The Neurosciences Institute)
  Subtitle: A Prelude to the Future of Brain-Based Devices
  Slides of Lecture 1
  
  Edelman discusses neuronal group selection, brain-based devices, and robots playing soccer.



• Lecture 2: The Emergence of Intelligence in the Neocortical Microcircuit by Henry Markram (EPFL/BlueBrain)
  Slides of Lecture 2
  
  Markram discusses microcolumns in the brain, and shows several video animations of computer models of neurons communicating in a microcolumn. His model includes 10,000 neurons, which is a very large number of neurons to model.



• Lecture 3: The Mechanism of Thought by Robert Hecht-Nielsen (UCSD)
  Slides of Lecture 3
  
  Hecht-Nielsen discusses sentence generation based on knowledge links. It's so good, it appears to generate new sentences based on strong semantic understanding of the input sentences. He also demonstrates robust speech understanding. His work is sponsored by Fair Isaac and the Office of Naval Research.



• Lecture 4: Hierarchical Temporal Memory: Theory and Implementation by Jeff Hawkins (Palm/Numenta)
  Subtitle: A new computational paradigm based on cortical theory
  Slides of Lecture 4



• Lecture 5: How the brain works, what it computes, and how/when we might build one
  Part I: A Scientific Theory of Mind by James Albus (NIST)
  Goal of his research is to extend the frontiers of human knowledge to include a scientific understanding of the processes in the human brain that give rise to the phenomenon of mind.
  Slides of Part I
  Part II: Theodore Berger (USC): Discusses how to replace parts of the brain with VLSI computer chips (in the case of bringing functionality back to a region of the brain that was removed due to a tumor).
  Slides of Part II
  Part III: Kwabena Boahen (Stanford): Presents energy analysis of brains vs. computers.
  Slides of Part III
  Part IV: Ralph Linsker (IBM): Shows demo of separating multiple overlapping voices using a neurally-inspired algorithm.
  Slides of Part IV
  Part V: Jerry Swartz (The Swartz Foundation): Presents Large scale brain modeling.
  Slides of Part V



• Lecture 6: The Uniqueness of the Human Brain by V. S. Ramachandran (UCSD)
  Slides of Lecture 6
  
  Ramachandran discusses phantom limbs and synesthesia (esp. color-blind synesthete) as a function of neuron innervation. Specifically, he focuses on cross-linking between nearby cortical regions, which he believes to be genetically caused (e.g. synesthesia appears to be found frequently in family lineages). He also discusses the link between mirror neurons and autism, and how language invention is due to an inherent cross-linking between portions of the visual and auditory regions (e.g. Buba/Kiki effect).



• Lecture 7: Beyond Dualism by John Searle (UC Berkeley)
  (no slides available)



• Lecture 8: Cortical Dynamics of Working Memory by Joaquin Fuster (UCLA)
  Slides of Lecture 8



• Lecture 9: A Quantitative Theory of Cortex by Leslie Valiant (Harvard University)
  (no slides available)



• Lecture 10: The 4 C's of Neuroinformation Theory by Toby Berger (University of Virginia)
  Subtitle: Coding, Computing, Control and Cognition
  Slides of Lecture 10



• Lecture 11: Consciousness by Christof Koch (Caltech)
  (no slides available)



• Lecture 12: The Future of Cognitive Computing by William Pulleyblank (IBM Global Services)
  (no slides available)

Research Channel's "Closer to Truth" series

• Do Brains Make Minds?
  From genetics to cosmology to nanotechnology, science is on the brink of numerous and extraordinary mega-revolutions that will change the very nature of life. Closer to Truth brings together leading scientists, scholars and artists to debate many of today's fundamental issues. Joining host Robert Kuhn is consciousness expert David Chalmers; philosopher of mind John Searle; anthropologist Marilyn Schlitz; theoretical physicist Fred Alan Wolf; and neuropsychologist Barry Beyerstein. The panelists discuss the connection between the gray matter called a brain, the thoughts we think, the mind-body connection, and whether there's something more to the human mind than what resides in the brain.



• Strange Physics of the Mind?
  Two fundamental theories -- quantum mechanics and relativity -- have changed forever our understanding of reality. Quantum mechanics describes the very small-scale structure of atoms and their components. Relativity describes the very large-scale structure of space and time. Today's panelists discuss why some physicists have suddenly become obsessed with using physics to explain the human mind, consciousness and how we think. Joining host Robert Kuhn are sci-fi novelist Gregory Benford; physicist James Trefil; consciousness expert David Chalmers; philosopher of mind John Searle; and theoretical physicist Fred Alan Wolf.



• Can Science Seek the Soul?
  Belief in the existence of the 'spiritual essence' of an immortal soul has infused human thought and history. Still, most of today's scientists remain materialists who believe that only the physical world is real. Today's topic pits the scientific materialists against whose who believe in the concept of 'dualism,' which requires some non-physical component -- call it a 'soul' -- to transform the human brain into the human mind. Joining host Robert Kuhn are neuropsychologist Warren Brown; parapsychologist Dean Radin; transpersonal psychologist Charles Tart; philosopher of mind John Searle; and theoretical physicist Fred Alan Wolf.



• How Does the Autistic Brain Work?
  Crammed into our craniums, the three-pound human brain may be the most complex matter in the universe. And, scientists are learning more about how it works by investigating how it doesn't work. A 13 year-old young man named Tito Mukhopadhyay may be the Rosetta stone for autism, revealing what it feels like to be autistic. Joining host Robert Kuhn are Eric Courchesne, Professor of Neuroscience, UC San Diego; Portia Iversen of Cure Autism Now; Teacher Soma Mukhopadhyay; Erin Schuman, Associate Professor of Biology, Caltech; and Terrence Sejnowski, Director of Computational Biology, Salk Institute.



• Can We Imagine the Far Future - Year 3000?
  From genetics to cosmology to nanotechnology, science is on the brink of numerous and extraordinary mega-revolutions that will change the very nature of life. Closer to Truth brings together leading scientists, scholars and artists to debate many of today's fundamental issues. Joining host Robert Kuhn are creativity pioneer Edward de Bono; fuzzy logic expert Bart Kosko; futurist Graham T.T. Molitor; and planetary scientist Bruce Murray. The panelists discuss what the world will be like in year 3000.



• Can We See the Near Future - Year 2025?
  Close your eyes. Now fast-forward 25 years. Open your eyes. What do you see? Humanity has moved through the agrarian age to the industrial age and now, the information age. With what moniker will we label our future? Experts debate where we've been, what we've learned, what the future holds in store, and if it really is possible to forecast the not too distant future.



• What is Consciousness?
  What is Consciousness -- our inner thoughts, feelings, personalities -- the hidden 'Stuff' of our Private Selves? Is there something special about Consciousness, something of the mind not in the brain? This is self awareness, the interior mental experience we call Consciousness. What is the importance of studying Consciousness? The panel discusses the concept of human consciousness.



• Is Consciousness Definable?
  Closer to Truth brings together leading scientists, scholars and artists to debate the fundamental issues of our times. One problem is that there are too many definitions! And getting these four guests to agree on what consciousness is and what causes it, is a fun but hopeless task that is revelatory at the same time. Joining host Robert Kuhn are Leslie Brothers, Psychiatrist; Joseph E. Bogen, Neurosurgeon; Stuart Hameroff, Anesthesiologist; and Christof Koch, Computation and Neural Systems.



• Can You Learn To Be Creative?
  For years we thought that in order to be creative you had to 'be born with it.' Now, new thinking on the subject reveals that everyone can learn to be more imaginative and creative -- all you need is high energy and strong motivation. Find out how to tap into this learned skill from today's expert panelists. Joining host Robert Kuhn are scientist and sci-fi novelist Gregory Benford; creativity and happiness authority Mihaly Csikszentmihaly; corporate creativity expert John Kao; artist Todd Siler; and poet Rhoda Janzen.



• Can You Really Extend Your Life?
  Long life is humanity's ancient and perennial goal. Prophets promised it, explorers searched for it and today's society is obsessed with it. The panelists discuss the biology of aging and debate the facts, fads and fallacies of living longer -- and offer the best and most sensible advice to slow the aging process. Joining host Robert Kuhn are gene therapist French Anderson; best-selling author and surgeon Sherwin Nuland; fitness theorist Arthur S. De Vany; biophysicist Gregory Stock; and longevity expert Roy Walford.



• How Did This Universe Begin?
  It's called 'The Big Bang' -- that inexplicable moment when an infinitesimally small point expanded majestically, and cooked up space, time, energy and matter into a colossal cosmic stew. How can we draw such a fine-grained portrait of the 'ultimate beginning' and what scientific answers reach across billions of years? Humanity's ancient and perpetual fascination with the universe's beginnings is discussed in light of recent, revolutionary discoveries in cosmology, and what they mean for human understanding.



• How Does Order Arise in the Universe?
  Get two Nobel laureates, put them in a room and try to shake them up, fail, and get a lot of visionary thinking about stars, planets, living things, people --plausible new theories of how all this developed from the maelstrom of the early universe. Joining host Robert Kuhn is David Baltimore, Nobel laureate in Medicine; and Murray Gell-Mann, Nobel laureate in Physics.



• Is the Universe Full of Life?
  Closer to Truth brings together leading scientists, scholars and artists to debate the fundamental issues of our times. Human have long wondered whether life exists beyond our home planet. In recent years, a host of new technologies are turning speculation into science. We now have the ability to discern the atmostphere of an extra-solar planet so distant we can't even see it, to detect the presence of dozens of new planets circling stars similar to our own sun, and have discovered life in environments on Earth so extreme it's not unreasonable to imagine that microbes -- or more -- may flourish elsewhere in the Universe. Joining host Robert Kuhn are Shri Kulkarni, Planetary Astronomer, Caltech; Bruce Murray, Planetary Astronomer and Geologist, Caltech; and Neil de Grasse Tyson, Director, Hayden Planetarium.



• How Does Technology Transform Thinking?
  Light-speed technology is accelerating, and even changing the way we think. So much so that you're irritated when there is a 10-second delay in downloading an Internet site even when just a few years ago you were thrilled to a same-day fax. Today's expert panelists take on technology to discuss what it is about technology that is affecting our modes of thought, how thinking has changed, and how humans can keep up with the raging pace of technological change. Joining host Robert Kuhn are geopolitical economist Francis Fukuyama; artificial intelligence expert Marvin Minsky; fuzzy logic expert Bart Kosko; planetary scientist Bruce Murray and technological innovator George Kozmetsky.



• How Does Technology Transform Society?
  From genetics to cosmology to nanotechnology, science is on the brink of numerous and extraordinary mega-revolutions that will change the very nature of life. Closer to Truth brings together leading scientists, scholars and artists to debate many of today's fundamental issues. Today's panelists discuss how technology is forever changing life as we know it and how change and continuing growth are just as unstoppable as social change is inevitable. Joining host Robert Kuhn are geopolitical economist Francis Fukuyama; artificial intelligence expert Marvin Minsky; technological innovator George Kozmetsky; scientist and sci-fi novelist Gregory Benford; and biophysicist Gregory Stock.



• Microbes - Friend or Foe?
  Bacteria have become resistant to our antibiotics. Viruses evolve with blinding speed. Prions may lurk in our meat. Anthrax is put into our mail. Stranger yet, could microbes be causing other illnesses, like cancers and heart attacks? Joining host Robert Kuhn are Agnes Day, Associate Professor, Howard University; Paul Ewald, Professor of Biology, University of Kentucky; and Alice S. Huang, Microbiologist, Caltech.



• Testing New Drugs: Are People Guinea Pigs?
  Closer to Truth brings together leading scientists, scholars and artists to debate the fundamental issues of our times. Instituted in the sixties, clinical drug trials today have become a vast and expensive enterprise in which drug companies can spend over $100 million to bring a new molecule to market. FDA procedures are complex and elaborate as they should be, in order to bring new drugs to market quickly to help people in need, but to do good science to protect the public from a drug's potentially dangerous side effects. Joining Robert Kuhn are Alexander Capron, Professor of Law and Medicine, USC; Andrea Kovacs, Director, HIV Family Clinic, USC; and Robert Temple, Associate Director, Medical Policy, FDA.



• What Are the Grand Questions of Science?
  Science seems on the brink of several mega-revolutions, including biotechnology and genetic engineering, broadband communications and artificial intelligence, a search for a 'Theory of Everything,' cosmology of the early universe, and nanotechnology, the building of extremely small machines. The panelists enumerate and evaluate the 'Big Questions' and rank them in order of importance.



• What Are the Next Breakthroughs in Science?
  From genetics to cosmology to nanotechnology, science is on the brink of numerous and extraordinary mega-revolutions that will change the very nature of life. Closer to Truth brings together leading scientists, scholars and artists to debate many of today's fundamental issues. Joining host Robert Kuhn are astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson; author/astronomer Timothy Ferris; evolutionary biologist Francisco Ayala; professor of neuroscience and philosophy Patricia Smith Churchland; and child psychologist Rochel Gelman. The panelists discuss the role of independent scientific study; how 'paradigms' work in science; and whether scientific discoveries are conditioned by the prevailing culture.



• Why is Quantum Physics So Beautiful?
  From genetics to cosmology to nanotechnology, science is on the brink of numerous and extraordinary mega-revolutions that will change the very nature of life. Closer to Truth brings together leading scientists, scholars and artists to debate many of today's fundamental issues. Joining host Robert Kuhn are Nobel Laureate and physicist Leon Lederman; physicist/cosmologist Andrei Linde; theoretical physicist Steve Koonin; scientist and sci-fi author Gregory Benford; and physicist Charles Buchanan. The panelists debate the charm and symmetry of quantum physics.



• Will Computers Take a Quantum Leap?
  As quantum engineer Seth Lloyd blithely states, 'a quantum computer is to a computer what a laser is to a light bulb. That explains a lot, and nothing.' Join host Robert Kuhn, along with David DiVincenzo, IBM Senior Researcher; Seth Lloyd, Professor of Engineering, MIT; and K. Birgitta Whaley, Professor of Chemistry, UC Berkely, as they discuss computer evolution.



• Will This Universe Ever End?
  There are two basic theories about how the universe will end, neither are pleasant. The first spells out an inward-rushing, squashing-together of all things and the second has everything flying apart and dissipating into nothingness. But recent and startling findings are putting all guesses up for grabs. Listen in as people who get paid to ponder the end of the universe put their best theories on the table. Joining host Robert Kuhn are Nobel Laureate and physicist Leon Lederman; cosmologist Wendy Freeman; physicist/cosmologist Andrei Linde; theologian Nancey Murphey and mathematician Frank Tipler.

There are lots more of lectures on these philosophical topics at "Closer to Truth" series site at Research Channel!



Philosophy 160: Philosophy of Science (San Jose State University)

• Lecture 1: Introduction: "What is Science?" (56k or Dsl)


• Lecture 2: "Logical Empiricism" (56k or Dsl)


• Lecture 3: "Induction and Confirmation" (56k or Dsl)


• Lecture 4: "Challenges in Theory Testing" (56k or Dsl)


• Lecture 5: "Popper and Falsification" (56k or Dsl)


• Lecture 6: "Kuhn: Paradigms and Normal Sciences (56k or Dsl)


• Lecture 7: "Kuhn: Crisis and Revolution (56k or Dsl)


• Lecture 9: "Alternatives to Kuhn" (56k or Dsl)


• Lecture 10: "Sociology of Science" (56k or Dsl)


• Lecture 11: "Feminist Critique of Science" (56k or Dsl)


• Lecture 12: "Naturalism" (56k or Dsl)


• Lecture 13: "Realism and Anti-Realism" (56k or Dsl)


• Lecture 14: "Explanation" (56k or Dsl)


• Lecture 15: "Wrap up: What is Science?" (56k or Dsl)

University of California TV Series on Mind, Language and Cognition

• Nothing in Mind: The Neuroscience of Nothing
  Richard O. Brown, Staff Neuroscientist at The Exploratorium, talks about the interaction between mind and matter and visual perception. He talks about and illustrates with fascinating visuals three concepts: 1. There is nothing out there and we perceive nothing which he feels comes closest to blackness. 2. There is something out there and we can't perceive it, which comes closest to invisibility. 3. There is nothing out there and we're still experiencing or perceiving something.



• Nothing in Mind: The Neuroscience of Nothing
  Richard O. Brown, Staff Neuroscientist at The Exploratorium, talks about the interaction between mind and matter and visual perception. He talks about and illustrates with fascinating visuals three concepts: 1. There is nothing out there and we perceive nothing which he feels comes closest to blackness. 2. There is something out there and we can't perceive it, which comes closest to invisibility. 3. There is nothing out there and we're still experiencing or perceiving something.



• Music and the Mind
  In this edition of "Grey Matters," Aniruddh Patel, of the Neurosciences Institute, discusses what music can teach us about the brain, and what brain science, in turn, can reveal about music.



• Decisions, Responsibility and the Brain
  Neuroscientist Patricia Churchland explores how the human mind functions in guiding one's decisions.



• The Origin of the Human Mind: Insights from Brain Imaging and Evolution
  UCSD cognitive scientist Martin Sereno takes you on a captivating exploration of the brain's structure and function as revealed through investigations with new advanced imaging techniques and understandings of evolution.



• Language and the Mind Revisited - The Biolinguistic Turn
  UC Berkeley presents the The Charles M. and Martha Hitchcock Lecture series, featuring linguist and political activist Noam Chomsky. Chomsky examines biolinguistics - the study of relations between physiology and speech.



• Language and the Mind Revisted - Language and the Rest of the World
  Influential linguist and political Activist Noam Chomsky discusses the properties, design and theories of language in this Hitchcock lecture presented at UC Berkeley.



• Grey Matters: Understanding Language
  Why are humans the only species to have language? Is there something special about our brains? Are there genes that have evolved for language? In this talk, Jeff Elman, UCSD professor of cognitive science and co-director of the Kavli Institute for Brain and Mind, discusses some of the exciting new research that helps us understand what it is about human language that is so different from other animals' communication systems, and what about our biology might make language possible.



• The Meaning of "Ouch" and "Oops"
  CLA Professor David Kaplan is a distinguished philosopher in logic and semantics. Tune in as he sheds new light on areas in the study of semantics including nicknames, politically correct speech and sarcasm.



• How Cognitive Theories Can Help Us Explain Autism
  Uta Frith, Professor in Cognitive Development at the University of London, looks at a whole causal chain of step-by-step explanations for autism. This causal chain is built by connecting biology and behavior. and finding the middle ground - cognition.

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