Dear Comp-Neuro Community,

Hope you are all doing well in these difficult times! This is to announce a new online seminar series on consciousness that will include regular weekly or bi-weekly talks until the end of 2020 by well known researchers in the field. 

As in the previous years, part of the seminar will be devoted to discussing new ideas, visions and recent results. This time, we would like to put more emphasis on critically assessing the use of mathematics in studying consciousness. How exactly do mathematical approaches integrate with and depend on neuroscientific and philosophical research? Do they allow to go beyond what non-formal approaches can do? If so, how?

To answer these and similar questions, we will host talks, discussion sessions, background lectures and tutorials. Our overall goals in doing so are:

  • To review the various mathematical approaches that are being used in consciousness science.
  • To discuss the underlying visions and the current progress of each.
  • To assess the merits and drawbacks of the mathematical method as a whole in this context.
  • To develop a rigorous understanding of how precisely mathematics can be used to address the problem of consciousness.
  • To identify key questions that a mathematical science of consciousness should address.
  • To help establish a comprehensive methodology of mathematical consciousness research, which is intimately tied to both empirical and conceptual research in neuroscience, philosophy and related disciplines.

A partial and developing list of confirmed speakers include: 

  • Karl Friston, University College London

  • David Balduzzi, DeepMind Google

  • Chen Song, Cardiff University

  • Anil Seth, Sackler Center for Consciousness Science, Sussex

  • Ryota Kanai, Araya Artificial Intelligence, Tokyo

  • Jenann Ismael, Columbia University in New York

  • Jennifer Windt, Monash University 

  • Erik Hoel, Allen Discovery Centre

  • Andrew Haun, Center for Sleep and Consciousness, UW-Madison

  • Rafi Malach, Weizmann Institute of Science

  • Catherine Tallon-Baundry, École normale supérieure

  • Nao Tsuchiya, Consciousness tLab, Melbourne

  • Liad Mudrik, Tel Aviv University

  • William Seager, University of Toronto

  • Selen Atasoy, University of Oxford

  • Jeffrey Yoshimi, University of California Merced

As in the previous events, we hope to create an open-minded and non-dogmatic atmosphere. This is one reason why we would like to cordially invite you all to join the seminar. To do so, simply visit the seminar's website (https://seminar.math-consciousness.org), click on the tab "Join" and follow the explanations there. Further information about the seminar is given in the tab "Details" and will be announced to those who have joined soon.

We hope to see many of you online in the next couple of months!

Stay safe!

The organizers

Johannes Kleiner (Munich)
Joanna Szczotka (Sussex and Krakow)
Xerxes D. Arsiwalla (Barcelona)
Sean Tull (Oxford)
Robin Lorenz (Oxford)