Alumni Seminars and Colloquia

Over 50 alumni, parents, and friends enjoyed last spring's Alumni Seminar on Human Self-identity in the Age of Neuroscience and Information Technology. The evaluations made it clear that there is a demand for programs of this nature, and we are working hard with faculty to develop similar courses for the upcoming year. Details will be posted on this page as soon as they are available. If you would like to be notified by e-mail, please make sure to sign up for the monthly electronic Alumni Education Newsletter.

About our Spring 2006 course

The Human Self-identity in the Age of Neuroscience and Artificial Intelligence course was held on Saturday, April 22, 2006 from 8:30 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.

An undergraduate course, PSY 214: Human Identity in the Age of Neuroscience and Information Technology coordinated by Daniel Osherson, Henry R. Luce Professor of Information Technology, Consciousness, and Culture, was offered in 2004 and 2005 at Princeton University and has been scheduled again for 2006. Lectures and readings were provided by more than twenty professors, drawn from the natural and social sciences, the humanities, and engineering, while an even larger group were active in designing the course and in discussing its themes. On Saturday, April 22, 2006 a subset of the faculty offered to Princeton alumni a condensed version of some of the material covered, and were available for follow-up discussion.

By the beginning of the twentieth century, a scientific conception of human beings began to emerge, and by mid-century a computational perspective on intelligence was also developed. Both of these ideas have potential consequences for our perception of the human condition. Biological science pictures humans as chemical machines that evolved over eons from some inanimate substrate. Computer science perceives us as algorithms embodied in organic molecules.

The mission of the course was to explore the impact of these ideas on our self-conception, in other words, on human identity. We began with a glimpse of progress in explaining human capacities in biological terms, then turned to current efforts to simulate these abilities in electronic computers. Next we considered some of the formidable obstacles to understanding mental life in scientific/technological terms (focusing on the four C's: computability, complexity, chaos, and consciousness). It was then time to consider the impact (both present and potential) of the neuroscience and information revolutions on society and contemporary culture.

A sample of topics were presented (each one very briefly) at the symposium on April 22, 2006. Speakers included professors Charles Gross (Psychology), Kenneth Norman (Psychology), Christiane Fellbaum (Cognitive Science Laboratory), Michael Mahoney (History), Adele Goldberg (Linguistics), Jonathan Cohen (Psychology), William Bialek (Physics), Gilbert Harman (Philosophy), Barry Jacobs (Psychology), Edwin Turner (Astrophysical), Philip Pettit (Politics), and Alexander Nehamas (Philosophy).

The symposium offered a condensed version of some of the topics covered in the full semester course offered to undergraduates. Download the undergraduate course syllabus [PDF].