Are you conscious? Looking for reliable indicators
How can we be sure that a person in front of us is conscious? This might seem like a näive question, but it actually resulted in one of the trickiest and most intriguing philosophical problems, classically known as “the other minds problem.” Yet this is more than just a philosophical game: reliable detection of conscious…
Co-designing public engagement in the Human Brain Project
What are the most pertinent neuroethical challenges facing the Human Brain Project (HBP)? And if we had to pick one topic for a public engagement exercise, which would it be? These two questions are the starting point for a co-design process to develop an upcoming HBP public engagement: Gathering European citizens, neuroscientists and other experts…
DBT webinar invite: How can citizen engagement be used in the development of better science?
The Danish Board of Technology Foundation invites you to join a webinar on December 15, 2020, 6-7 pm CET titled “How can citizen engagement be used in the development of better science?”. Opening up a conversation taking stock of the state of engaging publics with ethical issues in science through dialogue, and begin to map…
Ethically responsible robot development
Development of new technologies sometimes draws inspiration from nature. How do plants and animals solve the problem? An example is robotics, where one wants to develop better robots based on what neuroscience knows about the brain. How does the brain solve the problem? Neuroscience, in turn, sees new opportunities to test hypotheses about the brain…
Do you have a vision for your career? Some thoughts on career planning
Do you have a vision for your career and the know-how to plan it? Have you established the right network to support your career? Are you able to keep the life-domain-balance you wish for? For PhD students and postdocs, figuring out the next step on your career path might seem overwhelming. To support young researchers,…
Beyond ‘good old CERN’: data and digital research infrastructures
In the popular imaginaries of Research Infrastructures, the ‘good old CERN’ is often seen as the prime example of European Research Infrastructures. Created in the post-World War II and emerging Cold War context of the 1950s, the European Organization of Nuclear Research (CERN) has developed in a highly-regarded success story of international cooperation, scientific discoveries…
We shape the societies that shape us: our responsibility for human nature
Visionary academic texts are rare – texts that shed light on how research can contribute to the perennial human issues. In an article in the philosophical journal Theoria, however, Kathinka Evers opens up a novel visionary perspective on neuroscience and tragic aspects of the human condition. For millennia, sensitive thinkers have been concerned about human nature. Undoubtedly,…
Culturally shaping developing minds
Are we socially steering evolution by influencing the cultural imprints to be stored in our brains? Recent neuroscientific findings would say so. In a recent paper, Kathinka Evers discusses the potential of being ‘epigenetically proactive’ and adapting our social structures to benefit brain development. Our nervous systems develop in continuous interaction with their immediate physical…
Space, time: bridging the epistemic gap of brain & mind
How do we become ourselves? How does neuronal activity turn into consciousness and the self? One of nature’s great scientific mysteries is the ‘common currency’ of brain and mind. Georg Northoff, Soren Wainio-Theberge and Kathinka Evers suggest looking for a ‘Spatiotemporal Neuroscience’ to dissolve the brain-mind puzzle. Until now, researchers investigating how neural activity turns…
What is required of an ethics of artificial intelligence?
I recently highlighted criticism of the ethics that often figures in the field of artificial intelligence (AI). An ethics that can handle the challenges that AI presents us with requires more than just beautifully formulated ethical principles, values and guidelines. What exactly is required of an ethics of artificial intelligence? Michele Farisco, Kathinka Evers and Arleen Salles address the issue…
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