Synthetic Consciousness: Seeing and Believing May 11th, 2024 at 2:30PM Past Event Watch the video » “The Aleph was probably two to three centimeters in diameter, but universal space was contained inside it . . .” – JL Borges Our eyes move. They rove and they direct attention. Indeed, vision and our ability to focus attention more generally are intimately intertwined. And this hybrid faculty of vision/attention has been extended as a metaphor for the way we focus our attention to the contents of our minds, even when vision is not active. Of course, for many animals vision is not the most important sense. And this simple fact raises so many interesting puzzles concerning animal consciousness and the senses in general. How is our apperception of a world related to the senses through which we perceive it? How different is experience for those of us without vision, either inborn or lost? How might attention “work” differently when the other senses must take the lead? For most of us vision synthesizes the four other senses and provides the glue that vouches for our assertions of truth and claims of falsehood. What makes “the fox jumped over the fence” true, or false, for us? Eyewitness and certainty are two concepts so closely related. Vision naturally figures in the creation and recording of images, and then too, of written language and its development. These trends in cultural evolution, relating to our visual embrace of the world, encompass historical effects almost certainly too enormous to catalogue. Participants: Elissa Aminoff Assistant Professor of Psychology, Fordham University Elissa Aminoff is an associate professor of Psychology at Fordham University. Prior to joining the faculty at Fordham, she was a research scientist at Carnegie Mellon University in the Department of Psychology and was an adjunct faculty at the Robotics Institute at Carnegie Mellon University. Dr. Aminoff received her PhD from the Department of Psychology… read more » Kevin Chan Assistant Professor, Ophthalmology, Radiology, & Neuroscience, NYU Grossman School of Medicine Assistant Professor, Biomedical Engineering, NYU Tandon School of Engineering Dr. Kevin Chan is an assistant professor of Ophthalmology, Radiology, Neuroscience, and Biomedical Engineering at the New York University Grossman School of Medicine and New York University Tandon School of Engineering. He completed his doctoral studies in biomedical engineering at The University of Hong Kong and was awarded the Li Ka Shing Prize for the… read more » Paul Linton Presidential Scholar in Neuroscience and Society, Columbia University Fellow of the Italian Academy, Columbia University Dr. Paul Linton is a Presidential Scholar in Neuroscience and Society, and a Fellow of the Italian Academy, at Columbia University, specializing in human 3D vision. He is the author of The Perception and Cognition of Visual Space (Palgrave Macmillan, 2017), and the lead editor of the Royal Society volume New Approaches to 3D Vision (2023). He has made… read more » Kenneth Miller Professor of Neuroscience, Department of Physiology and Director, Center for Theoretical Biology, Columbia University Kenneth Miller is the Peter Taylor Professor of Neuroscience, co-Director of the Center for Theoretical Neuroscience, and co-Director of the Neurobiology and Behavior Graduate Program at Columbia University. He received his B.A. from Reed College, his M.S. and Ph.D. (with distinction) from Stanford University, and completed his postdoctoral work at UCSF and Caltech. He is… read more » Andrew Shum Entrepeneur, Software Engineer Andrew Shum is an entrepreneur with a background in software engineering and artificial intelligence. He was co-founder of Thread Genius, which built computer vision algorithms for retail and e-commerce applications, including visual search and discovery. Thread Genius was acquired by auction house Sotheby’s where Andrew focused on expanding the auction business through machine learning technology…. read more »
Elissa Aminoff Assistant Professor of Psychology, Fordham University Elissa Aminoff is an associate professor of Psychology at Fordham University. Prior to joining the faculty at Fordham, she was a research scientist at Carnegie Mellon University in the Department of Psychology and was an adjunct faculty at the Robotics Institute at Carnegie Mellon University. Dr. Aminoff received her PhD from the Department of Psychology… read more »
Kevin Chan Assistant Professor, Ophthalmology, Radiology, & Neuroscience, NYU Grossman School of Medicine Assistant Professor, Biomedical Engineering, NYU Tandon School of Engineering Dr. Kevin Chan is an assistant professor of Ophthalmology, Radiology, Neuroscience, and Biomedical Engineering at the New York University Grossman School of Medicine and New York University Tandon School of Engineering. He completed his doctoral studies in biomedical engineering at The University of Hong Kong and was awarded the Li Ka Shing Prize for the… read more »
Paul Linton Presidential Scholar in Neuroscience and Society, Columbia University Fellow of the Italian Academy, Columbia University Dr. Paul Linton is a Presidential Scholar in Neuroscience and Society, and a Fellow of the Italian Academy, at Columbia University, specializing in human 3D vision. He is the author of The Perception and Cognition of Visual Space (Palgrave Macmillan, 2017), and the lead editor of the Royal Society volume New Approaches to 3D Vision (2023). He has made… read more »
Kenneth Miller Professor of Neuroscience, Department of Physiology and Director, Center for Theoretical Biology, Columbia University Kenneth Miller is the Peter Taylor Professor of Neuroscience, co-Director of the Center for Theoretical Neuroscience, and co-Director of the Neurobiology and Behavior Graduate Program at Columbia University. He received his B.A. from Reed College, his M.S. and Ph.D. (with distinction) from Stanford University, and completed his postdoctoral work at UCSF and Caltech. He is… read more »
Andrew Shum Entrepeneur, Software Engineer Andrew Shum is an entrepreneur with a background in software engineering and artificial intelligence. He was co-founder of Thread Genius, which built computer vision algorithms for retail and e-commerce applications, including visual search and discovery. Thread Genius was acquired by auction house Sotheby’s where Andrew focused on expanding the auction business through machine learning technology…. read more »
Want to get into tomorrows event on vision. How do I get on…. zoom? Thank you. gusty.lange@gmail.com Reply