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Forum for Philosophy

January 15th, 2015

Is the Brain a Predictive Machine?

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Estimated reading time: 10 minutes

Forum for Philosophy

January 15th, 2015

Is the Brain a Predictive Machine?

0 comments

Estimated reading time: 10 minutes

Paul Fletcher/ Karl Friston/ Demis Hassabis/ Richard Holton/ Benedetto De Martino

Thursday 15 January 2015
Sheikh Zayed Theatre

Paul Fletcher, Bernard Wolfe Professor of Health Neuroscience, University of Cambridge

Karl Friston, Professor of Neuroscience, University College London

Demis Hassabis, Vice President of Engineering, Google DeepMind

Richard Holton, Professor of Philosophy, University of Cambridge

Chair: Benedetto De Martino, Cognitive Neuroscientist, Department of Psychology, University of Cambridge

Is the world you are experiencing a mere forecast created by your brain? Research in neuroscience has suggested that you don’t see the colour of the sky but you anticipate its blueness and use your sense of vision to adjust this prediction. This radical idea explains how your brain can be one step ahead of reality, but also susceptible to placebos and illusions. In this event, psychiatrist Paul Fletcher, neuroscientist KarlFriston, expert in artificial intelligence Demis Hassabis and philosopher Richard Holton discussed the implications of this idea.

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