#learningsalon — Public Fediverse posts

First was a great talk by Andrew Whiten on animal #culture at the #LearningSalon. Whiten explains how research into social learning, and even culture, in non-human animals has exploded recently, and he explores some of the implications of that research here. You can probably skip the discussion afterwards though https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nqlGMc5vAh0 (2/9) #anthropology #sociology

First was a great talk by Rosa Cao on representations in the brain at the #LearningSalon. While a lot of the focus here is on #neuroscience, it's also around how we think about representations and classification in general https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rxwa1yN24JI (2/8)

First was a great conversation between #LearningSalon hosts @criticalneuro and John Krakauer on lots of topics covered at the salon in 2021, with a particular focus on the "reward is enough" paper from DeepMind that came out a bit before this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dEjL-di19F0 (2/12)

First was an engaging conversation with @NeilLewisJr on #race, geography, and how to reduce disparities at the #LearningSalon. Lewis brought academic heft to the discussion that followed his talk, which was more of a listening session for questions from folks in AI/cognitive science https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m1RljRk0hMg (2/8)

Last was an amazing examination of different models of the mind by @Neurograce at the #LearningSalon. Lindsay goes through the history of some of the most widely used models in #AI today, placing them in their historical context. A robust discussion on the nature of "mind" ensues. Highly recommend https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q5yYxHJ2KFM (8/8) #neuroscience

Next was a fantastic discussion with Gina Poe on the cognitive #neuroscience of #sleep at the #LearningSalon. This is the best talk on the function and benefits of sleep I've ever heard, and the Q&A following the initial talk is extremely rich as well. Highly recommend https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gp5HaIlwjN4 (6/9)

Next was a fascinating talk discussion with Marina Bedny on neural adaptation to blindness and programming exercises at the #LearningSalon. The experiments presented here were eye-opening, and the associated robust debate gives tons of insight into how to think about neuroplasticity and its limits. Highly recommend https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XTd8iGVHtSE (8/9) #neuroscience #CognitiveScience

First was a wide-ranging conversation with Gyorgy Buzsaki on the nature of the brain at the #LearningSalon. There's tons of thoughtful debate here about the extent to which neural structures are baked in versus develop over time https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DzM0Ry7icP8 (2/7) #neuroscience #CognitiveScience

Last was a spicy discussion with Evelina Fedorenko on the #language system in the human brain at the #LearningSalon. The key arguments here, that word meanings and processing aren't separated and that artificial networks can serve as useful models of human language processing, do break down during the ensuing debate, but that makes the whole conversation all the more instructive. Highly recommend https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TsoQFZxrv-I (9/9) #LLMs

Next was a spirited conversation with @Gualtiero on the language of thought at the #LearningSalon. Starting with a deconstruction of "digital" approaches to explaining thought, the discussion moves towards what little we know about how thought operates and what frameworks might be the most useful to examine https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-xg4d3fEJ90 (3/6)

Next was an interesting talk by Máté Lengyel on uncertainty in #cognition at the #LearningSalon. Uncertainty is central to the world and our cognition reflects that, which can make it challenging to model, but Lengyel shows some impressive results to that end https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fG20q92NKPs (3/8)

Friends of the #learningsalon,
John Krakauer, @melaniemitchell , Claire Sun & I are excited to have a prominent memory researcher & a creator of Hippocamera:

@barense talk to us about Hippocamera
Friday, May 5, 4-6 PM ET

Meeting link: https://crowdcast.io/e/learningsalon
Join us!

p.s. link to material: https://hippocamera.com

Listening to @behrenstimb at #LearningSalon now. Already hyped as he digs into what we consider cognitive behaviour.

Wanna join?

https://crowdcast.io/e/learningsalon/61

He's also doing a lot of back and forth with John Krakauer, which is neat too!

Next was a nice talk by Sara Mednick on the power of downstate at the #LearningSalon. There's a lot here about the science of #rest and #sleep on health and performance, and the discussion got into the real data and stats behind different practices https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fv305xN5Dk8 (3/7)

Friends, please join our 60th (!) session of the #LearningSalon
*Friday March 3, 4-6:30 EST*

John Krakauer, @melaniemitchell Claire Sun & I are honored to have the inimitable

**Yoshua Bengio**

a leading pioneer of #deeplearning, a Turing awardee, & a climate activist.

https://crowdcast.io/e/learningsalon/60

* The #LearningSalon is an online interdisciplinary forum, with brief talks & 2-hour discussions on #neuroscience #deeplearning #AI #psychology #philosophy

Friends of the #LearningSalon,

John Krakauer, @melaniemitchell , Claire Sun & I are excited to discuss all things prefrontal cortex, #workingmemory , executive function, & monkey electrophysiology with the one & only @ekmiller

Join us this Friday 4-6:30(ish) PM
for our 59th (!!) session:

https://crowdcast.io/e/learningsalon/59

* The #LearningSalon is an online interdisciplinary forum, with brief talks & 2-hour discussions on #neuroscience #AI #psychology #philosophy

About to go live:
---
RT @davidchalmers42
looking forward to the #LearningSalon this friday! https://twitter.com/criticalneuro/status/1615397189110333443
https://twitter.com/davidchalmers42/status/1615405611503521811

"Can a large language model be conscious?
Can a #LLM think?"

Join us
Fri Jan 20, 4 PM ET
at the #LearningSalon
to listen to & discuss with prominent philosopher of mind
David Chalmers @davidchalmers42

John Krakauer, @melaniemitchell , Claire & I are excited to discuss with David!

https://crowdcast.io/e/learningsalon/58

* The #LearningSalon is an online interdisciplinary forum, with brief talks & 2-hour discussions on #neuroscience #AI #psychology #philosophy

Friends of the #learningSalon, please join us for 2023's second session:
📢 📢
Fri Jan 13th
4 PM ET
Myself, John Krakauer, @melaniemitchell & Claire Sun are excited to chat with
📢 Anne Collins 📢
about RL and working memory!

Link to the talk:
https://www.crowdcast.io/e/learningsalon/57

* The #LearningSalon is an online interdisciplinary forum, with brief talks & 2-hour discussions on #neuroscience #AI #psychology #philosophy

The #LearningSalon, edition 2023 by @criticalneuro et al. is happening this Friday : strongly recommend! You can either just come to watch, contribute to the chat, or even ask a question live - it has something to give to everyone 😃​

Please boost to spread the word and follow @criticalneuro to know about future ones! 🙏​

More info and link to the meeting: https://masto.ai/@criticalneuro/109634366781366289

#Neuroscience #CognitiveScience #CoolStuff

Friends of the #learningSalon, start the year off right & join us
Fri Jan 6th (yup)
4 PM ET
Myself, John Krakauer, @melaniemitchell & Claire Sun are excited to chat with Michael Levin about:

Diverse intelligence: morphogenesis as cognition in anatomical space

Link to the talk:
https://www.crowdcast.io/e/learningsalon/56

Reading:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9222757/

* The #LearningSalon is an online interdisciplinary forum, with brief talks & 2-hour discussions on #neuroscience #AI #psychology #philosophy

Dear friends of the #LearningSalon,
I, John Krakauer, Claire Sun, and
@melaniemitchell are very pleased to warm up your dark winter with heated discussions.
Hope you Join us now!

Friday Dec 16, 4 PM EST

*** Computational Psychiatry - a brief overview ***

By the inimitable
Quentin Huys
#AI #NeuroAI #neuroscience #psychiatry

https://crowdcast.io/e/learningsalon/55