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Living in the past: exploring memory in humans, animals, and artificial agents

Hosted by the Department of Philosophy, Logic and Scientific Method and CPNSS

In-person and online public event (Sheikh Zayed Theatre, Cheng Kin Ku Building)

Speakers

Professor Nicola Clayton

Professor Nicola Clayton

Dr Felipe De Brigard

Dr Felipe De Brigard

Dr Zafeirios Fountas

Dr Zafeirios Fountas

Dr Johannes Mahr

Dr Johannes Mahr

Chair

Dr Ali Boyle

Dr Ali Boyle

Why live in the past? Humans reminisce and remember past events, even ‘replaying’ them in the mind’s eye. But why not just live in the moment? What’s the point in devoting mental resources to storing information about the past? Do other animals do this, or is dwelling on the past a uniquely human innovation? And what happens when we build this kind of memory into intelligent machines?

To discuss these questions, we bring together thinkers from philosophy, psychology and computer science for a panel-style event, with discussion questions posed by both the chair and regular questions from the audience.

Meet our speakers and chair

Nicola Clayton (@nickyclayton22) is an experimental psychologist whose work with members of the crow family have transformed our understanding of the minds of birds - especially their memory abilities. As well as being Professor of Comparative Cognition at Cambridge, she is the first Scientist in Residence at the dance company Rambert.

Felipe De Brigard is a philosopher and cognitive scientist who studies the ways in which memory and the imagination interact, both with each other and with other mental processes like attention and consciousness. He is Fuchsberg-Levine Family Associate Professor of Philosophy at Duke University.

Zafeirios Fountas is a research scientist working on biologically-inspired artificial intelligence. His work focusses on how the brain's abilities to remember past events and represent time can be built into machines, and how this might lead to improvements in AI. He leads the brain-inspired computing group at Huawei.

Johannes Mahr (@JoBMahr) is a philosopher and cognitive scientist interested in episodic memory, imagination and human communication. His work highlights the important role episodic memory plays in human social practices. He is Assistant Professor of Philosophy at York University.

Ali Boyle (@aliboyle6) is Assistant Professor in the Department of Philosophy, Logic and Scientific Method at LSE. She works on the philosophy of mind and cognitive science, especially questions about memory and the minds of nonhuman animals.

More about this event

This event will be available to watch on LSE Live. LSE Live is the new home for our live streams, allowing you to tune in and join the global debate at LSE, wherever you are in the world. If you can't attend live, a video will be made available shortly afterwards on LSE's YouTube channel.

This event is part of Philosophy Live a public lecture series that launched in 2022. Up to three times per term, the Department is hosting public lectures at LSE discussing big philosophical questions – inviting leading philosophers from all over the world.

The Department of Philosophy, Logic and Scientific Method (@LSEPhilosophy) was founded by Karl Popper in 1946 and is renowned for a type of philosophy that is both continuous with the sciences and socially relevant.

Hashtag for this event: #LSEMemory

Podcast & Video

A podcast of this event is available to download from Living in the past: exploring memory in humans, animals, and artificial agents.

A video of this event is available to watch at Living in the past: exploring memory in humans, animals, and artificial agents.

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Featured image (used in source code with watermark added): Photo by Google DeepMind on Pexels

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