Sense and Science - with Gaute Einevoll

Neuro-AI denotes the field at the interface between artificial neuroscience (AI) and neuroscience. At a conference hosted by the Norwegian Artificial Intelligence Research Consortium (NORA),  in Tromsø in June 2023 I hosted a panel debate on the topic, that is, on how neuroscience can inspire AI and the other way around. The panel consisted of two computational neuroscientists (KP, AD), an experimental neuroscientist (HS) and a statistician (SS).

The greatest mystery of all is why a group of atoms, like the ones constituting me, can feel anything.  The mind-brain problem has puzzled philosophers for millennia. Thanks to pioneers like Christof Koch, consciousness studies have recently become a legitimate field of scientific inquiry. He has written three excellent books on the topic. We discuss many aspects of the phenomenon, including an intriguing candidate theory: Integrated Information Theory.

Is quantum physics important for living systems? Today's guest is a professor of molecular genetics at the University of Surrey in England and explores this question in the book “Life at the edge: The coming of age of quantum biology”. In the podcast we talk about how quantum physics is or may be key in photosynthesis, smelling, navigation, evolution and even thinking. And we also touch on development of new antibiotics, another expertise of McFadden.

On the physics world view and the interpretation of quantum mechanics – with Sean Carroll Today’s guest is a professor of physics at Caltech outside Los Angeles. He is hosting the Mindscape podcast, one of my favorites, and has also written several excellent popular science books. In the podcast, recorded at Caltech last December, we discuss the philosophy and foundations of physics, and also whether consciousness and free will can be explained by presently known physics.

Today’s guest is Terrence Sejnowski, professor of computational neuroscience at UC San Diego. He is a founder of artificial intelligence (AI), and author of the recent book “The Deep Learning Revolution”. In the podcast, recorded at UCSD last November, we discuss the origin, inner workings, and applications of AI, and also the link to how our brain works.

The goal of the podcast "Sense and Science" is to discuss ideas and science. The starting point is often, but not always, popular science books that deal with nature or society where the author and I discuss the topic. And here the goal is not to win the debate, but to use discussion as a means of clarifying topics for ourselves and listeners. «Sense and Science» is a collection of the English podcast in the (generally) Norwegian podcast “Vett og vitenskap”.