Revision as of 13:02, 12 March 2017

March Meeting: Anil Seth, Machine Consciousness

March 15, Strangers Room.

Consciousness is, for each of us, the presence of a world. Without consciousness there is no world, no self: there is nothing at all. But we do not know much about the material and biological basis of this most central feature of our lives. How do rich multisensory experiences, the senses of self and body, and volition, agency, and ‘will’ emerge from the joint activity of billions of neurons locked inside a bony skull? Once the province just of philosophy and theology, the neuroscience of consciousness has emerged as a one of the great scientific challenges for this century. In this talk I will sketch the state-of-the-art in the new science of consciousness. I will distinguish between conscious level (how conscious we are), conscious content (what we are conscious of), and conscious self (the ‘I’ behind the eyes), describing in each case how new experiments are shedding light on the underlying neural mechanisms, in normal life and in neurological and psychiatric conditions. Throughout, I will emphasize phenomenology – the way things seem – as the target for any satisfying explanation of how the brain, in conjunction with the body and the environment, gives rise to and shapes conscious experience.

April Meeting: Peter Wilson, The Rise of Antimicrobial Resistance

April 19th, Strangers Room

We may be witnessing the end of antibiotics as we know them. Penicillin is no longer the miracle drug it once was. Bacteria have evolved to beat it at its own game. The same goes for most other antibiotics. The problem is so severe that drug manufacturers have given up the unequal fight. They no longer sink significant sums into developing drugs that will retain their efficacy for a shorter and shorter period. This solves a problem for their investors, but creates a bigger problem for any of us that might be threatened with infection, which is all of us.

Without antibiotics, life will be very different. We will be afraid to take risks of coming into contact with infection. We will be afraid to play contact sports, in case we get an injury which might require even minor surgery. We will have to be very careful about how we live our everyday lives.

Peter Wilson is a consultant microbiologist at University College London Hospitals. He was trained at Cambridge and UCL and became a consultant in 1990. His main interests lie in antimicrobial chemotherapy and infection control and he has responsibility for critical care.

2017 Programme

Dates for 2017 are as follows (all meeting are on Wednesdays, usually the 3rd one of each month):

Month	Day of Month	Speaker	Title
February	15th	Prof Martyn Thomas	Cybersecurity
March	15th	Prof Anil Seth	Machine Consciousness
April	19th	Prof Peter Wilson	Anti-Microbial Resistance.
May	either 16th, 17th,	Giles Yeo	Are your genes to blame if your jeans don't fit?
June	21st	Paul Veys	CAR-T Study, Anthony Nolan. See Trello.
September	20th	Dr Paolo Tasca	Bitcoins and the Blockchain
October	18th	Prof J A Madrigal	Stem cell therapies.
November	15th	To Be Confirmed	To Be Confirmed

For more information, please visit our Meetings page.

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
-== Our Most Recent Meeting ==
+== March Meeting: Anil Seth, Machine Consciousness ==
-Our last meeting was with Prof Martyn Thomas who will give a talk on the 15th February  entitled '''Cybersecurity: the scale of the threat and why we have made almost no progress towards a solution'''.  This was a fascinating talk which had several of us wanting to throw away our smart phones, and tape over our webcams. He offered a compelling argument that until software developers are held strictly liable for failures of security of the applications they sell, to banks for example, the problem will remain. Currently, the indemnity insurance provided against losses by customers of financial institutions removes the incentives to force providers of mission critical software to protect the public.
+=== March 15, Strangers Room.  ===
-We were told that a low power transmitter, operating on the right frequency, suspended from a balloon somewhere over London, could switch off ever GPS device across the capital. We heard that Russia were able to disable the power grid, and the telephone system, in Ukraine, purely by via cyber attacks. I think several members who attended decided to abandon use of their smart phones, and return to the old style dumb mobile phones, because of all the ways in which our behaviour can be monitored via our modern phones!
+:     Consciousness is, for each of us, the presence of a world. Without consciousness there is no world, no self: there is nothing at all. But we do not know much about the material and biological basis of this most central feature of our lives. How do rich multisensory experiences, the senses of self and body, and volition, agency, and ‘will’ emerge from the joint activity of billions of neurons locked inside a bony skull? Once the province just of philosophy and theology, the neuroscience of consciousness has emerged as a one of the great scientific challenges for this century. In this talk I will sketch the state-of-the-art in the new science of consciousness. I will distinguish between conscious level (how conscious we are), conscious content (what we are conscious of), and conscious self (the ‘I’ behind the eyes), describing in each case how new experiments are shedding light on the underlying neural mechanisms, in normal life and in neurological and psychiatric conditions. Throughout, I will emphasize phenomenology – the way things seem – as the target for any satisfying explanation of how the brain, in conjunction with the body and the environment, gives rise to and shapes conscious experience.
+[[Anil Seth|Read More...]]
-Read more about the meeting [[Martyn Thomas|here]].
+== April Meeting: Peter Wilson, The Rise of Antimicrobial Resistance ==
-== Next Meeting: Joint Meeting With Cryptos: 27 February 2017 ==
+=== April 19th, Strangers Room ===
-We invite you to a joint meeting  with Cryptos, the Reform society ''Devoted to Military History and  Intelligence'.'
+We may be witnessing the end of antibiotics as we know them. Penicillin is no longer the miracle drug it once was. Bacteria have evolved to beat it at its own game. The same goes for most other antibiotics. The problem is so severe that drug manufacturers have given up the unequal fight. They no longer sink significant sums into developing drugs that will retain their efficacy for a shorter and shorter period. This solves a problem for their investors, but creates a bigger problem for any of us that might be threatened with infection, which is all of us.
-The meeting will take place on Monday 27 February 2017, at 18:30 for 18:45.
+Without antibiotics, life will be very different. We will be afraid to take risks of coming into contact with infection. We will be afraid to play contact sports, in case we get an injury which might require even minor surgery. We will have to be very careful about how we live our everyday lives.
-Charlie Hall, MA, BA, of the University of Kent will give a talk entitled '''British Exploitation of German Science and the Start of the Cold War.'''
+Peter Wilson is a consultant microbiologist at University College London Hospitals. He was trained at Cambridge and UCL and became a consultant in 1990. His main interests lie in antimicrobial chemotherapy and infection control and he has responsibility for critical care.
-Mr Hall is an Assistant Lecturer. School of History , Rutherford College; University of Kent. He is now in his second year of study for PhD, under the  supervision of  Professor Ulf Schmidt and Dr Stefan Goebel. His research area is the  British  exploitation of science and technology in Occupied Germany after the Second World War.
-Mr Hall has won first prize in the inaugural Cryptos essay competition.  He won the prize an essay on the subject of Science and Conflict in the 20th Century.  Mr Hall's research field is the history of  science and technology in the twentieth century. He is studying the use of technology by the military and intelligence communities. He has also examined the policy implications of this work.
-Please note the that for this meeting we will follow the Cryptos meeting format. The start time is 6.15 for 6.45pm, with the talk preceding an optional buffet supper. See the next section for details.
-=== Reserving tickets for the Joint Meeting  ===
-'''Please note the that we will follow the Cryptos meeting format.''' and not the normal Science Group one. The start time is 6.15 FOR 6.45pm, with the talk preceding an '''optional''' buffet supper.
-Tickets may be reserved via the calendar in the members’ section of the website or by contacting:clubevents@reformclub.com or by telephoning 020 7747 4603.
-Cryptos tickets are available for £15.00 per person. (this includes a reception drink on arrival). For convenience, please copy your e-mail to arnold@arnoldrosen.co.uk and to steve@caxtonvilla.org.
-A buffet supper at 8.00 p.m. is available at an additional cost of £33.00 which includes a drink. Please note this must be booked in advance along with any notice of any special dietary requirements no later than noon the day before the event.
-Additional drinks may be purchased during the buffet. Digestifs are served in the Smoking Room after dinner.
-Note that prices are subject to revision by the Club.
-== March Meeting: Anil Seth, Machine Consciousness ==
-March 15, Strangers Room.
-:     Consciousness is, for each of us, the presence of a world. Without consciousness there is no world, no self: there is nothing at all. But we do not know much about the material and biological basis of this most central feature of our lives. How do rich multisensory experiences, the senses of self and body, and volition, agency, and ‘will’ emerge from the joint activity of billions of neurons locked inside a bony skull? Once the province just of philosophy and theology, the neuroscience of consciousness has emerged as a one of the great scientific challenges for this century. In this talk I will sketch the state-of-the-art in the new science of consciousness. I will distinguish between conscious level (how conscious we are), conscious content (what we are conscious of), and conscious self (the ‘I’ behind the eyes), describing in each case how new experiments are shedding light on the underlying neural mechanisms, in normal life and in neurological and psychiatric conditions. Throughout, I will emphasize phenomenology – the way things seem – as the target for any satisfying explanation of how the brain, in conjunction with the body and the environment, gives rise to and shapes conscious experience.
-[[Anil Seth|Read More...]]
 = 2017 Programme =

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