Altered Selves and Self Models
Could changes in how we experience ourselves, in conditions such as Xenomelia, be due to changes in how our brains model our bodies and the environment? And could these altered selves give us clues to the nature of our sense of self?
In this talk, Anil explores the idea that our sense of self is a construction, a process that is active moment-by-moment. A construction can come apart, as it does in conditions such as Alzheimer's disease, schizophrenia or even during out-of-body experiences. In each case, aspects of our sense of self are disrupted, even destroyed.
Examining the ways in which the self is altered helps us understand how the self is put together in the first place, by the brain and body acting in concert.
About the speaker:
Anil Ananthaswamy is an award-winning science writer, author, and former deputy news editor at New Scientist magazine, London.
His writing, spanning cosmology, quantum theory, philosophy of mind, computational neuroscience and AI, has appeared in Quanta, Scientific American, Nature, and other publications.
He is the author of four books:
The Edge of Physics (2010)
The Man Who Wasn't There (2015)
Through Two Doors at Once (2018)
Why Machines Learn: The Elegant Math Behind Modern AI (2024).
An alumnus of IIT Madras, the University of Washington, and UC Santa Cruz. He received a distinguished alumnus award and is currently a Professor of Practice at IIT-Madras.
Pre-read: A Sense Of Self: What Happens When Your Brain Says You Don't Exist
To attend online:
Add to calendar: https://shorturl.at/t56o7
Gmeet link: meet.google.com/mrz-pzen-vbw
Looking forward to seeing you!