Event overview
How Humans Came to Construct Their Worlds
Abstract: At a global level, Homo sapiens has reshaped the planet Earth to such an extent that we now talk of a new geological age, the Anthropocene. But each of us shapes our own worlds, physically, symbolically, and in the worlds of imagination. This Symposium focuses especially on one form of construction, the construction of buildings, while stressing that such construction is ever shaped by diverse factors from landscape to culture and the construction of history embodied in it - and more.
After a brief look at birds building their nests as an example of variation on a species-specific Bauplan, we sample a broad sweep of cultural evolution and niche construction from the earliest stone tools of Neanderthals and Homo sapiens through the Neolithic and the rise of cities to the formal and informal architecture of the present day. Finally, we explore the ways artificial intelligence may further change how humans construct their mental and physical worlds.
Biography: Michael Arbib has a long career in the mathematical theory of computation and the simulation of brain and behavior of frogs, rats, monkeys and humans. The present talk builds on two further strands of his work, one on the biocultural evolution of the language-ready and language-using brain (How the Brain Got Language, Oxford University Press2012) and the other assessing how humans interact with the built environment (When Brains Meet Buildings: A Conversation Between Neuroscience and Architecture, Oxford University Press 2021.)
He has developed a Fall public symposium on the theme of this talk. It will be held by CARTA at the Salk Institute in La Jolla on Friday, October 11, 2024. You can attend in person or by Zoom, or watch videos later. See https://carta.anthropogeny.org/events/how-humans-came-construct-their-worlds
Dates & times
| Date | Time | Add to calendar |
|---|---|---|
| 24 Apr 2024 | 4:00pm - 5:00pm |
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