Understanding Kant’s Concept of Time (ACIT 2017 Archives)

The mysteries of time have baffled thinkers for centuries. Join us as we explore Immanuel Kant's revolutionary perspective on whether time is an intrinsic part of our existence or merely a construct of the mind. Dive into the depths of 18th-century philosophy and discover a perspective that might change the way you perceive the world.

Large Language Models

Delve into the world of Large Language Models (LLMs) with this comprehensive guide. From planning a vacation in a foreign country to revolutionizing industries like education and healthcare, discover how LLMs are reshaping the way we communicate and access information. Explore the myriad applications of these powerful tools while also understanding their potential drawbacks. Whether you're new to the concept or seeking a deeper understanding, this article provides a balanced perspective on the potential and pitfalls of LLMs in today's digital age.

The Brain of Gifted Children: Unravelling the Mysteries of Exceptional Intelligence-Leveraging AI and Empowering Gifted Students with High IQ

Gifted children exhibit unique neurological traits that enhance their cognitive abilities. Exploring these intriguing characteristics, the transformative power of AI steps in, revolutionizing how we identify, nurture, and challenge these extraordinary young minds. Dive into the mysteries of exceptional intelligence and discover how technology is reshaping the future of gifted education.

Unveiling the Connection: NLP’s Impact on Understanding the Human Brain

Explore the fascinating intersection of Natural Language Processing and neuroscience, revealing how these two fields mutually benefit and inform each other. Discover insights into how NLP models help decode the complex neural correlates of language processing, contribute to the treatment of language disorders, and provide a unique perspective into the intricacies of the human brain.

Intelligence, Games and AlphaGo with Deep Mind’s Thore Graepel – Ep. 15 Podcast Summary

Delve into an engaging conversation with Google DeepMind's Thore Graepel on the ACIT Science Podcast, as he explores the intricacies of intelligence, the role of games in AI research, and the societal implications of AI technology, highlighted by the development of AlphaGo. Graepel's unique expertise in AI and his insights into multi-agent learning, collaboration between humans and AI, and ethical considerations in AI research promise a profound understanding of these evolving realms.

Psychedelics and the MIND Foundation with Marvin Däumichen – Ep. 9 Podcast Summary

Explore the cutting-edge intersection of psychedelic research and societal discourse with Marvin Däumichen, Director of Research at the MIND Foundation. Dive into the transformative potential, ethical considerations, and the changing public perception of psychedelics, all while envisioning a future where these substances play a vital role in personal growth, self-development, and therapeutic applications.

Business, Biases, And How To Shape A Career with Benjamin Bargetzi – Ep. 13 Podcast Summary

In a captivating conversation on the ACIT Science Podcast, Benjamin Bargetzi, a senior account manager at Google and founder of ASID, shares his intriguing transition from academia to the business world, driven by his passion for understanding the human mind and behavior. Discover his insights on psychology in business, the intersection between academia and the tech industry, and his exploration of topics like uncertainty, the free energy principle, and Nietzsche's philosophy.

The Brain From Inside Out with Györgi Buzsaki – Ep. 12 Podcast Summary

The ACIT Science Podcast episode 12 features Györgi Buzsaki, a professor of neuroscience at NYU and a respected neuroscientist known for his work on memory, sleep, and neural syntax. Buzsaki argues that the mind is in the way because it has preconceived notions about what we are expecting to find in the brain, and that neuroscience should shift the balance a little bit to the other direction and think more about brain mechanisms.

The Power of Science in Uniting Humanity – Preventing World War III

The power of science in uniting humanity lies in its ability to transcend cultural, political, and geographic boundaries. Science is a universal language that allows people from different backgrounds and cultures to communicate and collaborate toward common goals. Scientific research can bring together people with diverse perspectives, skills, and expertise, creating a shared sense of purpose and driving progress.

Role of Artificial Intelligence in Psychology

The increasing use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) has led to a significant breakthrough in many areas, including the field of psychology. This article claims to explore how AI has revolutionized the field of psychology, tackling the question of its role in emotive, cognitive, and social psychology.

A Complex-Collectivist Manifesto

Years after Martin Luther King Jr’s riveting recountal of his dream for the future of America, theoverturning of “separate but equal” Jim Crow laws, and much hand-wringing by liberal Americans,racial segregation in the cities was continuing unabated. Perplexed by this…

Compassion for the Collective

Understanding the need of compassionate behaviour for a prosocial community You are on a zoom call, near the end of a long day spent in front of your laptop screen, and the person on the other end appears to have…

Man vs machine: The opportunities and fear of AI

There is such a thing as robophobia — an anxiety disorder defined by the irrational fear of technological advances in robotics, which encompasses drones, robots and artificial intelligence (AI). As Baun et al. noted, the underlying fear is that of artificially intelligent…

The Importance of Noise

On the role of uncertainty in evolution, markets, neuroscience, and AI The world is unpredictable in many ways. This has been the natural state of affairs for all living beings fighting an uphill battle for survival within an ever-evolving world.…

How Unhealthy Is Stress, Really?

In the ever-quickening pace of modern life, stress is an ever-present factor. Stress is one of the most important risk factors for mental and physical health in developed countries, increasing the incidence of mental illness and mortality. Two thirds of…

Understanding Markov Chains

…and their connections to Neuroscience, AI and Russian Poetry “My dreams, my dreams! What has become of their sweetness? What indeed has become of my youth?”― Alexander Pushkin, Eugene Onegin It might seem strange to start an article on Markov…

Superstitious Pigeons

The 14th century. Times are tough — the Hundred Years’ War is raging, newly freed peasants are trying to find a place in society, and a plague is afoot. The Black Death has already killed a third of the population…

The Stories We Tell Us About Ourselves

…how problems encountered in AI research mirror our own cognitive biases The brain is an intricate organ, with billions of neurons with trillions of connections forming a hugely intricate nonlinear dynamical system. It’s arguably the most complex structure in the…

The Epidemiology of Ideas

People don’t have ideas. Ideas have people. — Carl Jung A virus is an infectious agent that replicates in the living cell of a host organism. In a sense, a virus in itself is not alive. It instead relies on…

The Brain’s Most Precious Resource

The role of attention in neuroscience, deep learning, and everyday life The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is one of the most intricate machines mankind has ever built. When it’s running, every second approximately one billion particles smash into each other…

More Is Different

On the limitations of reductionism “The ability to reduce everything to simple fundamental laws does not imply the ability to start from those laws and reconstruct the universe”.P.W.Anderson What is the most real thing in the world? Is it the…

A Deaf Guy Gone Mad

While ACIT is an organization about critical thinking and science, we believe that the boundaries of art and science don’t always need to be so clear cut. That’s why we wanted to take up the opportunity of Beethoven’s 250th birthday…

Romanticism and the Divided Brain

How human history is shaped by neural anatomy “Two souls, alas, dwell in my breast, each seeks to rule without the other. – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Faust At the end of the 18th and beginning of the 19th century,…

Alchemy and the Problems of Modern Science

How our biases and expectations keep shaping our results The 16th century was a turbulent time for Europe. With Luther’s reformation and Henry’s separation of the English from the Catholic Church (the original Brexit, if you will), the hold Rome…

The Difference between Left and Right

In times of increasing division between the Right and the Left, I want to spend a couple of minutes leaving all political tension and controversy aside, approaching the whole problem of Left and Right from a somewhat different angle. In…

A Non-Technical Guide to Turing Machines

..and how they can help us understand our DNA Photo by Brian Kostiuk – @BriKost on Unsplash Turing machines are the ultimate computers. A Universal Turing machine can compute so well, it can even compute other Turing machines that can…

Is the Brain a Quantum Computer?

Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay After the mildly clickbaity title, I have to start out with some honesty: we don’t really know if the brain is a quantum computer or not. But as with many a question we don’t…

The Geometry of Thought

…how the brain creates conceptual spaces By José Ferraz de Almeida Júnior [Public domain] We think every day, but it’s hard to pinpoint what exactly we mean by the word. When we try to understand thought, we have to grasp…

Why Time is so Annoying

A physicist’s letter of complaint “I have become Time, the destroyer of your desire to do physics.” Bhagavad Gita, approximate translation Every child knows what time is. It’s literally everywhere. Nothing makes sense without it. No one can even imagine…

Smart is the old sexy

On the importance of Sexual Selection in the Evolution of Human Intelligence The question of how mankind got here is a curious one. How is it that we differ so profoundly from all the other animals on the planet? How…

The Bayesian Brain Hypothesis

How our brain evolved to look into the future If you can look into the seeds of time, and say which grain will grow and which will not… Macbeth, William Shakespeare Life is riddled with uncertainty, and no one can tell…

What’s so weird about Quantum Mechanics

I think I can safely say that nobody understands quantum mechanics.”  (R. Feynman) Quantum Mechanics (QM) is the “best” theory of the world physicists have at the moment (at least of everything apart from gravity). But it’s infamously hard to…