Dan Ryder Memorial Lecture
November 27 at 5:00 pm - 6:00 pm
Dr. Christopher Mole of UBC Vancouver will present the keynote address at the Dan Ryder Memorial Lecture on November 27. His lecture, titled Ryder’s Prescience: Prediction and Representation in Neurons and Large Language Models, will mark the second year of this scholarly series.
Abstract
Much of the current progress in Artificial Intelligence proceeds on the assumption that, if a system learns to predict enough of a world’s behaviour, hidden variables representing that world’s causal/explanatory structure will emerge in this system’s internal states. Dan Ryder’s work on mental representation anticipated a version of this idea, and used it to give a theory of the representational properties of cortical pyramidal neurons. Recent developments in neuroscience add complexity to this picture. This talk will give a philosophical account of these developments for a general audience. No prior knowledge of AI, Neuroscience, or the Philosophy of Mind will be assumed.
About Dan Ryder
Dr. Dan Ryder was a dedicated and beloved teacher and professor of Philosophy at the University of British Columbia Okanagan, remembered for his thoughtful guidance, unwavering encouragement, and the lasting impact he made on all those who had the privilege of learning from and working with him.
