Minds and machines: Debates on the nature of intelligence and experience

In recent years, renowned scholars, including Nobel laureates and other scientists, technology pioneers, and philosophers, have raised the possibility and threat of artificial intelligence superseding human species.  The possibility seems pertinent in times when technology is becoming ‘smarter’ by the day, and playing an increasingly important role in the way we lead our lives. Such speculation provides the context and the need for us to step back and ask few fundamental questions: What is intelligence? How is intelligence understood in various disciplines like computer science, philosophy, psychology and the arts? What does it mean for an entity to be an agent and perform an act? Is it possible for a machine to ‘think’ and ‘act’ the way humans do? What is the place of aesthetic, creative and profound experiences in deciding and influencing “intelligence”, behaviour and value systems?

This one day Workshop organised by NIAS Consciousness Studies Programme aims at fostering discussions across disciplines around experiential traditions. The Resource persons for the Workshop will present, and contextualise perspectives from the fields of computer science, information theory, neuroscience and brain imaging, performance arts, and philosophy to engage with the frontier questions concerning intelligence and the limits of human experience. The speakers include:

Dr Tilak Agerwala (Emeritus IBM Scientist, IBM Watson Centre, New York )

Dr LM Patnaik (Former Vice Chancellor, Defence Institute Advanced Technology Deemed University, Pune)

Dr Deepti Navaratna (Director, IGNCA RCB)

Dr Prathibha Karanth (Director, COM-DEALL)

Dr Nithin Nagaraj (NIAS CSP)

Dr. Binoy V V (NIAS CSP), Siddharth S (NIAS CSP)

Dr Shankar Rajaraman (NIAS CSP; Sanskrit scholar)

Dr. Sangeetha Menon (Head, NIAS CSP)