Innovative and groundbreaking research by Prof. Antonio Damasio, a pioneering researcher and thinker in the field of brain and behavior research, will be presented in a guest lecture as part of the conference "Languages - communication systems in nature, in humans and in computers" that will be held at the Israel National Academy of Sciences in Jerusalem on Tuesday, February 7
What causes us feelings of love or fear and what is the relationship between body, mind and consciousness? What are emotions and what is their role in decision making? One of the most influential and pioneering researchers and thinkers in the world in the study of the mechanisms of emotions and consciousness and expressions in human behavior and the behavior of society is Prof. Antonio Damasio from the University of Southern California and the Salk Institute in San Diego. Prof. Damasio's books became bestsellers and two of them were even translated into Hebrew: "Descartes' Error" and "In Search of Spinoza: The Wonders of Emotion and How It Works in the Brain". Damasio's research, which received great resonance in the world, deals with the connection between body and mind and the creation of human consciousness.
In the past, the view prevailed that the best decisions were made intellectually, without involving emotions in the judgment. One of the first in modern times to offer a different view is Prof. Damasio, who concluded from his studies in brain-damaged patients that in our decision-making process, even if it seems rational to us, emotions are much more involved than previously assumed. Among other things, Damasio came to the conclusion that in the decision-making process our emotions, such as fear for example, give us quick feedback if the decision we made is indeed correct. Without this feedback our ability to make decisions is significantly impaired, or in other words: a person who is unable to experience emotions is also unable to decide. Emotions and logic, in Damasio's opinion, feed each other in order to flourish, therefore one should not say "I think therefore I exist", nor should one say "I feel therefore I exist", but rather "I think and feel therefore I exist".
Prof. Antonio Damasio came to Israel with his wife, Prof. Hana Damasio, also a leading brain researcher from the USA, who deals with clinical and behavioral manifestations of brain damage. The two will participate in an international gathering at the Israeli National Academy of Sciences that will be held on Monday, February 6, dedicated to a rare multidisciplinary and comprehensive observation of the wide range of communication systems in the world, starting from communication between cells or between animals, through communication between humans, that is, language Human in its various manifestations, including the communication of computer systems and robots. After the convention, on Tuesday, February 7, 2017 at 18:00 p.m., Prof. Damasio, as a guest of the Academy, will give a special lecture on the topic: Languages of Body and Mind – Homeostasis, Feeling, and Creative Intelligence. This is Prof. Damasio's first visit to Israel, and a unique opportunity for those interested in emotions, decision-making and the mechanisms of human consciousness, as well as for those who have read the guest's best-selling books, to meet their author.
At the conference itself, surprising findings will be presented on the similarities and differences between communication systems in nature, humans and computers. Will robots communicate with each other as humans or as bats, or perhaps both? And what are the rules and mechanisms of communication between creatures in general - animals, humans or human creatures? These and other questions are raised at the conference, which will be attended by selected researchers in Israel and around the world from the fields of life sciences, linguistics, mathematics and computer science, and its uniqueness is in the overview that tries to decipher the secrets of communication in the various spaces of the inanimate world, the animal world and culture. These questions are especially important in light of the fact that we are on the verge of, and in fact already in the midst of, a fundamental technological revolution that adds to the world's conversational audience, which until now included animals and humans, autonomous computerized systems and computerized networks that extend over the entire earth and in the space that surrounds it and that communicate with each other among themselves with increasing autonomy. Among other things, the conference will present new findings on the language of the human genome, on the language of bats, on communication disorders between humans and on sign language, on learning the language of mathematics at a young age and on languages of smart computing. The program also includes the playing of Sonata No. 2 for cello by Bach, performed by Prof. Zvi Pelser from the Academy of Music and Dance, as a demonstration of the language of music.
The president of the Israeli National Academy of Sciences, Prof. Neely Cohen, said that the multidisciplinary gathering is part of a close, fruitful and thriving collaboration between Israeli researchers and scientists and their colleagues from around the world on the complex and wide-ranging subject of "languages". According to her: "Science itself is a bridging international language, and it is based on collaborations. The academy sees great importance in the existence of connections between scientific communities and science in general and between society, art and culture."
The chairpersons of the gathering are Academy members Prof. Ruth Berman, Prof. Yadin Dodai, Prof. David Harel and Prof. Avishai Margalit. Other lecturers: Prof. Zvi Artstein, Prof. Antonio Damasio, Prof. Hana Damasio, Prof. Yossi Yuval, Prof. Shlomo Yizrael, Prof. Philippa Melamed, Prof. Wendy Sandler, Prof. Yitzhak Papel, Prof. Naama Friedman, Prof. Shimon Schocken, Prof. Jan Ole Ostman and Prof. Yohan van Bentham.
