PPIG: Philosophy, Psychology, and Informatics Group
Speaker: John Vervaeke (University of Toronto)
Title: Virtual Science Through Virtual Being on Mars
Abstract: Scientists at NASA do fieldwork on Mars by means of rovers. Due to the distance, the scientists do not have joystick control of the rovers. The visual information they get is found within still 2D photographs. Yet, the scientists reliably report that they get a sense of being on Mars. In fact, they seek out potential team members who can have this sense of presence because they feel it is predictive of being able to do good field work on Mars. This raises the question as to what might be the cognitive processes that afford that sense of presence. By making use of some related work from virtual reality on the sense of presence, and drawing on the ethnographic work of Vertesi and Clancy, I will over some hypotheses as to how this sense of virtual presence is generated.
Further information
We are a group of researchers from diverse backgrounds in the above-mentioned groups (and beyond) who aim to gain an interdisciplinary yet deep understanding of the threads that bind the human mind and the world. In particular, this seminar series focuses on the nature of cognition, metacognition and social cognition. We’ll be tackling questions such as, what does it mean to think? What does it mean to think about thinking? And, what does it mean to think about one’s own thinking versus thinking about the thinking of other people? Please come along!
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Contact details
PPIG: Philosophy, Psychology, and Informatics Group
Online via link invitation