Connectomics

This episode of the podcast is a little different and is a co-production between Connectomics, and Stephen Estelle's Estelle Ingenuity podcast.  This time Stephen sits in the interviewer's chair and Mark is the interviewee. Stephen wanted to talk to Mark about a new paper of his that got some publicity online. The paper was called Do Digital Hugs Work? In this conversation, Stephen and Mark try to...

In episode #9 of the Connectomics podcast, Mark sits down with neuroscientist and philosopher Andrea Hiott. They talk about Andrea's work in providing a new metaphor for understanding cognition: cognition as navigation or way-making. As well as exploring what exactly is meant by the claim that cognition is way-making, they explore how this intersects with contemporary views within philosophy and s...

In episode #8 of the Connectomics podcast, Mark sits down with cognitive scientist and ethical AI researcher, Dr. Abeba Birhane. In this episode, they talk about Abeba's work auditing large image datasets, how they have discovered racial biases in these data sets,  and what the implications of that are. They also talk about Abeba's work in embodied cognitive science, and how the understanding of t...

In episode #7 of the Connectomics podcast, Mark speaks with physicist, roboticist, cognitive scientist and artist, Prof Takashi Ikegami.  On the 17th and 18th of November, 2022, Takashi will exhibit the art-science installation Shell of Time, in Naha Cultural Center, Okinawa Japan, alongside the dancer and choreographer Un Yamada.  In this episode, they talk at length about this installation, and...

In episode #6 of the Connectomics podcast, Mark speaks with philosopher of embodied cognitive science, Dr. Mog Stapleton.  Mog is presently a visiting researcher at OIST, and is working on understanding the relationship between cognition and the gut-brain axis.  In this episode, they talked about the role of aesthetics in the production of knowledge, the relationship between enaction and the empir...

In episode #5 of the Connectomics podcast, Mark speaks with sustainability researcher Roope Kaaronen.  Roope is a postdoc at the University of Helsinki, Finland.  In this episode, they talked about Roope's fortuitous introduction to ecological psychology and its value to his present work, his present work on strategic design interventions for large scale behaviour change/cultural evolution, the ch...

In episode #4 of the Connectomics podcast, Mark speaks with theoretical cognitive scientist Marek McGann.  Marek is a lecturer in the psychology department in Mary Immaculate College in Limerick, Ireland. In this episode they talked about Marek existing at the intersection of enaction and ecological psychology, the concept of behaviour settings and his understanding of agency as a multiscale affai...

In episode #3 of the Connectomics podcast, Mark speaks with philosopher Laura Mojica.  At the time or recording Laura was also working in the Embodied Cognitive Science Unit at OIST. Laura works on the notion of normativity from an enactive standpoint, though she brings her experience working in analytic philosophy to bear on the topic. Laura is also very concerned with how enaction intersects wit...

In episode #2 of the Connectomics podcast, Mark speaks with Dr. Fred Cummin, head of the Cognitive Science program at University College Dublin.  Fred is a linguist and the originator of the field of study that is joint speech: where two or more people say the same thing at the same time, such as within religious rituals, at sporting events, or at political protests. Fred is also an incredibly wel...

In episode #1 of the Connectomics podcast, Mark speaks with Dr. Tom Froese, head of the Embodied Cognitive Science Unit at the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology.  The conversation touches on the central themes of embodied cognitive science and the enactive framework in particular, the methods of this approach, the mission of the unit at OIST, and some of the implications of developing or...

Featuring guests interviews with thinkers and doers from all over the globe, the Connectomics podcast explores the intersection between embodied cognitive science, philosophy, culture, technology and design. In this introductory episode, host, Mark M. James , research fellow in OIST's Embodied Cognitive Science Unit, asks the question 'Where is my mind?' and introduces some ideas that will provide...