SagWas 2004

Aftermath Remarks

As it turned out in 2005, SAGWAS'04 was probably the last one in the long series of SAGWAS seminars. The times they are a'changing and generality, learning, wisdom, consideration, and humanity do not fit anymore into the modern world where universities are becoming business schools, all ethics of schools and research institutes are expressible in the decidable logic of shareholder value, time is money, and a seminar such as SAGWAS wastes time.

Nevertheless, luckily SAGWAS'04 was great and wonderful and I thank all the participants very much indeed for making it the glorious coda of this series of seminars.

The order of the following listing of talks in space is the ex eventu order of the talks in time. The concrete times have to be taken with a grain of salt.

Monday 10

9.00 h: Welcome

Jörg Siekmann: Everybody out of bed now?

Claus-Peter Wirth: The Scientific Method


Fake, Fudge, and Fraud?

Further reading on the subject:

9.45 h: Invited Talk

Bertram Opitz: Introduction to Neuroscience

10.50 h: Coffee Break

11.15 h: Analytical Aspects

Aiping Chen: Structure of the Neuron
Kinds and internal structure of neurons, coloring.

Jessi Berkelhammer: Electro-Chemistry of the Neuron
Electrical and chemical properties of the neuron and the synapsis. Electrical excitation and inhabitation. Patch clamp method.

12.30 h: Lunch Break

13.30 h: Analytical Aspects (contd.)

Melanie Volkamer: Scientific Methods of Examination
EEG (electroencephalogram), fMRI (functional magnetic resonance imaging)

Helmut Horacek: Circuits
Patellar tendon reflex, aplysia, spiny lobster.

Martin Homik: Locality and Brain Maps
Can we assign certain areas to functions?

Dimitra Tsovaltzi: Split-Brain Examinations
Patients with destroyed pons give insight into lateralization of brain functions.

15.30 h: Cake Break

16.00 h: Analytical Aspects (contd.)

Roland Vogt: Morphogenesis
Growth of nerve cells. Development of the brain.

Martin Muehlenbrock: Plasticity
How does the brain compensate the loss of tissue?

Andreas Meier: Dysfunctions
What do we learn from mental disorders and drugs?

Carsten Ullrich: Freier Nichtwille.
Free Non-Will? The experiment by Libet in 1983.

Tuesday 11

9.00: Synthetic Aspects, Invited Talk

Bernhard Möhl:
Feedforward versus feedbackward control in motor co-ordination and motor learning

10.00 h: Coffee Break

10.30 h: Synthetic Aspects (contd.)

George Goguadze: Theory of Artificial Neural Nets (ANN).
Structure of ANN, comparison with natural neural nets. Simulated Annealing &c.

Henri Lesourd: Application of artificial neural nets in neurosciences
Gluck, Meyers: Gateway to memory.

Paul Libbrecht: Mathematical Modeling
Mathematical approaches to model brain functions.

12.30 h: Lunch Break

13.30 h: Synthetic Aspects (contd.)

Ann Van de Veire: Circuits of Behavior and Character
"Robert A. Wilson: Prometheus Rising. Evolution of Intelligence"

Armin Fiedler: Design by Evolution?
Is there evidence that the brain can or cannot be the result of evolution?

Alternative Views

Claus-Peter Wirth: Quantum Effects in Brain Functions?
Sir John Eccles' last book: "How the self controls its brain."

Further reading on the subject (partly provided by Matthias Klusch):

Concluding Discussion

16.30 h: Cake Break

Monday 17

13.00 h: Aftermath at Bledsoe (DFKI - R. 2.07)

Jörg Siekmann:
Candace B. Pert "The Molecules of Emotions".

This is file sagwas04/talks.html on Claus-Peter Wirth's web site. Last update: 2006/12/07/08.00