Join us for a season of thought-provoking talks chaired by Mind and Matter researchers. We will meet every other Friday in the university main building for a presentation and a discussion, and an opportunity to socialise afterwards. A Zoom link will be available for those who cannot attend in person.

Time: Every other Friday from 20 January until 28 April 2023, 14:15–15:45 EET
Place: University of Helsinki main building, Unioninkatu 34, 4th floor, room U4078, and online (Zoom link)

• 20 January - Otto Lappi:
  Cognitive Science in the wild - how not to do it?
• 3 February - Aapo Hyvärinen:
  Painful intelligence: What AI can tell us about human suffering
• 17 February - Riitta Hari:
  Motor Minds in Caricature Worlds
• 3 March - Satu Palva:
  Brain oscillations: linking physiology to cognition
• 17 March - Valdi Ingthorsson:
  Four Rival Views about Causal Efficacy
• 31 March - Anna-Mari Rusanen:
  Problematizing AI and its social consequences in AI Regulation
• 14 April - Jukka K. Nurminen:
  Quantum software - is it just software?
• 28 April - to be confirmed

More information about the presenters and their topics will be published on the seminar webpage.

Mind and Matter will organise a conference in Helsinki on 6-8 June 2023. Mind and Matter: Conversations Across Disciplines is structured around six sessions: five hosted by the fellows of the Mind and Matter research programme, with the themes of

• Dreaming and Consciousness,
• Motivation and Cognitive Control,
• Minds with Language,
• Crossdisciplinary Influences in the Study of the Mind, and
• Perception,

and a sixth poster session (with a call for papers). Each panel session will include three talks from international experts on the theme, followed by a discussion.

Mind and Matter Talks 2022

Mind and Matter Talks invites renowned scholars with fresh insights into the themes of information, intelligence, and consciousness to share their research in conversation with UH researchers. See the Mind and Matter Talks page for more information on the talks that took place in 2022.

Decisions and Effort seminar, 28 October 2022

Professors Gerit Pfuhl (cognitive science) and Michael Paul Morreau (philosophy) from the Arctic University of Tromsø gave talks hosted by Mind and Matter associate professor Ben Cowley. More information about the event can be found in Mind and Matter news.

Mind and Matter 2022: Found­a­tions of In­for­ma­tion, In­tel­li­gence and Con­scious­ness

The first Mind and Matter conference was organised in Helsinki on 16-18 June 2022. Find out more on the conference website.

Seminar 2021

In what sense might artificial intelligences be able to understand, be creative or even conscious? What kinds of societal implications are to be expected from the rapid developments in artificial intelligence and neuroscience? Can we understand the deep nature of matter and information down to the quantum level? Researchers of the Mind and Matter profiling area presented their exciting research at the Mind and Matter seminar.

• 16.4.2021 14:00-15:30 Riikka Möttönen and Luigi Acerbi: How cognitive resources affect learning in humans and machines. Watch the seminar session here.
• 7.5.2021 14:00-15:30  Alexander Carruth and Anu-Katriina Pesonen
• 28.5.2021 14:00-15:30  Sabrina Maniscalco and Riikka Koulu
• 4.6.2021 14:00-15:30 Ben Cowley and Valtteri Arstila