Thinking About Thinking

Big Picture Science

ENCORE Congratulations, you have a big brain. Evolution was good to Homo sapiens. But make some room on the dais. Research shows that other animals, such as crows, may not look smart, but can solve complex problems.

Meanwhile human engineers are busily developing cogitating machines. Intelligent entities abound – but are they all capable of actual thought?

Hear how crows fashion tools from new materials and can recognize you by sight. Also, how an IBM computer may one day outthink the engineers who designed it.

Plus, scientists who simulated a rat brain in a computer, neuron-by-neuron, look ahead to modeling the human brain. And, what brain disorders teach us about the brain and our sense of self.

Guests:

• John Marzluff – Professor of wildlife science, University of Washington and the author of In the Company of Crows and Ravens
• Idan Segev – Professor of computation and neuroscience, Hebrew University, Jerusalem
• Jeff Welser – Vice president and Lab Director, IBM Almaden Research Center
• Anil Ananthaswamy – Science journalist, correspondent for “New Scientist,” and author of The Man Who Wasn't There: Investigations into the Strange New Science of the Self

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