How can we use formulae to describe the human brain and human society? To what extent do the brain and society share similar structures? Peter-André Alt in conversation with physicist Viola Priesemann, talking about parallels between neural and social networks, the informative value of models, and the philosophical and social implications of her research.
Viola Priesemann studies how the human brain processes information. She is particularly interested in how the brain recognizes mistakes and learns from the slightest discrepancies. During the Covid-19 pandemic, Priesemann’s reputation as an expert on modeling complex systems spread far beyond her own discipline. Why? Because she and her team discovered that propagation processes can be modeled in very similar ways, regardless of whether we are dealing with the activity of 80 billion neurons or a virus spreading among 8 billion people.
Priesemann uses mathematical methods to decode the underlying physical principles of neural or social networks and to develop a general theory of living, learning networks. Her models reduce complex reality to the essentials. “Models force us to achieve clarity,” she says in an interview. Models also promote clarity when evaluating possible consequences for society, whether in the context of fighting pandemics, fake news, or the development of artificial intelligence. These are topics that we don’t necessarily associate with the work of a physicist, and which are all the more surprising as a result. Besides her research, Viola Priesemann and Peter-André Alt will also talk about how public discourse on scientific topics should be conducted.
In collaboration with Die Junge Akademie
Further information about our discussion series. The event is part of the Berlin Science Week 24.
Viola Priesemann
Viola Priesemann studied physics at TU Darmstadt, conducted research at the École Normale Supérieure in Paris, at Caltech in California, and at the Max Planck Institute for Brain Research in Frankfurt, and completed her PhD at the University of Frankfurt. She is Professor of Neural Systems Theory at the University of Göttingen and leads a research group at the Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization . She became known during the Covid-19 pandemic for her work on how infections spread and on containment strategies. Priesemann was a member of the German government’s Covid expert council, and has been a member of Die Junge Akademie since 2021, where she is currently a board member. She has received numerous prizes and awards, including most recently the Young Scientist Award for Socio- and Econophysics from the German Physical Society.
Registration
Please irritate me! on November 5, 2024, 6:30 pm (entry 6pm)
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