Being Human 2013 - Human Emotions with Richard Davidson, Paul Ekman, and Esther Sternberg

Human Emotions from Being Human on FORA.tv

Human Emotions

In this session we look at emotions as evolved behavioral responses, how well-being can be cultivated, and how our emotions can influence health. We further investigate the nature of compassion and its compatibility with evolutionary theory.

	Session led by: Richie Davidson, Ph.D., Professor of Psychology and Psychiatry, University of Wisconsin-Madison; Founder and Chair of the Center for Investigating Healthy Minds
	Paul Ekman, Ph.D., Psychologist, Paul Ekman Group, LLC
	Esther Sternberg, MD, Physician

Richard Davidson

Neuroscientist Richard Davidson (author of The Emotional Life of Your Brain: How Its Unique Patterns Affect the Way You Think, Feel, and Live--and How You Can Change Them) was named one of the 100 most influential people in the world by Time magazine in 2006. His research focuses on correlating emotional states with the brain activity underlying them. Davidson has reached the conclusion that our brain circuitry isn't set in stone: though our emotions are evolved responses, they are remarkably plastic and can be shaped over time. As he says, "I think that what modern neuroscience is teaching us is that, in fact, there is a lot of plasticity, that change is indeed possible, and the evidence is more and more strongly in favor of the importance of environmental influences in shaping brain function and structure and even shaping the expression of our genes." At the Center for Investigating Healthy Minds, Davidson and other researchers investigate qualities of mind such as compassion and mindfulness in order to understand how healthy minds might be cultivated. He is perhaps most famous for his investigations into the neurological effects of meditation, showing how this practice can functionally rewire the brain. In 2012, he spoke at the Being Human conference in San Francisco. 

Paul Ekman

Paul Ekman (author of Emotions Revealed, Second Edition: Recognizing Faces and Feelings to Improve Communication and Emotional Life) is a pioneering psychologist in the study of emotions and facial expressions, and was named one of the most influential psychologists of the 20th century by the American Psychological Association. Ekman is most famous for his research establishing that nonverbal communication of emotions is not a cultural phenomenon but a universal one. Through his study of facial expressions, Ekman has substantiated Darwin's theory that human emotions are an evolved, biological response shared throughout cultures worldwide. On their importance in our lives, Ekman states, "Emotions can override…the more powerful fundamental motives that drive our lives: hunger, sex, and the will to survive." Ekman has also contributed to the study of microexpressions, involuntary facial expressions that occur when someone is attempting to conceal their true feelings. Microexpressions offer further evidence that emotional responses are indeed hardwired and universal. His system of reading these emotions gave rise to the crime drama television series Lie to Me, starring a character based on Ekman. In 2012, he spoke at the Being Human conference in San Francisco.

Esther Sternberg

Internationally recognized for her discoveries of the science of the mind-body interaction in illness and healing, Dr. Esther M. Sternberg (author of The Balance Within: The Science Connecting Health and Emotions) is a major force in collaborative initiatives on mind-body-stress-wellness and environment inter-relationships. Dr. Sternberg's many honors include recognition by the National Library of Medicine as one of 300 women physicians who have changed the face of medicine, the Anita Roberts National Institutes of Health Distinguished Woman Scientist Lectureship, and an honorary doctorate in medicine from Trinity College, Dublin. Currently Research Director for the Arizona Center for Integrative Medicine, University of Arizona at Tucson, Dr. Sternberg was previously Section Chief of Neuroendocrine Immunology and Behavior at the National Institute of Mental Health; Director of the Integrative Neural Immune Program, NIMH/NIH; and Co-Chair of the NIH Intramural Program on Research on Women's Health. She has been featured on numerous radio and television programs, including PBS's The New Medicine and Life Part II, NPR's Speaking of Faith and, in 2009, with Emmy Award winning Resolution Pictures, created and hosted a PBS special based on her books: The Science of Healing. Well known for her ability to translate complex scientific subjects for lay audiences, Sternberg has testified before Congress, advised the World Health Organization, and is a regular contributor to Science Magazine's "Books et al." column, and a regular columnist for Arthritis Today. A dynamic speaker, recognized by her peers as a spokesperson for the field, she translates complex scientific subjects in a highly accessible manner, with a combination of academic credibility, passion for science and compassion as a physician. Dr. Sternberg lectures nationally and internationally to both lay and scientific audiences and is frequently interviewed on radio, television and film and in print media on subjects including the mind-body connection, 'stress and illness', spirituality, love, and health, and place and well-being.

Being Human 2013 - Human Relationships with Helen Fisher, Ph.D.

Human Relationships from Being Human on FORA.tv

Human Relationships

Sexual behavior, romance, and partnerships are among the strongest human social drives. In this session we delve into the biology of sexual behavior and such topics as love addictions, serial monogamy, clandestine adultery, hookup culture, and how human partnering psychology is reflected in our animal cousins.

	Session led by: Helen Fisher, Ph.D., Professor of Anthropology, Rutgers University
	Justin Garcia, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Gender Studies, The Kinsey Institute, Indiana University
	Laurie Santos, Ph.D., Professor of Psychology, Director of the Comparative Cognition Laboratory, Yale University

Helen Fisher

Helen Fisher (author of Anatomy of Love: A Natural History of Mating, Marriage, and Why We Stray [1994] and Why We Love: The Nature and Chemistry of Romantic Love [2004], among many other books) is an anthropologist specializing in the study of interpersonal romantic attraction. Her research into love and behavior leads her to the conclusion that the desire for love is a universal human drive, stronger than even the drive for sex. She has conducted extensive research into the evolution of sex, love, marriage, gender differences, and how your personality shapes who you love. Fisher believes that there are three main systems in the brain that deal with mating and reproduction: the sex drive, romantic love, and long-term attachment. Understanding the different qualities and goals of these three systems is crucial for navigating the ins and outs of love and relationships. It’s especially important to realize that the evolutionary background of love relationships is all about reproduction of the species, which at times may conflict with our wishes and expectations. As Fisher puts it, “I don’t think we’re an animal that was built to be happy; we are an animal that was built to reproduce.”

Justin Garcia

Justin Garcia (co-author of Evolution and Human Sexual Behavior, 2013) is an evolutionary biologist, specializing in the study of how human evolution has shaped our sexual and romantic behavior. His research focuses on the evolutionary and biocultural foundations of human behavior, particularly romantic love, intimacy, and sexuality. He is especially interested in notions of commitment and attachment in romantic and sexual relationships. Garcia has said that "the most consistent feature of human sexuality is the remarkable diversity which exists among individuals and cultures." He notes that environmental and cultural forces contextualize and shape our sexuality in unique ways; for example, his research explores the development of a new Western "hook-up culture" that is accepting of casual sex. Garcia is also a scientific advisor at the dating site Match.com.

Laurie Santos

Laurie Santos researches the evolutionary background of the human brain by studying non-human primates in her Comparative Cognition Lab at Yale. In a series of fascinating experiments, Santos’ team has investigated economic decision making in capuchin monkeys. Researchers created a form of money: tokens that the monkeys could trade for food. They found that the monkeys made consistently irrational decisions, mirroring the same bad financial choices that people make. For example, the monkeys demonstrate the same loss-aversion behavior—treating losses as more important than gains— as human beings. This suggests that some of the core biases of the brain that shape human behavior were also present in our remote pre-human ancestors, and have been maintained through evolution. Santos believes that understanding the built-in biases of the human brain is crucial to encouraging rational behavior. As she puts it, “...the irony is that it might only be in recognizing our limitations that we can really actually overcome them.” She is currently researching whether primates have a precursor to theory of mind, the ability to imagine the thoughts and feelings of others. In 2012, she spoke at the Being Human conference in San Francisco.

Being Human 2013 - The Biology and Psychology of Ethical Behavior

  The Biology and Psychology of Ethical Behavior from Being Human on FORA.tv

The Biology and Psychology of Ethical Behavior

Is morality culturally determined and relative, an evolved social contract that is absolute, or something else? In this session, we examine the biology of caring behavior and social interactions, as well as the dynamics of cooperation, competition, and power.

	Session led by: Robert Sapolsky, Ph.D., Neuroscientist; Professor of Biological Sciences, Neurology, Neurological Sciences, and Neurosurgery, Stanford University
	Susan Fiske, Ph.D., Professor of Psychology, Princeton University
	Josh Greene, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Psychology, Harvard University

Susan Fiske

Susan Fiske is a psychologist known for her work in the field of social cognition. Her research has shown how prejudice, stereotyping, and discrimination are influenced by social relationships, and also how dynamics of cooperation, competition, and power can affect how people view other groups. This research has led her to the conclusion that prejudices are an inevitable part of the human condition, but that they are also quite malleable and subject to change. Fiske notes that "when people are on our side, we take the trouble to know them. This conclusion fits decades of research about how to get people from mutual outgroups—black/white, gay/straight, old/young, disabled/not, immigrant/host—to treat each other as individual human beings. When people come together across ingroup/outgroup boundaries, they get to know each other as individuals mainly when they need each other in the service of shared goals." In recent years, her work has focused on finding the neural correlates to prejudices using the tools of social neuroscience.

Joshua Greene

Joshua Greene is a philosopher, experimental psychologist, and neuroscientist who studies the neurological underpinnings of moral judgment. His work seeks to understand how our moral judgments are shaped by automatic processes (e.g. emotional gut reactions) and controlled cognitive processes (e.g. reasoning). He is perhaps best known for his application of neuroscience to the infamous "trolley problem," revealing the different parts of the brain that are involved in making difficult moral choices. He feels that common sense solutions often hurt more than help, saying, "[serious social] problems are a product of well-intentioned people abiding by their respective common senses and that the only long-run solution to these problems is for people to develop a healthy distrust of moral common sense. This is largely because our social instincts were not designed for the modern world. Nor, for that matter, were they designed to promote peace and happiness in the world for which they were designed, the world of our hunter-gatherer ancestors." He is the director of the acclaimed Moral Cognition Lab at Harvard.

Dr. Robert Sapolsky

Robert Sapolsky (author of Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers, Third Edition and A Primate's Memoir: A Neuroscientist's Unconventional Life Among the Baboons, among other titles) is one of the world's leading neuroscientists, and has been called "one of the finest natural history writers around" by The New York Times. In studying wild baboon populations, Sapolsky examined how prolonged stress can cause physical and mental afflictions. His lab was among the first to document that stress can damage the neurons of the hippocampus. Sapolsky has shown, in both human and baboon societies, that low social status is a major contributor to stress and stress-related illness. He boils down the contemporary human's relationship with stress as follows: "We are not getting our ulcers being chased by Saber-tooth tigers, we're inventing our social stressors—and if some baboons are good at dealing with this, we should be able to as well. Insofar as we're smart enough to have invented this stuff and stupid enough to fall for it, we have the potential to be wise enough to keep [these stressors] in perspective." Sapolsky's study of stress in non-human primates has offered fascinating insight into how human beings relate to this universal pressure.

Being Human 2013 - The Future of Being Human with David Eagleman, Ph.D.

  The Future of Being Human from Being Human on FORA.tv

The Future of Being Human

In this session, we examine how the contemporary journey into massive scales of space, time, and big data irreversibly expands our perspective on ourselves-and how medical innovations which allow us to move past our traditional human bodies will change our cares and our consciousness.

	Session led by: David Eagleman, Ph.D.; Neuroscientist, Baylor College of Medicine
	Natasha Vita-More, Ph.D.; Designer and Theorist
	Jer Thorp; Data Artist

Dr. David Eagleman

David Eagleman is a neuroscientist best known for his work on time perception, synesthesia, and the intersection of neuroscience and the legal system. His book, Incognito: The Secret Lives of the Brain, explores the neuroscience under the hood of the conscious mind—in other words, all the aspects of neural function of which we have no awareness or access. As he says, “It turns out your conscious mind — the part you think of as you — is really the smallest part of what’s happening in your brain, and usually the last one in line to find out any information.” Eagleman dismantles the common perception that the brain acts as a unified whole, instead pointing out that the brain is governed by a “band of rivals”: many different systems with conflicting goals. This band of rivals manages to work together thanks to a figurative overseer that we call the self. Eagleman is also passionate about how neuroscience challenges fundamental notions at the heart of our criminal justice system. Given that we are not in conscious command of most of the brain networks controlling our behavior, how can we be held responsible for our actions? Eagleman argues that the only rational course is to ask “What can we do from here?” and to create customized sentencing, tailored rehabilitation, and refined incentive structuring. In 2012, he spoke at the Being Human conference in San Francisco.

Jer Thorp

Jer Thorp is an artist and educator from Vancouver, Canada, currently living in New York. Coming from a background in genetics, his digital art practice explores the many-folded boundaries between science, data, art, and culture. Recently, his work has been featured by The Guardian, Scientific American, The New Yorker, and Popular Science. Thorp’s award-winning software-based work has been exhibited in Europe, Asia, North America, South America, including in the Museum of Modern Art in Manhattan.

Jer is an adjunct Professor in New York University’s ITP program, and a member of the World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Council on Design Innovation. He is a co-founder of The Office For Creative Research, a multi-disciplinary research group exploring new modes of engagement with data. From 2010 – 2012, Jer was the Data Artist in Residence at the New York Times.

Natasha Vita-More

Natasha Vita-More, is a designer and author whose research concerns human enhancement and radical life extension. Dr. Vita-More designed the pioneering “Primo Posthuman” prototype and “Platform Diverse Body." She is co-editor and contributing author of The Transhumanist Reader: Classical and Contemporary Essays on the Science, Technology, and Philosophy of the Future Human. Her writings have been published in numerous books and academic journals such as Technoetic Arts, Evolution haute couture, Metaverse Creativity, New Realities: Being Syncretic, Beyond Darwin, and D’ARS.

Wired called Vita-More an "early adopter of revolutionary changes" and Village Voice claimed she is "a role model for superlongevity." Featured in LAWeekly, The New York Times, and U.S. News & World Report, Vita-More has appeared in numerous televised documentaries on the future. She received Special Recognition at Women in Video and has exhibited at the London Contemporary Art Museum, Niet Normaal, and the Moscow Film Festival. Dr. Vita-More is an adjunct professor at the University of Advancing Technology.

Being Human 2013: Free Online Simulcast - Saturday, Sept. 28

With speakers including Robert Sapolsky, Richie Davidson, Paul Ekman, Helen Fisher, and David Eagleman, this looks to be an excellent day-long event. The theme for this year's event is the Science and Mystery of Human Experience.

Preview video:


For this year's event, the sponsors are making it available for free online the day of the event, with a live stream hosted by FORA.tv. The stream will be hosted on their main page on Saturday, September 28, 2013. This is very awesome.

Being Human 2013 to Offer Free Web Simulcast of Cutting-Edge Science & Philosophy Conference

Submitted by Michael Taft on Sun, 09/22/2013 - 10:35

SAN FRANCISCO, CA September 23, 2013 – Organizers announced today that a free online simulcast will be offered of Being Human 2013, the second annual gathering of top neuroscientists and visionaries who will explore what it means to be human from a variety of scientific, evolutionary and philosophical perspectives on Saturday, September 28, 2013 in San Francisco’s newly restored Nourse Theater.

Presented by the Baumann Foundation, and co-sponsored by KQED, Wikimedia Foundation, and Long Now Foundation, the day-long conference will explore four intriguing aspects of the human experience: the biological underpinnings of ethical behavior, the function and evolution of human emotions, the role of love and sex in human relations, and what lies ahead for our species.

Some of the brightest minds in neuroscience, anthropology and behavioral research, including distinguished scholars from Stanford, Princeton, Harvard, Rutgers, Baylor, Yale, and the Kinsey Institute will each share their latest insights, pique curiosities, spur conversations, and provide a sense of connection, clarity and deeper understanding of our common humanity. Thought leaders in diverse fields such as contemporary information design and evolutionary philosophy will also be a part of the interdisciplinary program. The event will be highlighted by a mesmerizing dance performance by YouTube dub step sensation Marquese Scott and a riveting piano performance by the iconoclastic music pioneer ELEW.

“We felt it was very important to make this fascinating and thought provoking content available to people around the world who want to participate in the Being Human experience and learn more about our collective evolution,” said Jeff Klein, Executive Director of the Baumann Foundation.

The free streaming video simulcast will be available at www.beinghuman.org. The webcast will begin at 9 AM Pacific on September 28, and archive video will be available for viewing on the Being Human website following the event.

Tickets to attend Being Human 2013 in person and more information are available at http://www.beinghuman.org/2013.

* * * * *

Here is the excellent program planned for the event.

The Science & Mystery of Human Experience

Being Human 2013: a daylong exploration of human nature in the light of cutting edge science, philosophy, and evolution. At this event we will look at:

The Biology and Psychology of Ethical Behavior

Is morality culturally determined and relative, an evolved social contract that is absolute, or something else? In this session, we examine the biology of caring behavior and social interactions, as well as the dynamics of cooperation, competition, and power.

Presented by Robert Sapolsky, Ph.D., Susan Fiske, Ph.D., and Josh Greene, Ph.D.

***

Human Emotions

In this session we look at emotions as evolved behavioral responses, how well-being can be cultivated, and how our emotions can influence health. We further investigate the nature of compassion and its compatibility with evolutionary theory.

Presented by Richie Davidson, Ph.D., Paul Ekman, Ph.D., and Esther Sternberg, Ph.D.

***

Love and Sex

Sexual behavior, romance, and partnerships are among the strongest human social drives. In this session we delve into the biology of sexual behavior and such topics as love addictions, serial monogamy, clandestine adultery, hookup culture, and how human partnering psychology is reflected in our animal cousins.

Presented by Helen Fisher, Ph.D., Justin Garcia, Ph.D., and Laurie Santos, Ph.D.

***

The Future of Being Human

In this session, we examine how the contemporary journey into massive scales of space, time, and big data irreversibly expands our perspective on ourselves—and how medical innovations which allow us to move past our traditional human bodies will change our cares and our consciousness.

Presented by David Eagleman, Ph.D., Natasha Vita-More, Ph.D., and Jer Thorp.


The experience of being human can be exciting or stressful, fun or depressing, but most often it’s simply confusing. How can we make sense of our world with all its pain and suffering, its delights and disappointments?

For most of human history we’ve been trying to understand our lives based on metaphysical, religious, and supernatural concepts. Then the Age of Enlightenment ushered in science and Darwin’s remarkable theory of evolution—a powerful new way to look at ourselves and the world. Now disciplines such as cognitive neuroscience, evolutionary psychology, genetics, anthropology, and philosophy are delivering fascinating new findings which have the potential to radically remake the way we see ourselves. Based on these scientific insights, a more comprehensive view of human nature is now emerging.