General Public

Inference Project Virtual Talk: Inference in a Nonconceptual World

Classical models of inference, such as those based on logic, take inference to be *conceptual* – i.e., to involve representations formed of terms, predicates, relation symbols, and the like. Conceptual representation of this sort is assumed to reflect the structure of the world: objects of various types, exemplifying properties, standing in relations, grouped together in sets, etc. These paired roughly algebraic assumptions (one epistemic, the other ontological) form the basis of classical logic and traditional AI (GOFAI).

Inference Project Virtual Talk and Conversation, Inference: A Logical-Philosophical Perspective

In this talk, Professor Paseau will describe some of his work on inference within mathematics and more generally. Inferences can be usefully divided into deductive or non-deductive. Formal logic studies deductive inference, the obvious question here being: which formal logic correctly captures it? His view, defended in his recent monograph One True Logic (Oxford UP, co-authored with Owen Griffiths), is that any such logic must be highly infinite. In this Inference Project event, he shall explain what this means and sketch some arguments for it.

Film Screening of Unconformity and Moderated Conversation with Writer and Director Jonathan DiMaio '09

An ambitious, rock-climbing geology student defies her imperious advisor to travel to the Nevada high desert, where a career-defining discovery and an unexpected friendship with a young cattle rancher force her to make life-altering decisions. Unconformity is the story of a friendship tested in the American West, framed by geology, rock climbing, land rights, exploitation in academia, and the climate crisis.
Join us for a post-film moderated conversation with writer and director Jonathan DiMaio ‘09.

Life’s Edge: The Search for What it Means to be Alive

In Life’s Edge, Carl Zimmer explores the nature of life and investigates why scientists have struggled to draw its boundaries. He handles pythons, goes spelunking to visit hibernating bats, and even tries his hand at evolution. Zimmer visits scientists making miniature human brains to ask when life begins, and follows a voyage that delivered microscopic animals to the moon, where they now exist in a state between life and death. From the coronavirus to consciousness, Zimmer demonstrates that biology, for all its advances, has yet to achieve its greatest triumph: a full theory of life.

Causality at the Intersection of Simulation, Inference, Science, and Learning: Post-talk Conversation

The sciences are replete with high-fidelity simulators: computational manifestations of causal, mechanistic models. Ironically, while these simulators provide our highest-fidelity physical models, they are not well suited for inferring properties of the model from data. Professor Kyle Cranmer of New York University will describe the emerging area of simulation-based inference and describe how machine learning is being brought to bear on these challenging problems.

Causality at the Intersection of Simulation, Inference, Science, and Learning

The sciences are replete with high-fidelity simulators: computational manifestations of causal, mechanistic models. Ironically, while these simulators provide our highest-fidelity physical models, they are not well suited for inferring properties of the model from data. Professor Kyle Cranmer of New York University will describe the emerging area of simulation-based inference and describe how machine learning is being brought to bear on these challenging problems.

The Neuroscience of Human Decisions: Mapping as Knowing Lecture Series Virtual Talk

Mariano Sigman is one of the most outstanding neuroscientists in the world, with over 150 publications in the most prestigious scientific journals. He is also passionate about experimentation and has worked with magicians, chess masters, musicians, athletes and visual artists to bring his knowledge of neuroscience to different aspects of human culture and apply it in different contexts. He has participated twice (2016 and 2017) in the TED global events in Vancouver, the second with Dan Ariely.

Inference Project Virtual Talk: "Bias in Algorithms"

Artificial algorithms are increasingly being deployed to inform, endorse, and govern various aspects of today’s society. Their reach includes the domains of hiring, lending, medicine, criminal justice, insurance, allocation of public services, social and business interactions, and the dissemination of information and news.

"I Prove a Theorem and the House Expands: Geometry and Poetry," Virtual Talk by Jordan Ellenberg

We are delighted that famed author and mathematician Jordan Ellenberg will be joining us for a virtual talk this semester. In his words, our speaker wrote a book about geometry and found himself, surprisingly, constantly talking about poetry.

Inference Project Talk and Discussion: The Inference of Nature: Cause and Effect in Molecular Biology

Theoretical approaches have always played an important role in biology, dating back to Mendel’s peas. In today’s era of genomics and big data in biology, statistical and computational tools are even more vital for biologists seeking to infer causation in living systems. To illustrate the range of methods, from modelling to machine learning, and how they contribute to understanding biological mechanisms, Dr. Teichmann will pick examples from some of the core problems her lab has been investigating as case studies.

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