| Interdisciplinary College IK2008 |
| Title |
The Interdisciplinary College (IK) is an
annual one-week spring school which offers a dense, intensive and
state-of-the-art course program in neurobiology, neural
computation, cognitive science/psychology, artificial
intelligence, robotics and philosophy. It is aimed at students,
postgraduates and researchers from academia and industry. By
combining humanities, science and technology, the IK endeavours
to intensify dialogue and connectedness between the various
disciplines. Participants come mainly from European countries,
lecturers from all over the world. Courses include up-to-date
introductions to the four main fields of the IK, as well as
in-depth discussions of focus topics. Additionally, the IK is a
unique social event: In the evenings participants may enjoy the
very special atmosphere: minds meet, music is played, and friends
are made in long evening and night sessions in the welcoming
conference site at the Lake Möhne.
IK 2008, Focus theme "Cooperation"
Cooperation is one of the most active areas of research
cutting across various disciplines including evolutionary
biology, cognitive and social neuroscience, experimental
economics, zoology, social and developmental psychology, as well
as robotics and artificial life. How do individuals or larger
societal entities practice in common with mutually agreed-upon
goals, instead of acting separately in competition, in the
attempt to maximize outcomes? How do they mutually engage and
coordinate action in solving a joint problem?
Among the topics that have received research attention
we can highlight issues like the cultural and evolutionary
aspects of prosocial behavior and inequity aversion, conditions
that promote (or hinder) cooperative behavior among individuals,
groups and societies, cognitive mechanisms for discounting
behavior and reciprocity, and game theoretical accounts of
cooperation. However, each of these disciplines tackles the
question of cooperation from different perspectives and often the
dialogue between disciplines is difficult. Progress towards a
better understanding of cooperative behavior requires that
different disciplines can talk to each other, and for that reason
scholars from different disciplines must be able to speak the
same language or at least understand each other.
We see the IK2008 as an excellent opportunity to expose
students, postgraduates and researchers from the various
disciplines mentioned above to a multidisciplinary approach to
cooperation in the hopes that this will foster
cross-fertilization and cooperation between disciplines to
develop new insights in this area of knowledge. A selected list
of basic, advanced, and practical courses will introduce
participants to the area, ranging from empirical and theoretical
accounts and methods to the simulation and synthesis of
cooperative systems.
More info at
http://www.ik2008.de/. |
| Information |
