This will be an online Zoom meeting. Please RSVP on our Meetup for this event to get access to the Zoom link. See our online meeting instructions at: https://torontooasis.org/online-meeting-instructions
Our program will run from 11 am to 12:30 pm and you can join in to the meeting starting at 10:45 am for our open social. Followed by an extended discussion for a half hour. Volunteers please join by 10:30 am.
Can animals think or feel? Can they remember specific events? Can they imagine or anticipate what they might encounter in the future? During the twentieth century most scientists subscribed to the view that animals were no more subtle than wind-up toys. In recent decades close behavioral observation, and recordings from animal brains have shown us some of the surprising capacities of animals. Scientists now think they are just beginning to understand some of the diverse intelligences among us.
Our featured speaker, Dr. Mark Reimers, will guide a whirlwind tour of recent discoveries about the minds of animals: from dogs to dolphins and from our cousins the apes to the alien intelligence of octopods.
Dr. Mark Reimers works as a computational neuroscientist: studying brain function by applying statistical methods to look for patterns in large-scale and high-resolution recordings of brain activity and behavior. He applies these methods to understand normal brain function in memory and to shed light on mental illness.
Dr. Reimers has worked at the US National Institutes of Health, the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, and at the Virginia Institute for Psychiatric and Behavioral Genetics in Richmond, and now does research and teaches at Michigan State University. His broader aim is to ground our understanding of feeling and thought in the facts of biology.
Dr. Reimers was the leader of the Richmond Humanists in Virginia for five years, and now leads the UU Forum in Lansing, and speaks frequently at humanist and science outreach events in Michigan.
Please RSVP on meetup:
https://www.meetup.com/Toronto-Oasis/events/bhgwksyccnbgc/
Looking forward to seeing familiar faces and perhaps some new ones!
This meeting has been recorded: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1gYUUp5VrNQKCFy_0VJciYlgL17xQ09W0/view?usp=sharing