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The Helix Center
By The Helix Center
The Helix Center episodes
- Panacea or Poison: Placebos and Nocebos in Modern MedicineThis roundtable explores the placebo and nocebo effects, examining how beliefs and expectations can influence physical health and medical outcomes. It considers the underlying mechanisms, ethical questions, and what these effects reveal about the relationship between mind and body in medicine.1 hr 42 min
- PopulismThis roundtable examines the causes and dynamics of populist movements, focusing on tensions between “the people” and political elites. It considers how social, economic, and technological factors—including social media—contribute to the rise of populism and its various forms across political contexts.1 hr 46 min
- The Many Minds of MemoryThis roundtable explores memory as a dynamic, evolving process that shapes identity, consciousness, and our relationship to the past, present, and future. It considers how individual and collective memories are formed, transformed, and experienced, and their significance in understanding the self.1 hr 36 min
- Ethics & AIThis roundtable examines justice in the age of artificial intelligence, exploring questions of fairness, privacy, and decision-making when algorithms have unprecedented access to personal data. It considers how AI may reshape social equality, legal systems, and ethical frameworks in a world where anonymity is increasingly diminished.2 hr 4 min
- How Deep Do We Go? Behavior, Mind, and The 4-Billion-Year History of LifeThis roundtable explores the evolutionary and biological roots of consciousness and emotion, drawing on Joseph LeDoux’s work to reconsider how emotions arise from fundamental survival processes rather than pre-formed states. It brings together perspectives from biology, neuroscience, psychiatry, and philosophy to examine how the brain constructs emotional experience and meaning.1 hr 59 min
- Mathematics and Other RealitiesThis roundtable examines competing views of reality beyond physicalism, focusing on mathematical Platonism and tiered ontologies. It considers how these perspectives challenge the idea that particles and fields form the sole fundamental basis of existence.1 hr 49 min
- Emergence of Empathy: Encountering The Other Through FictionThis roundtable explores empathy as a psychological and imaginative process through which individuals “feel into” others and learn from both real and fictional experiences. It considers how empathy shapes identity, emotional understanding, and our ability to navigate relationships and internal conflicts.1 hr 50 min
- Mechanization of MathThis roundtable explores the nature of mathematical proof and the growing role of computers and AI in verifying and potentially producing proofs. It considers whether mathematics is a human practice with intrinsic value or a process that can ultimately be automated and entrusted to machines.1 hr 49 min
- LyingThis roundtable explores the nature of truth and lying, examining how statements can be true, misleading, or shaped by omission, belief, and context. It considers psychological and philosophical perspectives on deception, including how and why individuals construct and believe falsehoods.1 hr 35 min
- StatusThis roundtable explores status anxiety—what status means, why it matters, and why it drives human behavior. It examines the pursuit of status from historical, psychological, sociological, and biological perspectives to better understand its role in shaping our desires and social lives.1 hr 49 min
About The Helix Center
From the publisher's feed
The primary objective of The Helix Center for Interdisciplinary Investigation is not to obtain knowledge, per se, but to aspire to an unhurried search for wisdom, emphasizing the centrality of a sense of wonder in this endeavor.
Philosophically, we stand against the trivialization of thought and the balkanization within and between the sciences and the arts. Fundamental to our promotion of these views is our roundtable format of open, spontaneous discourse, one facilitating novel encounters of questioning and understanding among participants. Each program endeavors to expand the boundaries of inquiry by facilitating a creative encounter with uncertainty in the face of scientific and artistic advances. To further nurture opportunities for creative social and intellectual exchange, we also sponsor musical performances, poetry readings, film screenings, and other opportunities for imaginative experience.
Visit https://www.helixcenter.org for more!
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