School of Advanced Study Emotion, Memory & the Mind Opening Remarks Anil Seth (Professor of Cognitive & Computational Neuroscience, University of Sussex; Co-Director, Sackler Centre for Consciousness Science) Chair: Mattia Gallotti (Research Fellow in Philosophy; Project Manager, The Human Mind Project, School of Advanced Study, University of London) The Creative Navigator's Compass: Memory and Perception, and How We Know Where We Are Nicola Clayton (Professor of Comparative Cognition, University of Cambridge) Clive Wilkins (Artist in Residence, Department of Psychology, University of Cambridge) If we could tell you where you were going and how you could get there, would you want to know? Imagine a crystal ball that could anticipate the future: would you want to gaze into it, and if you did, what do you think you would see? Would you see yourself looking into it to know your personal future, the futures of your loved ones, or the society of which you are a part, or would you be looking for an overview of the great schema of things? Is it the case that any of these are fundamentally different in the way that they affect our perception of the world? In making an assessment of any future we may perceive, it’s all too easy to make the assumption that what we imagine and remember are accurate reflections of reality. Many of our greatest deceptions evolve out of such a faulty supposition. In essence, the chances are that if we were able to look into the crystal ball we would be unlikely to make any sense of it anyway because our experiences are subjective. This has two consequences. The first is that they can shimmer and change, and be altered by our current point of view. The second is that these alternative realities are constrained by the fact that we don’t see all that can be seen, our memories are not an accurate repository of what happened in the past, and our thoughts of the future are often equally inaccurate and ill-conceived because of these constraints on perception and memory. Nicky and Clive, a scientist and artist respectively, explore the complex relationships between memory, perception and human experience, including through a series of novels ‘The Moustachio Quartet’ that can be read in any order. Join them for a fascinating interactive presentation that incorporates science, literature, and the performing arts. The Human Mind Project in collaboration with University of Sussex Sackler Centre for Consciousness Science