Upcoming Roundtables

A ≠ B → Taste & Discernment

March 23rd, 2024 at 2:30PM

Future Event

Where life begins to distinguish the edible, the nutritious, the appealing, from the insipid, the poisonous, and the disgusting; this is where taste and discernment come into being. From a bag of Cheetos to Michelin 3-star fare we cover a lot of ground, yet financial means alone fails to account fully for the popularity of… read more »

Discovering the What and the Wherefore: Scents and Sensibility

April 13th, 2024 at 2:30PM EST

Future Event

As the first sense to engage the world “remotely”, beyond the boundary of an organism’s body, olfaction delivers news from “over there”. But whereas it adumbrates a space beyond, what kind of space, what sort of world does it proffer? Smell engages the world as a series of pathways laid out on gradients. What is… read more »

Striking a Chord: Hearing and Space

April 27th, 2024 at 2:30PM

Future Event

Vibration sense is one component of touch. Refinements of this sense, and in some animals the emission of vibration – typically from the vocal cords – has evolved to echolocation, to clicks, grunts, roars and to speech.  The vibration of one special membrane, the ear drum, creates that wonderful interface that enables us to appreciate and locate… read more »

Synthetic Consciousness: Seeing and Believing

May 11th, 2024 at 2:30PM EST

Future Event

“The Aleph was probably two to three centimeters in diameter, but universal space was contained inside it . . .” – JL Borges Our eyes move. They rove and they direct attention. Indeed, vision and our ability to focus attention more generally are intimately intertwined. And this hybrid faculty of vision/attention has been extended as… read more »

All Helix Center events, unless otherwise noted, are free and open to the public.