22 October 2009 @ 16:00 - 17:00

Seminar on "Meaning-less Cognition: Of Body without Organs and Organs without Bodies" by Dr. Chee Yam San, Associate Professor, Learning Sciences & Technologies Academic Group, National Institute of Education, NTU

Seminar Room, 8th Floor, Temasek Laboratories, 5A Engineering Drive 1, National University of Singapore

Abstract: In this talk, I “playfully appropriate” the notion of “body without organs” (Deleuze & Guatarri) and “organs without bodies” (Zizek) to draw attention to a core weakness of attempts to model human cognition computationally. I ask what kind of cognition computation can produce. I argue that computationally derived ‘cognition’ results in meaning-less cognition on the part of the associated computational agent. In so doing, I raise the question: whence meaning?

Speaker: Dr. Yam San Chee is an Associate Professor in the Learning Sciences & Technologies Academic Group and the Learning Sciences Lab at the National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. He obtained his BSc (Econ) hons from the London School of Economics and Political Science, University of London, and his PhD from the University of Queensland, Australia. Prof Chee’s research focuses on new literacies and new media in education, with a special emphasis on game-based learning. Recent games developed for research include Space Station Leonis, and Escape from Centauri 7. Current games being developed through NRF funding are Legends of Alkhimia and Statecarft X. Prof Chee also conducts research on the interaction between online virtual life and real life and how this interaction impacts the construction of self identity. He was the founding executive editor of Research and Practice in Technology Enhanced Learning, the journal of the Asia-Pacific Society for Computers in Education. He is currently an Associate Editor of the International Journal of Gaming and Computer-Mediated Simulations.