Mind Over Matter at the Adelaide Festival of IdeasMind Over Matter at the Adelaide Festival of Ideas
All In The Mind
Is the human mind smart enough to ever understand itself? The size of a sesame seed, bees brains are brighter than you think - but do they have a mind? And, if we come up with an artificial intelligence to rival our own, how will we teach it right from wrong? Philosopher Colin Allen and neuroscientist Mandyam Srinivasan join Natasha Mitchell to talk mind, matter, moral machines and more at the Adelaide Festival of Ideas.
29:57•18 Jul 2009
Bee Brains, Moral Machines and What Minds Can Really Do
Episode Overview
- Challenges the old split between mind and matter, suggesting minds arise from organised physical systems.
- Shows how bees display individual differences, complex communication and learning that hint at richer inner lives than simple reflexes.
- Explains how insect vision and simple rules can guide landing and navigation in robots and autonomous aircraft.
- Warns that increasingly autonomous machines are already making decisions with moral weight while remaining "ethically blind".
- Raises the question of whether training machines through rewards and punishments could produce systems that make moral choices better than humans.
“If a headless cockroach can learn, the rest of us have no excuses.”
Curious about how others navigate their sobriety journey? This live session from the Adelaide Festival of Ideas takes a sideways look at "mind over matter" by asking what minds really are in the first place – in humans, bees, and even future robots. Host Natasha Mitchell steers a lively, often funny conversation with philosopher Colin Allen and neuroscientist Mandyam "Srini" Srinivasan in front of a packed hall.
You’ll hear how a headless cockroach can be trained to keep its leg raised, why a bee’s sesame-seed-sized brain might still support "feelings like anticipation, pleasure, disappointment, fear and pain", and what it means when an insect can override simple reflexes. As Srini puts it, "If a headless cockroach can learn, the rest of us have no excuses." For anyone reshaping their relationship with alcohol, the chat offers a fresh angle on habit, learning and change.
The guests talk about bees that get "completely lost" when you give them shortcuts, and only truly learn when they have to figure out the maze by themselves – a neat parallel for anyone trying to rewire old patterns rather than look for quick fixes. The episode also digs into moral questions around artificial intelligence. Allen describes current systems as "ethically blind" and asks what happens as machines start making life-and-death decisions, from battlefields to hospitals to banking.
Can we really "teach robots right from wrong" through rewards and punishments, much like training a child – and what happens when machines make better calls than humans? Thoughtful, funny, and occasionally unsettling, this conversation invites you to think about what your own mind is doing when it learns, feels, and chooses. If a bee colony can show something like collective intelligence, what might a sober, supported human brain be capable of?
Do you want to link to this podcast?
Get the buttons here!
More From This Show
The latest episodes from the same podcast.