The need to value and preserve the documents and monuments related to the Brazilian history, and the importance of the scientific knowledge produced on memory and cultural history to reach the Brazilian population, including school curricula, are the main motivations of the newly created research group on Time, Memory, and Belonging, approved by IEA's Board on June 21.

The proposer and coordinator of the group is IEA's senior collaborating professor Marina Massimi, a retired professor of the Department of Psychology of the Faculty of Philosophy, Sciences and Letters (FFCLRP) at USP's campus in Ribeirão Preto. The group will address four sets of issues:

• inherent actions and actors in the fields of memory and the preservation of the country's cultural, artistic and scientific heritage;
• the processes of appropriation, and the transmission of knowledge and practices in Brazil over time in the perspective of cultural history (especially with regard to psychology and human sciences,) political history and law;
• the processes of appropriation and the transmission of science in Brazil over time in the perspective of cultural and political history;
• the relations between experiences of belonging and the constitution of the Brazilian society.

According to Massimi, the importance of the group's work themes is evident due to the "urgency of a policy of preserving the country's historical and cultural memory," given the situation of archives and libraries in Brazil. "Another critical issue is the preservation of the cultural and historical heritage of groups of oral tradition, such as indigenous nations."

The second aspect related to the scientific and social impact of the project is the concern about the need for "scientific knowledge produced on the memory and cultural history of Brazil to be disseminated to the Brazilian population and better informed by school curricula in order to provide the empowerment of young generations as to the inheritance handed down by previous generations."

The activities will be attended by around 20 invited guests at events, including researchers from USP's School of Medicine in Ribeirão Preto, USP's Institute of Psychology, Brasiliana Guita and José Mindlin Library (BBM-USP), UNICAMP, PUC-PR and Companhia de Jesus.

The group intends to produce the following scientific works:

• a dossier entitled "Slavery of Souls and Slavery of Bodies" and two articles ("Immigration and Belonging" and "Difference and Belonging") to be submitted to IEA's journal Estudos Avançados;
• a book on the jesuit reductions in the southern state of Rio Grande do Sul;
• the edition of the jesuitical manuscript In studiosos adolescentes oratio paraenetica de laudibus humaniorum litterarum;
• the edition of Marina Massimi's book "Roots of Psychological Knowledge in the History of Brazilian Culture;"
• an article by Annette Hoffmann on the conception of the master-disciple relationship in Miguel Rolando Covian's correspondence with Bernardo Alberto Houssay;
• a bilingual (English-German) edition by Annette Hoffmann to Claire Lange's memoirs, diary and correspondence.

Photo: Renato A. Costa

British cognitive scientist Donald Peterson is the new visiting professor at the IEA. For an initial period of one year, he will develop the research project "Life in the Cognitive Era." Until last year, he was a full professor of Computer Science at Shantou University in China.

Peterson covers logic, philosophy, psychology, and computer science. During his stay, he will conduct seminar-series and prepare publications in the area of the project. People of all disciplines and at all levels will be welcome at the seminars. One seminar-series will be on Cognitive Life, concerning issues of welfare, work, health, and education in an era of AI, robotics, and 5G communications. Another will be on Cognitive Computing, concerning the architecture, applications, and significance of systems such as IBM Watson.

In research, Peterson will focus on his concept of "epiduction" (a form of practical reason), and its relation with modern data conditions, the human brain, machine augmentation, and welfare.

Cogtech

Cognitive technologies (cogtech) are influencing life and work, and "we need a critical understanding of their opportunities and risks," says Peterson. Examples of cogtech are artificial intelligence, adaptive systems, big data analytics, humanoid robotics, person recognition, personalizing learning systems, and virtual reality.

According to Peterson, cogtech is complemented by innovations in biometrics, nanotechnology, 3D-printing, quantum computing, and by systems such as cryptocurrency and blockchain. Regarding systems theory, the new era involves "a shift toward more open systems, and their positive and negative potential effects."

Conditions associated with this shift include mass data, rapid change, global connectivity, and the cyborg interdependence of humans and machines. "We are shifting our course toward new ways of living and working, and the social and cultural implications of this change are radical and immanent." In Peterson's view, the task of policy in the cognitive era is to direct the use of cogtech to beneficial effects, rather than to classify the relevant technologies as inherently good or bad.

Peterson explains that this field of study is necessarily interdisciplinary: requiring both technical and critical knowledge, as being both theoretical and practical. "It is theoretical because it requires analytical structures such as systems theory and context-modulated reasoning, and it is practical because its issues will impact employment, mental health, education, work, communication, and quality of life."

Profile

Peterson holds a PhD in Philosophy from University College London, a Master's degree in Foundations of Advanced Information Technology from Imperial College London, and a Master's degree in Philosophy and Psychology from the University of Edinburgh.

Before becoming a full professor of the Department of Computer Science at Shantou University, he was Associate Professor in Computer Science and Head of Division at the University of Nottingham Ningbo China. He was previously Senior Lecturer in Information and Communication Technology at the University of London, and Lecturer in Cognitive Science and then in the Psychology of E-learning at the University of Birmingham. Peterson has previously inhabited two research labs: ECRC in Munich (The European Computer-Industry Research Center), and LKL (The London Knowledge Lab). He now joins an Institute of Advanced Study in the tradition established in Princeton in 1930 by Abraham Flexner. This tradition is deliberately multi-disciplinary, research-focussed, and, in the case of IEA-USP, oriented to social welfare as a practical outcome of research.

Peterson is the editor of "Forms of Representation: an Interdisciplinary Theme for Cognitive Science" (1996), which includes a chapter by Nobel Prize winner Herb Simon, co-editor of "Philosophy and Cognitive Science" (1993), and author of "Wittgenstein's Early Philosophy: Three Sides of the Mirror" (1990). He has also written 13 book chapters and published 10 articles in refereed journals.

Photo: Leonor Calasans / IEA-USP