Digital Minds: Science Fiction or Near Future?

Arlindo Oliveira
President of the Instituto Superior Técnico and Professor of the Department of Computer Engineering

Summary: What do computers, cells and brains have in common? Computers are electronic devices designed by humans, cells are biological entities created by evolution and brains are the containers and creators of our minds. But all of them are, in one way or another, machines that process information. The power of the human brain is, for now, incomparably greater than that of any known machine or living being. However, after millions of years of evolution, the human brain has allowed us to develop tools and technologies that make our lives easier and even create computers almost as powerful as the brain itself. This seminar describes how advances in science and technology may eventually allow the creation of digital minds and tries to answer an inevitable question: is the human brain the only system capable of housing an intelligent and conscious mind? If digital minds, artificial or natural, become a reality, what will be the social, economic, legal and ethical implications? Will digital minds be our partners or our rivals?

Biographical Note: Arlindo Oliveira graduated from Instituto Superior Técnico and received his PhD from the University of California, Berkeley, in Electrical and Computer Engineering. He is the president of Instituto Superior Técnico and a professor in the Department of Computer Engineering, where he teaches courses in the areas of Algorithms, Computational Biology and Neuroengineering, among others. He has developed research work in digital systems, logical synthesis, algorithms, machine learning and bioinformatics. He is the author of the book The Digital Mind, published by MIT Press and recently released in Portugal under the title «Mentes Digitais».

The Astronomy of the Lusiads

Carlos P. Santos & Carlota Simoes

“The Astronomy of the Lusiads” consists of a series of articles published in Journal of the University of Coimbra, between 1913 and 1915, by Luciano Pereira da Silva (1864-1926), mathematician and professor at Coimbra. In this work, Luciano Pereira da Silva completely clarified all references to astronomy The Lusiads, showing that “Camões had a clear and secure knowledge of the principles of astronomy, as it was professed in his time”. It seems clear that the astronomical ideas of Luís de Camões (1524-1579) are those of the text by João Sacrobosco (1195-1256), with the modifications contained in the notes of the great Portuguese mathematician Pedro Nunes (1502-1578). In other words, the Treaty of Sphera by Pedro Nunes can be considered the main astronomical source of The Lusiads.

The poem recounts the first sea voyage from Europe to India, between July 1497 and May 1498, commanded by Vasco da Gama (1469-1524). Camões would only be born two decades later, but he would end up making the same voyage to India between 1553 and 1554, setting off in the fleet of Fernão Álvares Cabral (1514-1571), the eldest son of Pedro Álvares Cabral. The fleet encountered difficulties at Cape of Storms and the ship São Bento, the one on which Camões and Fernão Álvares Cabral were sailing, narrowly escaped. His work was published in 1572, three years after his return from the East. Camões says of himself

«I do not lack honest study in my life,
with long experience mixed,
nor ingenuity, which you will see present here,
things that are rarely found together».
(The Lusiads, X, 154)

It is important to emphasize that Camões' vast culture is not only the result of his experience. The poet had enormous respect for study and science. Again in his own words,

«I saw cases, that the noisy sailors,
Who have long experience as their teacher,
They are always considered certain and true,
Judging things only by appearance,
And those who have more complete judgments,
That only by pure ingenuity and science
Hidden secrets come from the world,
They judge by false or misunderstandings.»
(The Lusiads, V, 17)

The Lusiads is a work of enormous scope. In addition to an unparalleled literary aesthetic, it contains an enormous wealth of information relating to various aspects, such as geography, history, pagan culture, science, astronomy, etc. In this sense, interdisciplinarity is a constant, and the poet knew how to interconnect these themes in a consistent and musical way, with a disarming knowledge of the subject at all levels. This variety of themes serves the composition in a contextualized way, never appearing forced, but rather serving the exaltation of the various ideas and episodes.

Being well framed with episodes of pagan culture, supported by real events that occurred in the skies of Gama's first voyage, associated with locations in space and time, astronomy, before anything else, appears at the service of musicality and poetic aesthetics.

It is clear that the analysis of Camões' use of astronomy has great scientific and historical importance. For example, Luciano Pereira da Silva demonstrated that the Portuguese were the first to identify the new constellation Cruzeiro do Sul, in contrast to the opinion of Humboldt (1769-1859) who indicates a letter dated 1515 and written by the Florentine Andrea Corsali as the oldest reference ever to the constellation Cruzeiro.

Without forgetting the more technical aspect, the aim of this conference is to disseminate Luciano's work in an alternative way. Instead of organising the discussion by astronomical themes such as the Moon, the Sun, the Ptolemaic system, etc., the guiding thread will be the poem's own space-time journey. In this way, a central concern will be to address the various astronomical topics while also tracing the Lusitanian odyssey sung by Camões. Some original astronomical interpretations will be presented. Some phenomena that occurred in the skies of 1497/1498 will also be presented, which could also have been used by the poet, had he known about them.

Some geometric diagrams made in the program will be used Geogebra. In particular, a platform was designed that allows the journey to be made on a Mercator projection (by moving the mouse on a small Portuguese caravel) while at the same time following a three-dimensional visualization and a star map of the skies of 1497/98. All the videos of the skies were made with the help of the program Stellarium.

It is also intended to provide, as far as possible, a sound experience. According to António José Saraiva (1917-1993),

An old prejudice became The Lusiads the prerogative of scholars and schools; but there is in the Poem a living orality, a taste of the delightful word that is typical of bards, aedos, minstrels, the Antónios Aleixos that remain to us. It is a book to be intoned by reciters, and not analyzed by grammarians. Sometimes what it says is of little interest, and only the sonorous language that runs through the various degrees of the scale, a word that shines, a hoarse sound of complaint or a theatrical gesture that can be glimpsed, is worth it. Sometimes, too, it is a somewhat ironic joke with words that are repeated or opposed, as poets have always liked to do in front of their audiences…

Inspired by these ideas, the Portuguese actor António Fonseca (1953‑) memorized the work so he could recite it. The audio recordings that will be presented are his. Many thanks for making this available.

This is a joint work by Carlos Pereira dos Santos (CST and CEAFEL-University of Lisbon) and Carlota Simões (CFisUC and Science Museum – University of Coimbra). Over time, given the scope of the content involved, a more or less closed work has been transformed into an ongoing project. For this reason, other approaches may be used in the conference, without being mentioned in this extended summary.

University, but what place is this?

Henry Leitao

University is the institution and place where we will spend several years of our lives. But what exactly is this institution? What is expected of us? And what can we expect from University? What exactly did we go to University for? And what is this “university experience”? But what exactly is University?