You are here: home » teaching » 2024winter » journalclub

Differences

This shows you the differences between two versions of the page.

Link to this comparison view

Both sides previous revision Previous revision
Next revision 		Previous revision
teaching:2024winter:journalclub [2024/09/19 10:08]
mbraga [Short Description] 		teaching:2024winter:journalclub [2024/10/17 21:24] (current)
mbraga [Contents]
Line 6: Line 6:
 This time our Journal Club will again be a “Research café” with the title “(Computer) Science and society”. This time our Journal Club will again be a “Research café” with the title “(Computer) Science and society”.
  
-To get credit points, students must show proficiency in reading, discussing, and presenting scientific literature.+----
  
-Our goal is to discuss epistemological limitations ​of the type of scientific activity where bioinformatics belongs to: +Our goal is to do a grand tour of the limitations of science, mathematics,​ and of reason itself.
  
-For a long time already, and in particular with the pushes in science given by the works of Galileo, Newton and Darwin, mainstream scientific acitivity assume as granted that '​reductionism'​ holds. This implies that it is assumed that any system (including living ones) are sums of parts and that the signals from the parts to the whole dominate evolution. This is illustrated,​ for example, in the fact that the causes of mutations or variations in organisms are invariably searched in the molecules, reflecting a generalized adoption of a '​machine metaphor'​ for organisms. However, this metaphor +----
-ignores or negates the auto-organization,​ the auto-fabrication and the auto-regeneration of organisms. Among others, the biomathematician Robert Rosen has brilliantly argued about the incompleteness and simplicity of the machine metaphor and their pernicious consequences to scientific activity.+
  
-By focusing on the parts - which is a very suitable approach for using computational resources - and neglecting the organization, ​scientific ​studies, including in bioinformatics,​ concentrate almost all ressources on generating and analyzing data. These are essentially anti-ecological processes that cannot be exempted from the huge crisis of the '​anthropocene',​ especially because it continuously ​ feeds the expansion of this process, by extensively training students and research trainees to maintain and develop further layers of the already huge technological infrastructure. Each of these layers consumes and delays the regeneration of our already depleted planet. +We will read and discuss ​scientific ​work that can illuminate our ideas. The specific works/​articles ​are selected after discussions with the attendees. 
  
 +This course only requires proficiency in reading, discussing, and presenting scientific literature and is open to everyone.
  
-We will read and discuss scientific work that can illuminate the points described above. The specific works/​articles are selected after discussions with the attendees. + In general we thought of having an open space, as a round table, in which everyone will have a chance to express opinions and listen. The goal is more to enlarge our scientific views and critical senses, but we may also find new answers and pathways to follow.
- +
- +
- +
-==== Short Description ==== +
- +
-This course will happen as a round table, always underlined by ethical discussions,​ and has a mixture of three main topics: +
- +
-> education +
- +
-> biology +
- +
-> technology +
- +
------ +
- +
-In biology, for example, we thought of starting by revisiting some elementary questions such as: +
- +
-> Is the organism a mechanism (machine)?​ +
- +
-> Is the organism controlled by its parts? +
- +
-> What is the whole of life in an organism? +
- +
-> Are thoughts a product of the brain? +
- +
-And... +
- +
-> Are we allowed to ask ourselves and answer these questions?​ +
- +
------ +
- +
-In general we thought of having an open space, in which everyone will have a chance to express opinions and listen. The goal is more to enlarge our scientific views and critical senses, but we may also find new answers and pathways to follow. +
- +
------ +
- +
-Some literature (books) for inspiration:​ +
- +
-> The Dawn of Everything - A New History of Humanity (David Graeber and David Wengrow, 2021) +
- +
- +
-> Against method (Paul Feyerabend, 1975) +
- +
- +
-> Farewell to Reason (Paul Feyerabend, 1987) +
- +
- +
-> Life Itself: A Comprehensive Inquiry Into the Nature, Origin, and Fabrication of Life (Robert Rosen, 1991) +
- +
- +
-> The Structure of Scientific Revolutions (Thomas S. Kuhn, 1962) +
- +
- +
-> The Falling Sky - Words of a Yanomami Shaman (Davi Kopenawa and Bruce Albert, 2013, originally published in French in 2010) +
- +
- +
-> Ideas to Postpone the End of the World (Ailton Krenak, 2019) +
  
  
 ==== Schedule ==== ==== Schedule ====
 ^ **Date** ^ **Topic** ^ **Name** ^ ^ **Date** ^ **Topic** ^ **Name** ^
-|07.10.2024 | Decide on Topic | Everyone |+|07.10.2024 | Organization of the class | Everyone ​| 
 +|14.10.2024 | More organization | Everyone | 
 +|21.10.2024 | Proven Impossible - first parts | Jens |