the first European festival on creativity

2013 Programme

EVENT #35

Edoardo Boncinelli

What will change our future. The secret brain

 

Recently it was shown that there is a sort of “brain in the brain”, that is, an area in the brain that gets very busy when the brain itself is not doing anything in particular. The area includes parts of the prefrontal cortex, which is activated when we think and imagine, and of the posterior parietal cortex. All of this area of the brain does has no name, but we could call it the default circuit, because it is activated by default. It is more active when the brain does not do anything and calms won when it is doing something specific. So what is the purpose of this vast area of the brain? According to one particularly interesting hypothesis, it “thinks of the future”, that is makes plans for what will be, or better still, what can be in the future. According to another hypothesis its activity is connected with consciousness, that is, the awareness we are there, even in the absence of any specific content of the brain.

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Edoardo Boncinelli

trained as a physicist and head of prestigious research institutes, he is committed to studying and teaching genetics and molecular biology. He contributes to Corriere della Sera and to Le Scienze. His writings include: Prima lezione di biologia (Editori Laterza, 2007); I nostri geni (Einaudi, 2008); L’etica della vita (2008), Perché non possiamo non dirci darwinisti (2009), Lo scimmione intelligente (con G. Giorello, 2009), Lettera a un bambino che vivrà 100 anni (2010), La scienza non ha bisogno di Dio (2012), Quel che resta dell’anima (2012) all for Rizzoli; Mi ritorno in mente (Longanesi, 2010); Come nascono le idee (2008) and La vita della nostra mente (2011), for the series «i Libri del Festival della Mente» published by Editori Laterza; Vita (Bollati Boringhieri, 2013). 


All theevents2013


   

EVENT #1

Guido Rossi

Ideas and their responsibility in good and evil

EVENT #2

Paolo Giordano

Crossing the shadow line

EVENT #3

Alessandra Lemma

The body as a canvas: depicting/defacing the body

EVENT #4

Piergiorgio Odifreddi

What will change our future. Artificial man

EVENT #6

Ramin Bahrami

Italian Journey. Grand Tour with Bach and Scarlatti

EVENT #7

Alessandro Barbero

Incredible Middle Ages: the Terror of the Year 1000

EVENT #8

Cristina Baldacci, Andrea Pinotti

Archives in art: a new contemporary genre?

EVENT #10

Massimo Cirri, Jonathan Coe

Sense of humour: a lifestyle

EVENT #11

Carlo Freccero

Has TV killed creativity and culture?

EVENT #12

Nicla Vassallo

Woman is an invention

EVENT #13

Massimo Montanari

Speaking of food in times of crisis

EVENT #14

Chandra Livia Candiani

Apprentices of the moon in the meditation room

EVENT #15

Emanuele Trevi

On the other side of things: The Initiation Journey

EVENT #17

Bernard-Henri Lévy

Between art, philosophy and science: the adventures of truth

EVENT #18

Stefano Bartezzaghi, Massimo Recalcati

To inherit or to be creative? Art in the time of disoriented generations

EVENT #19

Gabriella Caramore

Imperfect knowledge

EVENT #21

Ilvo Diamanti

The future? It is past

EVENT #23

Alessandro Barbero

Incredible Middle Ages: The ius primae noctis

EVENT #24

Luca Barcellona

Calligraphy: creativity in writing

EVENT #26

Silvio Garattini

Brain aging: a 3rd millennium epidemic

EVENT #28

Lella Costa

What we talk about when we talk about irony

EVENT #29

Tim Parks

In conversation with literary creativity

EVENT #31

Laura Boella

Empathy, sympathy and compassion: resources for a threatened world?

EVENT #32

Francesca Alfano Miglietti, Antonio Marras

Nulla dies sine linea-Not a day without a line

EVENT #35

Edoardo Boncinelli

What will change our future. The secret brain

EVENT #36

Virgilio Sieni

Before other people’s eyes

EVENT #37

Alessandro Bergonzoni

Stop the geniuscide!

EVENT #38

Alessandro Barbero

Incredible Middle Ages: The flat Earth

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