Speakers for Winter/Spring 1998
Cognitive Science Initiative at UH

Hubert Dreyfus, University of California, Berkeley
Matchette Lectures, sponsored by the Frankklin J. Matchette Foundation
Tuesday, January 27
4-6 p.m., Mediterranean Room, University Center (Entrance 1 off Cullen Blvd.)
"Why Symbolic AI Failed: Expertise and the Commonsense Knowledge Problem"

Thursday, January 29
4-6 p.m., Bayou City Room, University Center (Entrance 1 off Cullen Blvd.)
"Intelligence without Representation: The Convergence of Phenomenology and Neuro-Science"

Both of Professor Dreyfus's Matchette Lectures are free and open to the public. Refreshments will be served following each lecture. For information on other events connected with Professor Dreyfus's visit, please contact Dr. Anne J. Jacobson, at (713) 743-3204, or e-mail ajjacobson@UH.edu.

Thursday February 26
7:00 in the ARCH building.

Jaron Lanier
Visiting Scholar, Dept. of Computer Science, Columbia University; Visiting Artist, Interactive Telecommunications Program, Tisch School of the Arts, New York University; Founding member of the new International Institute for Evolution and the Brain, which is based at NYU, Harvard and the University of Paris

"The future of humanism in a technological society"
The Cognitive Science Initiative is a co-sponsor of this event.

For more information, please contact Dr. David Donnelly, School of Communication, University of Houston, (713) 743-2865 FAX: (713) 743-2876; or e-mail ddonnelly@uh.edu.

Brief Biography of Jaron Lanier

Jaron Lanier is a computer scientist, composer, visual artist, and author. He is probably best known for his work in Virtual Reality. He coined the term 'Virtual Reality', and founded the VR industry. He started the first VR company, VPL Research, Inc., which produced most of the world's VR equipment for many years. He was the first to propose or implement VR networking, and is the co-inventor of fundamental VR components such as interface gloves. He also lead teams that created the software for many of the pioneering commercial applications of VR. Currently, Lanier serves as the lead scientist of the National Tele-immersion Initiative, a coalition of universities studying advanced shared environment applications on the Internet.

Lanier was also the first to propose and implement a variety of technologies that have since spawned industries in their own right. Among his lineup of "firsts" are the first "avatar" for network communications, the first moving camera virtual set for television production, and the first performance animation for 3D computer graphics. He was the first to propose web-based network computers. Along with Dr. Joe Rosen and Scott Fisher he initiated the fields of real-time surgical simulation and telesurgery. As a computer scientist, Lanier is also known as a pioneer in the field of visual programming.

As a musician, Lanier has been active in the world of new classical music since the late seventies. He is a pianist and a specialist in unusual musical instruments, especially the wind and string instruments of Asia. Lanier has performed with artists as diverse as Philip Glass, Ornette Coleman, Vernon Reid, Terry Riley, Barbara Higbie, and Stanley Jordan. He also writes chamber and orchestral music. His record "Instruments of Change" was released on Point/Polygram in 1994. In the works are a new album of chamber music for Sony Classics, an orchestral commission for the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, and a Ballet, "The Thinning of the Veil", which is premiering this year at the American Music Theater Festival. He has also pioneered the use of Virtual Reality in musical stage performance; he plays virtual instruments and uses real instruments to guide events in virtual worlds. This new genre of music has already been presented at major venues and music festivals around the world, including SXSW (USA), MIDEM (France), and Canada Music Week.

Lanier's paintings and drawings have been exhibited in galleries in the United States and Europe and in the Internet. In 1994 he directed the film "Muzork" under a commission from ARTE Television. His 1983 "Moondust" is generally regarded as the first art video game, and the first interactive music publication. In 1996 he presented the "Video Feedback Waterbed", a large installation at Exit Art in New York City. He has a one man show>>>this year at the Danish Museum for Modern Art in Roskilde as well as major exhibitions in Montreal and New York. Lanier's best known visual art, however, is his work in the design of virtual worlds, including "The Sound of One Hand", and many others.

Lanier is also a well known author and speaker. He writes on numerous topics, including the philosophy of consciousness, internet politics, and the future of humanism in a technological world. He is a founding contributing writer for Wired Magazine, and was the guest editor of a special issue of SPIN magazine devoted to the future (November 1995). He appears on national television regularly, on shows such as "Nightline" and "Charlie Rose", has been profiled in many prominent publications, including the front pages of the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times, and has had his original research featured on the cover of Scientific American twice.