Please distribute to others who may be interested...
You are hereby invited to the opening seminar in
our seventh interdisciplinary
<http://ecco.vub.ac.be/?q=node/108>series on
Evolution, Complexity and Cognition (ECCO).
Time: Friday, Oct. 29, 2-4 pm.
(note: this year, all seminars take place on
Fridays, 2-4 pm, unless announced otherwise)
Place: Room B 0.036
(building B, level 0, close to the human sciences
computer rooms), on the VUB Campus Etterbeek
(Pleinlaan 2, 1050 Brussels), in collaboration
with MOSI. Coffee available. Free entrance:
everybody welcome!
Evolutionary Well-Being:
the paleolithic hunter-gatherer as model for health and happiness
<http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/HEYL.html>Francis Heylighen
ECCO, VUB
Abstract:
Hominids have lived for millions of years as
hunter-gatherers, and only thousands of years as
farmers and later industrial workers. This means
that evolution has shaped our body and mind for a
paleolithic, hunter-gatherer lifestyle. The
modern lifestyle, while being in many aspects
safer and more comfortable, is essentially
ill-adapted to our genome. This explains the
prevalence of so many "diseases of civilisation"
that seem virtually absent in hunter-gatherer
populations. These include obesity,
cardiovascular disease, diabetes, cancer,
allergies, ADHD, depression, anxiety and dementia.
A reconstruction of the paleolithic lifestyle
suggests a number of guidelines for avoiding
these physical and mental problems, by making
relatively small adjustments to our present
lifestyle. These include a shift to a "paleo"
diet, based on meat, vegetables and fruit, a more
varied, adventurous style of physical exercise,
more frequent exposure to nature, sunlight, heat,
and cold, a more playful, relaxed attitude, and a
more nurturing approach to child care, combining
close bodily contact with free play and
exploration. This talk will survey these
guidelines and some of the scientific evidence
behind them.
More info and references: see Heylighen's
<http://ecco.vub.ac.be/?q=node/127>paleo website
About the speaker: Prof. Dr. Heylighen is
director of the Evolution, Complexity and
Cognition group and affiliated with the Center
Leo Apostel at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel.
The main focus of his research is the evolution
of intelligent organization, and its implications
for building an integrated worldview.
Upcoming Seminars
Nov. 5 (10 am !)
Richard Holzer &
<http://www.net.fmi.uni-passau.de/hp/?id=113>Hermann
de Meer (Univers. of Passau):
<http://ecco.vub.ac.be/?q=node/129>Evaluation of
self-organizing systems using quantitative
measures
Nov. 12
Karin Verelst (CLEA, VUB):
A Note on the Categorical Nature of Causation
Nov. 19
academic holiday: no seminar
Nov. 26
Jon Echanove (<http://www.ease-echanove.com/>EASE)
Uncertainty and Personal Development
Dec. 3
<http://clement.vidal.philosophons.com/>Clément Vidal (ECCO, VUB)
<http://ecco.vub.ac.be/?q=node/132>Black Holes as
Attractors for Intelligent Civilizations
Dec 10
<http://vub.academia.edu/NathalieGontier>Nathalie Gontier (CLWF, VUB)
Identifying the units, levels and mechanisms of
evolution: an epistemological approach
Dec. 17
<http://books.google.be/books?id=r7CbVtlfc0sC&printsec=frontcover&dq=bertin-martens&source=bl&ots=Amuu-Z3p_8&sig=oD4mkFDgiTLlVLJo5xe7zUU2RqU&hl=en&ei=7D7ATKDFLZm8jAe8xMSUCg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=8&ved=0CC8Q6AEwBw>Bertin
Martens (European Commission)
Economic exchange as a cognitive transmission channel in human societies
Jan 14
<http://www.csis.ul.ie/staff/chrisexton/>Chris Exton (University of Limerick)
Crowd sourcing
More info about the ECCO seminar
program:<http://ecco.vub.ac.be/?q=node/108>
http://ecco.vub.ac.be/?q=node/108
--
Francis Heylighen
Evolution, Complexity and Cognition group
Free University of Brussels
http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/HEYL.html
