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<br>
The Hampshire College Program in Culture, Brain, and Development
Presents the second lecture in our Neuroscience & Society
Series:
<br>
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<blockquote cite="mid:4F68D95C.2010602@hampshire.edu" type="cite">*"The
Shortsighted Brain: Neuroeconomics and the governance of choice in
time" *
<br>
A Public Lecture by Natasha Dow Schüll, associate professor
Program in Science, Technology, and Society at MIT
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March 27, 2012
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5:30pm FPH Main Lecture Hall, Hampshire College
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ABSTRACT: The young field of neuroeconomics converges around
behavioral deviations from the model of the human being as Homo
economicus, a rational actor who calculates his choices to
maximize his individual satisfaction. In a historical moment
characterized by economic, health, and environmental crises,
policymakers have become increasingly concerned about a particular
deviation for which neuroeconomics offers a biological
explanation: Why do humans value the present at the expense of the
future? There is contentious debate within the field over how to
model this tendency at the neural level. Should the brain be
conceptualized as a unified decision-making apparatus, or as the
site of conflict between an impetuous limbic system at perpetual
odds with its deliberate and provident overseer in the prefrontal
cortex? Scientific debates over choice-making in the brain, I will
argue in this talk, are also debates over how to define the
constraints on human reason with which regulative strategies must
contend. Drawing on ethnographic and archival research, I will
explore how the brain and its treatment of the future become the
contested terrain for distinct visions of governmental
intervention into problems of human choice-making.
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BIOGRAPHICAL STATEMENT: Natasha Dow Schüll is a cultural
anthropologist and associate professor at the Program in Science,
Technology, and Society at MIT. She has recently completed a book
based on extended research in Las Vegas among gambling addicts and
the designers of the slot machines they play. Her current,
ongoing research concerns the field of neuroeconomics and what its
questions and methods reveal about larger cultural values and
priorities. Her research has been funded by the National Science
Foundation, the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, and the Woodrow Wilson
Foundation, among other sources.
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This event is on Tuesday, March 27th, 2012.
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It is held at: Main Lecture Hall
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This event starts at 5:30 pm, and ends at 7:00 pm.
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This event is organized by: CBD Program
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If you need special accommodations, please contact Hampshire
College's Disabilities Services office (413)559-5423 at least one
week prior to the lecture date
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For more information visit <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.hampshire.edu/cbd/8161.htm">http://www.hampshire.edu/cbd/8161.htm</a>
or email <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:rmclaughlin@hampshire.edu">rmclaughlin@hampshire.edu</a>
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Ryan McLaughlin, Program Coordinator<br>
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<div class="moz-signature"><small>Program in Culture, Brain and
Development</small><br>
<small> Hampshire College </small><br>
<small> 893 West Street Amherst, MA 01002</small><small><br>
phone: 413.559.5501 </small><br>
<small> fax: 413.559.5438</small><br>
<small> <a href="http://cbd.hampshire.edu/">http://cbd.hampshire.edu</a></small>
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