It is nice to be in on something before the idea takes off, so it was interesting to read that the EU is a convert to cognitive science. As the EU's Foresighting Europe Newsletter puts it:
"Cognitive science is now entering a phase of explosive development with the new neuro-imaging techniques bringing new methods of evidence-gathering to the field. The potential for applications is enormous, in the medical and psychiatric realm, for sensory and motor prostheses, for normal, remedial, and compensatory education, for cognitive, communicative, and decision-making tools. The impact on individual, social, and cultural practices and self-understanding, with implications in the political, economic, and ethical realms, cannot be underestimated."
A couple of years ago we got involved in a Foresight Project on Cognitive Systems, something put together by the Office of Science and Technology in the UK. At the time it was pretty revolutionary to bring brain scientists together with computer researchers. We even got a book out of the venture.
The two areas of science had fallen out in the 1980s over the promise of artificial intelligence, when IT folks made silly claims for the power of thinking computers. During the 18-month run of the Foresight project the two "sides" realised that there was something to talk about together after all after all. They even cooked up a handful of joint research projects.
It turns out that other countries have also looked into cognitive science and have seen opportunities. MIT has a brand new Brain and Cognitive Sciences Complex, "the largest neuroscience center in the world" naturally.
Look out for various things to emerge form the EU's own efforts. "Building a strong European cognitive science is a goal which all the members of the EC can contribute to, as all of them can, and have begun to, promote research in the field, which does not require the heavy artillery of ‘big science’."
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