PodParley PodParley

The Deceived Brain: Coding and Illusion - Alain Goriely

An episode of the Gresham College Lectures podcast, hosted by Gresham College, titled "The Deceived Brain: Coding and Illusion - Alain Goriely" was published on July 25, 2025 and runs 51 minutes.

July 25, 2025 ·51m · Gresham College Lectures

0:00 / 0:00

We perceive the world through the processing of information given by our senses. Sometimes, this processing is faulty leading to illusions: shapes or sounds that we perceive differently from their physical reality. These illusions have delighted children and scientists alike for centuries. This lecture reveals how simple geometric illusions can be modelled mathematically, based on our understanding on how visual signals are coded and decoded by the brain, leading to a better understanding of ...

We perceive the world through the processing of information given by our senses. Sometimes, this processing is faulty leading to illusions: shapes or sounds that we perceive differently from their physical reality. These illusions have delighted children and scientists alike for centuries. This lecture reveals how simple geometric illusions can be modelled mathematically, based on our understanding on how visual signals are coded and decoded by the brain, leading to a better understanding of how we process information.

This lecture was recorded by Alain Goriely on the 17th of June 2025 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London.

Alain is Gresham Professor of Geometry.

He is currently the Director of the Oxford Centre for Industrial and Applied Mathematics and was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society in 2022.

The transcript of the lecture is available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/deceived-brain

Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham College's mission, please consider making a donation: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/donate-today
 
Website:  https://gresham.ac.uk
X: https://x.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: https://instagram.com/greshamcollege
Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/greshamcollege.bsky.social 
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@greshamcollege
Support Us: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/donate-today

Support the show

Introduction

Apr 11, 2026 ·26m

Doctrine

Apr 11, 2026 ·63m

God and Man

Apr 11, 2026 ·25m

The Bible

Apr 11, 2026 ·18m

Christ

Apr 11, 2026 ·64m

Salvation

Apr 11, 2026 ·68m

Christianity and Liberalism by John Gresham Machen (1881 - 1937) LibriVox The purpose of this book is not to decide the religious issue of the present day, but merely to present the issue as sharply and clearly as possible, in order that the reader may be aided in deciding it for himself...In the sphere of religion, in particular, the present time is a time of conflict; the great redemptive religion which has always been known as Christianity is battling against a totally diverse type of religious belief, which is only the more destructive of the Christian faith because it makes use of traditional Christian terminology. This modern non-redemptive religion is called “modernism” or “liberalism.”...we shall be interested in showing that despite the liberal use of traditional phraseology, modern liberalism not only is a different religion from Christianity but belongs in a totally different class of religions. - Summary Adapted from Introduction Doctor Thorne Anthony Trollope Doctor Thorne is the third of Trollope's Barsetshire novels, and unlike some of the others, has little to do with the politics and personalities of the Church of England, or politics on the national level (though there is lots of politicking in the mythical county of Barsetshire itself). The plot revolves around the illegitimate Mary Thorne, who has been lovingly raised by her uncle, a country doctor, and who, as she comes of age, finds herself wondering whether she is a lady (in the county sense of the term). Frank Gresham, son of the squire of Greshamsbury, is in love with her (much against the wishes of his noble de Courcy relatives at the Castle), but she dismisses his affection at first as mere puppy love, thereby setting the scene for a series of entanglements, social, romantic, and of course, financial and propertied (never far from the action in Trollope's works). Their resolution, of course, makes up the meat of the novel. One critic has remarked that in Doctor Thorne Troll
URL copied to clipboard!