Biography:Erik Hoel
Erik Hoel | |
|---|---|
| Nationality | United States |
| Alma mater | University of Wisconsin-Madison, Hampshire College |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Neuroscience, Cognitive Science, Neurophilosophy |
| Institutions | Tufts University, Columbia University |
| Doctoral advisor | Giulio Tononi |
| Website | www |
Erik Hoel is an American neuroscientist,[1] neurophilosopher[2] and fiction writer. His main areas of research are the study and philosophy of consciousness, cognition, biological function of dreams, and mathematical theories of emergence. He is noted for using information theory and causal analysis to develop mathematical models to explore and understand the basis of consciousness and dreams.[3][4][5][6] Hoel holds a PhD degree in Neuroscience from the University of Wisconsin–Madison, and in 2018 was recipient of Forbes 30 Under 30 – Science.[7] He is currently working as a research assistant professor at Tufts University.[8]
Research career
Hoel was previously a postdoctoral researcher in the lab of Rafael Yuste at Columbia University,[9] and a visiting fellow at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton.[10] He is known for the idea of "causal emergence", a formal theory about how macroscales of systems can have stronger causal relationships than their underlying microscale.[11] He has also developed the Overfitted Brain hypothesis, on how dreams evolved as a way to prevent overfitting during learning.[4][5]
Writing career
Erik also writes essays that have been published in The Atlantic,[12] The Baffler,[13] among others.[14] Andre Dubus III tutored Hoel on writing when he was 13.[15]
Hoel writes on substack, his blog is called The Intrinsic Perspective.
The Revelations
Erik also authored a literary fiction novel The Revelations, a mystery set at New York University concerning a fictional scholarship program that brings together eight young consciousness researchers, one of whom is murdered.[16] Publishers Weekly called it "a dizzying, impressive debut".[17]
Personal life
Erik's mother is Sue Little, who operates Jabberwocky Books bookstore for more than 50 years. He is married to Julia Buntaine Hoel, a fellow neuroscientist, artist and the founder of the SciArt Initiative. They had a son, Roman, born in 2021.[15]
Bibliography
- Fiction
- Hoel, Erik (2021). The Revelations: A Novel (First ed.). New York: Harry N. Abrams. ISBN 978-1419750229.
- Selected publications[18]
- Kleiner, Johannes; Hoel, Erik (10 February 2021). "Falsification and consciousness". Neuroscience of Consciousness 2021 (1): niab001. doi:10.1093/nc/niab001. PMID 33889423.
- Wenzel, Michael; Han, Shuting; Smith, Elliot H.; Hoel, Erik; Greger, Bradley; House, Paul A.; Yuste, Rafael (May 2019). "Reduced Repertoire of Cortical Microstates and Neuronal Ensembles in Medically Induced Loss of Consciousness". Cell Systems 8 (5): 467–474.e4. doi:10.1016/j.cels.2019.03.007. PMID 31054810.
- Hoel, Erik P.; Albantakis, Larissa; Marshall, William; Tononi, Giulio (2016). "Can the macro beat the micro? Integrated information across spatiotemporal scales". Neuroscience of Consciousness 2016 (1): niw012. doi:10.1093/nc/niw012. PMID 30788150.
- Varley, Thomas; Hoel, Erik (2021). "Emergence as the conversion of information: A unifying theory". arXiv:2104.13368 [cs.IT].
- Marrow, Scythia; Michaud, Eric J.; Hoel, Erik (18 December 2020). "Examining the Causal Structures of Deep Neural Networks Using Information Theory". Entropy 22 (12): 1429. doi:10.3390/e22121429. PMID 33353094. Bibcode: 2020Entrp..22.1429M.
- Klein, Brennan; Hoel, Erik (4 April 2020). "The Emergence of Informative Higher Scales in Complex Networks". Complexity 2020: 1–12. doi:10.1155/2020/8932526.
- Hoel, Erik; Klein, Brennan; Swain, Anshuman; Grebenow, Ross; Levin, Michael (3 May 2020). Evolution leads to emergence: An analysis of protein interactomes across the tree of life. doi:10.1101/2020.05.03.074419.
- Hoel, Erik (26 April 2017). "When the Map Is Better Than the Territory". Entropy 19 (5): 188. doi:10.3390/e19050188. Bibcode: 2017Entrp..19..188H.
- Hoel, Erik P.; Albantakis, Larissa; Tononi, Giulio (3 December 2013). "Quantifying causal emergence shows that macro can beat micro". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 110 (49): 19790–19795. doi:10.1073/pnas.1314922110. PMID 24248356. Bibcode: 2013PNAS..11019790H.
- Hoel, Erik (May 2021). "The overfitted brain: Dreams evolved to assist generalization". Patterns 2 (5): 100244. doi:10.1016/j.patter.2021.100244. PMID 34036289.
- Hoel, Erik P.; Albantakis, Larissa; Cirelli, Chiara; Tononi, Giulio (1 April 2016). "Synaptic refinement during development and its effect on slow-wave activity: a computational study". Journal of Neurophysiology 115 (4): 2199–2213. doi:10.1152/jn.00812.2015. PMID 26843602.
See also
- David Eagleman
- Eleanor Maguire
- Susan Ackerman
References
- ↑ "New Math Untangles the Mysterious Nature of Causality" (in en-US). Wired. ISSN 1059-1028. https://www.quantamagazine.org/a-theory-of-reality-as-more-than-the-sum-of-its-parts-20170601/. Retrieved 2021-05-19.
- ↑ Horgan, John. "Second Thoughts on Whether Self-Knowledge Is Overrated" (in en). https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/cross-check/second-thoughts-on-whether-self-knowledge-is-overrated/.
- ↑ "A Theory of Reality as More Than the Sum of Its Parts" (in en). 2017-06-01. https://www.quantamagazine.org/a-theory-of-reality-as-more-than-the-sum-of-its-parts-20170601/.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 "New Math Untangles the Mysterious Nature of Causality" (in en-US). Wired. ISSN 1059-1028. https://www.quantamagazine.org/a-theory-of-reality-as-more-than-the-sum-of-its-parts-20170601/. Retrieved 2021-05-21.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 "Weird dreams train us for the unexpected, says new theory" (in en). 2021-05-14. http://www.theguardian.com/science/2021/may/14/weird-dreams-train-us-for-the-unexpected-says-new-theory.
- ↑ "Weird Dreams Keep Our Brains Fit, Help Humans Cope Better with Reality, Finds Study" (in en). 2021-05-19. https://www.news18.com/news/buzz/weird-dreams-keep-our-brains-fit-help-humans-cope-better-with-reality-finds-study-3750665.html.
- ↑ "Erik Hoel" (in en). https://www.forbes.com/profile/erik-hoel/.
- ↑ "Erik Hoel | Department of Biology". https://as.tufts.edu/biology/people/faculty/erik-hoel.
- ↑ "Can we locate cause and effect in the brain?" (in en). https://giving.columbia.edu/can-we-locate-cause-and-effect-brain.
- ↑ "Erik Hoel - Scholars | Institute for Advanced Study" (in en). 2019-12-09. https://www.ias.edu/scholars/erik-hoel.
- ↑ Musser, George (2017-05-04). "A Theory of Consciousness Can Help Build a Theory of Everything". http://nautil.us/issue/47/consciousness/a-theory-of-consciousness-can-help-build-a-theory-of-everything.
- ↑ Hoel, Erik P. (2015-10-21). "'City on Fire': Will Television Ruin Fiction?" (in en). https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2015/10/city-on-fire-review/411097/.
- ↑ "Enter the Supersensorium | Erik Hoel" (in en-US). 2019-05-04. https://thebaffler.com/salvos/enter-the-supersensorium-hoel.
- ↑ "Is there a scientific case for literature? A neuroscientist novelist argues yes" (in en). 2021-04-18. https://www.salon.com/2021/04/18/is-there-a-scientific-case-for-literature-a-neuroscientist-novelist-argues-yes/.
- ↑ 15.0 15.1 Correspondent, James Sullivan Globe; June 28, Updated. "Jabberwocky Books hatches a new novelist: the owner's son - The Boston Globe". https://www.bostonglobe.com/2021/06/28/metro/jabberwocky-books-hatches-novelist-owners-son/.
- ↑ "Bookish: Mixing Science and Fiction in a Literary Novel" (in en). 2021-06-08. https://now.tufts.edu/articles/bookish-mixing-science-and-fiction-literary-novel.
- ↑ "Fiction Book Review: The Revelations by Erik Hoel. Overlook, $27 (368p) ISBN 978-1-4197-5022-9" (in en). November 2020. https://www.publishersweekly.com/978-1-4197-5022-9.
- ↑ "Science" (in en). https://www.erikphoel.com/science.html.
External links
 |
