Music & Performance

Connecting the Dots: Making Meaning of the World

  • This is a past program

How do knowledge systems such as the Oxford English Dictionary conform to or change the way our brains function? Why are humans driven to categorize the world? National Book Award finalist James Gleick (The Information: a History, a Theory, a Flood) and Lera Boroditsky, UCSD professor of cognitive science—who researches the relationships between mind, body, world, and language—discuss the history and future potential of these ideas. Moderated by Margaret Wertheim, science writer (The Pearly Gates of Cyberspace, Physics on the Fringe) and codirector of the Institute For Figuring. 

This program is in conjunction with Hollywood is a Verb, a citywide, monthlong initiative of the Library Foundation of Los Angeles and the Los Angeles Public Library, looking at the Oxford English Dictionary through a contemporary Southern California lens. 

All Hammer public programs are free and made possible by a major gift from the Dream Fund at UCLA. 

Generous support is also provided by Susan Bay Nimoy and Leonard Nimoy, Good Works Foundation and Laura Donnelley, an anonymous donor, and all Hammer members. 

The Hammer’s digital presentation of its public programs is made possible by the Billy and Audrey L. Wilder Foundation.