Episode #30: Can Robots Learn from Insects?

'The next big thing' after artificial intelligence: Robots! In this episode, two fellows (one of them a convenor) of the Long-Term Group "Robust Decision Heuristics for Natural and Artificial Intelligence" discuss if robots make AI better, what robots can learn from insects, and about uncertainties in research environments. Barbara Webb (Biorobotics, University of Edinburgh) and Konstantinos Katsikopoulos (Behavioural Science, University of Southampton) are our guests on this episode of InterSpaces.LinksKonstantinos KatsikopoulosBarbara WebbZiF Long-Term Group “Robust Decision Heuristics for Natural and Artificial Intelligence”We are grateful for the intro by Niklas Schönfeld, for the voice recordings of Molina Panzner and Erica Shires and for the podcast cover by Corinna Mehl.If you have any questions, feedback or suggestions, you can email the ZiF science communication team at [email protected] or get in touch via Instagram at @zif_bielefeld.   

This episode features the two co-directors of ZiF, Marie I. Kaiser from History of Philosophy, and historian Eleonora Rohland, both professors at Bielefeld University and ‘directing’ ZiF since 2025.The main theme for this conversation is interdisciplinarity and everything surrounding it regarding our mission here at ZiF. If you want to learn something about the review process at ZiF, what the Board of Directors is looking for in our proposals or want to listen in on reflections about interdisciplinarity, this episode is perfect for you!LinksMarie I. KaiserEleonora RohlandWe are grateful for the intro by Niklas Schönfeld, for the voice recordings of Molina Panzner and Erica Shires and for the podcast cover by Corinna Mehl.If you have any questions, feedback or suggestions, you can email the ZiF communications team at [email protected] or get in touch via Instagram at @zif_bielefeld.   

It is easy to understand or frame the end of socialism or communism as a direct transition towards democracy. But like most things in life, that does not go nearly far enough to understand the multi-faceted upheavals and consequences of such a radical change. If we think about states and regions like Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Poland or even East Germany, there is often terminology involved like “keeping up” (with the West for example), or “backwardness”.This sounds a lot like colonial key-/’buzz’words and results in the question: Can Postsocialism be colonial? That is the very interesting main question of the Resident Group “Postcolonial and Postsocialist Interdependencies Across Borders” that worked at ZiF from April to July 2026.Three fellows (two of them convenors) of the group are guests in this episode: Human Geographer Birgit Glorius, sociologist Helma Lutz and political scientist Andreas Vasilache. LinksProf. Dr. Birgit Glorius (TU Chemnitz)Prof. Dr. em. Helma Lutz (JGU Frankfurt)Prof. Dr. Andreas Vasilache (Bielefeld University)Publikationen Anna Amelina, Verena Molitor, Jana Schäfer, Andreas Vasilache & Tatiana Zimenkova (Ed., 2026): Vulnerable (Im)mobilities Between Imperial Legacies and Colonial Logics of War. Mobilities (21.1).We are grateful for the intro by Niklas Schönfeld, for the voice recordings of Molina Panzner and Erica Shires and for the podcast cover by Corinna Mehl.If you have any questions, feedback or suggestions, you can email the ZiF communications team at [email protected] or get in touch via Instagram at @zif_bielefeld.

Volcanic eruptions can affect the Earth’s climate system, and climate variability occupies an uncomfortable place in historical enquiry. Even though human demography and history are closely connected with environmental conditions and change, most historians and archaeologists have been reluctant to consider climate for understanding political, economic, social and cultural transformations. Much of the scholarship addressing these complex relationships continues to be constrained by the disciplinary limits of individuals and institutions.From November 2021 to January 2024 volcanologist Clive Oppenheimer and Ulf Büntgen, professor of Environmental Systems Analysis, were part of the ZiF long-term research group “Volcanoes, Climate and History”. The research group engaged with the interface of climate and history in a new way, beginning with the premise that exchange and dialogue across disciplinary and epistemological divides should be habitual practice. The research process was not only documented in scientific publications, but also in a film, entitled “Volcano Voices. From Ashes to Archives and Art”. In this Film Clive Oppenheimer leads a journey through time and ideas, where scientists and artists come together - united by curiosity and the joy of collaboration - to explore how volcanic eruptions changed climate and history.In this episode, Clive Oppenheimer and Ulf Büntgen talk about film as a means of science communication and the challenges of making complex research accessible for a wider audience. LinksUlf Büntgen Clive OppenheimerThe Website of the Long-Term Group “Volcanoes, Climate and History”Further reading Büntgen U, Cosmo N, Esper J, Frachetti M, Khalidi L, Mauelshagen F, Rohland E, Oppenheimer C (2026) Volcanoes, Climate, and Society. Annual Review of Earth and Planetary Sciences.Clive Oppenheimer: Mountains of Fire The Secret Lives of Volcanoes. London, Hodder & Stoughton, 2023.We are grateful for the intro by Niklas Schönfeld, for the voice recordings of Molina Panzner and Erica Shires and for the podcast cover by Corinna Mehl.If you have any questions, feedback or suggestions, you can email the ZiF communications team at [email protected] or get in touch via Instagram at @zif_bielefeld.   

Random Matrix Theory (RMT) stands out as a unifying framework at the core of seemingly unrelated fields ranging from signal processing, theoretical ecology, economics and finance, to the theory of learning and the statistical physics of disordered classical and quantum systems. Far from being a mere set of computational tools, RMT provides deep theoretical insights and a foundational understanding of various complex systems. It is key to understand the stability or fragility of complex systems with numerous interacting agents, providing a theoretical framework to capture their responses to perturbations, that may lead to significant changes in the system’s configuration with substantial rearrangements in the state of the individual components (thus describing scenarios of crises or extinctions).In this episode physicist and capital fund manager Jean-Philippe Bouchaud Paris), quantum physicist Valentina Ros and Tobias Galla from the Institute for Cross-disciplinary Physics and Complex Systems (IFISC) at Palma de Mallorca talk about their research group at ZiF and discuss the potential of Random Matrix Theory and the challenges of interdisciplinary collaboration.  LinksJean-Philippe Bouchaud Valentina RosTobias GallaWebsite of the Resident Group "The Lush World of Random Matrices"We are grateful for the intro by Niklas Schönfeld, for the voice recordings of Molina Panzner and Erica Shires and for the podcast cover by Corinna Mehl.If you have any questions, feedback or suggestions, you can email the ZiF communications team at [email protected] or get in touch via Instagram at @zif_bielefeld.   

Since September 2025 the Long-Term Group “Robust Decision Heuristics for Natural and Artificial Intelligence” is working at ZiF. The group seeks to bridge the study of decision-making under uncertainty in natural systems and the design of robust AI systems. Here, "natural systems" is primarily a reference to humans but they will also consider insects because they have simpler decision processes. The goal of the researchers more specifically is to explore the design of algorithms for robust and transparent AI systems by drawing on models of decision processes under uncertainty in natural systems; and to explore the design of AI systems driven by decision heuristics to gain new understanding about decision-making in natural systems.In this episode the convenors of the group, Mohan Sridharan (Chair in Robot Systems, Edinburgh), Özgür Şimşek (Professor of Computer Science, Bath) and psychologist Gerd Gigerenzer (Berlin) talk about the many facets of their research, covering human decision-making as well as robot soccer. They also discuss the necessity and the challenges of interdisciplinary collaboration.  LinksMohan Sridharan Özgür Şimşek Gerd Gigerenzer ZiF Long-Term Group “Robust Decision Heuristics for Natural and Artificial Intelligence” We are grateful for the intro by Niklas Schönfeld, for the voice recordings of Molina Panzner and Erica Shires and for the podcast cover by Corinna Mehl.If you have any questions, feedback or suggestions, you can email the ZiF communications team at [email protected] or get in touch via Instagram at @zif_bielefeld.   

In der Literaturgeschichte hat die Einfühlung in Täter:innen mit den Mitteln der Kunst eine lange Tradition. Dies bedeutet jedoch nicht, dass die literarische Auseinandersetzung mit Täter:innen zwingend zur Anerkennung von Unrecht, Entschuldigung, Entlastung oder gar zu einer Täter-Opfer-Umkehr führen muss. Gerade Marcel Beyers Roman Flughunde über die Familie des NS-Propagandaministers Goebbels und Nora Bossongs Reichskanzlerplatz, der Magda Goebbels ins Zentrum stellt, verdeutlichen, dass die Annäherung an Täter:innen in der Literatur auf eine Weise möglich ist, die eine komplexere, über Einzeltäter:innen hinausgehende Perspektive auf Schuld und Verantwortung ermöglicht. Aber warum erzählen wir uns überhaupt Geschichten über Täter:innen, welche soziale und moralische Funktion erfüllen sie? Was ist die ‚Aufgabe‘ der Literatur in diesem Zusammenhang? Und wie weit reicht ihre Autonomie? Der Literaturwissenschaftler Sebastian Schönbeck moderiert die Lesung der beiden Autor:innen und führt das anschließende Gespräch mit ihnen. Die Lesung war Teil des Workshops "A Case for Empathy? Facing the Perpetrator in Literature, Culture, and History", den die Literaturwissenschaftlerin Saskia Fischer (Hannover) am ZiF veranstaltet hat.Links:Marcel Beyer Nora BossongSebastian SchönbeckSaskia Fischer  Workshop "A Case for Empathy?" Literatur Nora Bossong: Reichskanzlerplatz, Berlin 2024.Marcel Beyer, Flughunde, Frankfurt 1996.Für das Intro danken wir Niklas Schönfeld, für die Einsprecher Molina Panzner und Erica Shires und für das Podcast-Cover Corinna Mehl. Bei Fragen, Rückmeldungen oder Vorschlägen könnt ihr dem ZiF-Kommunikationsteam eine Mail an [email protected] schreiben oder euch über Instagram unter @zif_bielefeld melden.  

With the increasing adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) methods in society, discussions about associated risks and how to mitigate them have also intensified, as evidenced by efforts to regulate AI applications in the EU and industry attempts to provide “safe AI”. However, while there appears to be a general consensus that AI-supported systems ought to be safe, we also observe fierce disagreement about which risks should be considered and what constitutes viable mitigation strategies. In other words: there is an urgent need to understand what both risk and safety mean in the context of AI.In this episode cognitive scientist Benjamin Paaßen (Bielefeld), computational neuroscientist Elizabeth Herbert (München) and Olle Häggström, Professor of Mathematical Sciences at Gothenburg University, talk about the difficulties of defining risk and safety, about the range of risks that should be considered, as well as strategies to enhance AI-safety across technical, social and legal dimensions. They also reflect on the necessity and the challenges of interdisciplinary collaboration to make progress with this endeavor.LinksOlle HäggströmElizabeth Herbert Benjamin Paaßen  ZiF-Workshop "AI Risk and Safety Landscape"We are grateful for the intro by Niklas Schönfeld, for the voice recordings of Molina Panzner and Erica Shires and for the podcast cover by Corinna Mehl.If you have any questions, feedback or suggestions, you can email the ZiF communications team at [email protected] or get in touch via Instagram at @zif_bielefeld.   

Der Aufstieg Europas aus dem Mittelalter in die Moderne wurde in den Geschichtswissenschaften lange durch eine besondere Veränderungsdynamik erklärt. Inzwischen sehen Historiker*innen auch Länder aus anderen Weltregionen auf eigenen Wegen in die Moderne. In dieser Folge erklären Franz-Josef Arlinghaus (Professor für Geschichte des Hoch- und Spätmittelalters an der Universität Bielefeld), Ulla Kypta (Professorin für die Geschichte des Hoch- und Spätmittelalters an der Universität Münster) und Masaki Taguchi (Professor für Rechtsgeschichte an der Juristischen Fakultät der Hokkaido Universität in Sapporo/Japan), wie sich der Prozess der Eigendynamik in Ostasien und Europa entwickelt hat. Für das Intro danken wir Niklas Schönfeld, für die Einsprecher Molina Panzner und Erica Shires und für das Podcast-Cover Corinna Mehl. Bei Fragen, Rückmeldungen oder Vorschlägen könnt ihr dem ZiF-Kommunikationsteam eine Mail an [email protected] schreiben oder euch über Instagram unter @zif_bielefeld melden. 

Wie sehr bedingt vergangenes Unrecht die Gegenwart? Was tun mit dem Fortdauern der Schuld, wie mit ihr leben oder sie übersetzen in ein mögliches konstruktives ‚Danach‘? Kann dies überhaupt gelingen und wer trägt die Verantwortung? Asal Dardan beschreibt in ihrem neuesten Buch Traumaland (2025) differenziert und umfassend, wie sehr die Vergangenheit schmerzlich in unsere Gegenwart ragt. Die nationalsozialistischen Gräueltaten finden sowohl in antisemitischen und rassistischen Gewaltakten als auch in den traumatischen Erfahrungen von Minderheiten ihren Widerhall. Schon in ihrem ersten, vielbesprochenen Text Betrachtungen einer Barbarin (2021) beschäftigte Asal Dardan das Nachdenken über die Stimmen und Geschichten, die in Deutschland kaum oder kein Gehör finden. In Traumaland greift sie diese Überlegungen wieder auf, indem sie präzise und einfühlsam die verdrängten Schichten unseres heutigen Erinnerns oder Nicht-Erinnerns bloßlegt. Im Zentrum steht dabei die Frage, wie eine andere, plurale Erinnerungskultur aussehen könnte.Mit Saskia Fischer, Literaturwissenschaftlerin und Fellow des Jungen ZiF, hat Asal Dardan über "Erinnern und Engagement " gesprochen und dabei Auszüge aus ihren Texten gelesen. LinksAsal DardanSaskia FischerWebsite der Veranstaltung LiteraturAsal Dardan: Traumaland. Eine Spurensuche in deutscher Vergangenheit und Gegenwart, Rowohlt, Hamburg 2025 Asal Dardan: Betrachtungen einer Barbarin. Hoffmann und Campe, Hamburg 2021 Für das Intro danken wir Niklas Schönfeld, für die Einsprecher Molina Panzner und Erica Shires und für das Podcast-Cover Corinna Mehl.Bei Fragen, Rückmeldungen oder Vorschlägen könnt ihr dem ZiF-Kommunikationsteam eine Mail an [email protected] schreiben oder euch über Instagram unter @zif_bielefeld melden.