Diverse Intelligences Summer Institute #DISI

📣📣📣 Applications for DISI 2025 are now open!! Interested in intelligence, mind, and cognition in all its forms? Early-career scholars from any discipline—and storytellers in any medium—are encouraged to apply! More info: disi.org

New episode!! 📣📣 A conversation with @mollycrockett about AI and science! AI is fundamentally reshaping the entire research pipeline. These changes may well boost scientific productivity. Will they also boost understanding? Listen: disi.org/science-ai-and…

New episode!! 🎙️📣 A chat w/ @DorsaAmir & @sheinalew about childhood across cultures. Humans everywhere go through childhood—a time of learning, growth, and play. But this universal stage of life can look very different in different places. Listen: disi.org/varieties-of-c…

I am excited to join the @DivIntelligence for the 2025 fellowship here at the University of St Andrew, Scotland. Over the next few weeks, I will be exploring the world of diverse intelligence and how our understanding of living systems and can inspire new directions in AI.

Professor David Krakauer from @sfiscience delivering a poignant account of how LLMs might affect our cognition in the long run. Filmed at @DivIntelligence

New episode!! 🎙️📣 A chat w/ Dr. Gordon Burghardt about animal play. It's not just kids, apes, and dogs that play. Play abounds—often in unexpected places. It takes different forms, has different functions, and still presents puzzles. Listen: disi.org/the-primeval...

My new installation Alaka’i 1777, which imagines the lost song culture of the Kauaʻi ʻōʻō, debuts in NYC 6/21-22! Come hear real-time simulations of extinct birdsongs in 24-channel spatial audio 🦜 Made possible by @CornellBirds @CulturalEvolSoc @DivIntelligence

As we age our personalities shift in predictable directions—to the point that it makes sense to speak of "personality age." But what drives these changes? Just one of the topics discussed in our latest episode, a conversation w/ @renemottus! Listen: disi.org/the-big-five-a…

New episode!! 📣🎙️ A conversation w/@renemottus about the science of human personality. The "Big Five" model of human personality has been enormously influential. But what does it miss? What does it mask? Where should the field go next? Listen: disi.org/the-big-five...

An excellent opportunity. Consider applying! IU-Bloomington also has fantastic HPS and cog-sci, departments, not to mention the @Ostrom_Workshop.

New postdoc positions at the (DISI-affiliated) Center for Possible Minds at Indiana University. Looking for scholars interested in interdisciplinary research on the nature of biological, artificial, and collective intelligence. Please share widely! indiana.peopleadmin.com/postings/29547

New episode!! 🎙️📣 A chat w/ Dr. Chris Letheby about the philosophy of psychedelics. Psychedelics open up new questions—about the mind, belief, the self, morality, and the ethics of transformative experience. Philosophers have taken note. Listen: disi.org/philosophers-o…

New episode!! 🎙️📣 A conversation w/ @TessaMontague about cephalopod camouflage. Cuttlefish and other cephalopods can change their appearance with lightning speed. What's going on in their skin and brains that makes this possible? Link: disi.org/the-cuttlefi...

New episode!! 📣📣 A conversation with @KathrynNave about her new book, 'A Drive to Survive.' The "free energy principle" has taken the cognitive & life sciences by storm. What does it say about brains and minds—and about life itself? Listen: disi.org/life-free-en...

New episode!! 📣📣 A chat with Bradley Irish about the (alleged) universality of emotions. Are there "basic" emotions? Does our language shape what we feel? Did people in Elizabethan London experience disgust the same way we do today? Listen: disi.org/universal-em...

One week to apply. One of the most important things I did in grad school, my attendance two years ago basically set my research agenda going forward for what I think will be the next few years. Strongly recommend. You should apply.

Applications for DISI extended to Monday, March 10th! Cannot recommend more - I've attended as a scientist and a storyteller and both experiences were transformative :)

New episode!! 📣📣 A chat w/ Dr. Kevin Lala about his new co-authored book, ‘Evolution Evolving'! Ideas about evolution have changed a lot in recent decades. An emerging view—synthesized by Lala et al.—puts developmental processes front and center. disi.org/the-developmen…

Review of applications starts March 1st! Still time! Apply here: disi.org/apply/

String figures have been part of human culture for millennia, perhaps since the Pleistocene. Why do we find them so captivating? What explains their universal appeal? Just one of the topics discussed in our latest episode, w/ R. Kaaronen. Listen: manyminds.libsyn.com/string-theor...

New episode!! 📣🧵 A chat w/ Roope Kaaronen about string in human culture. String is one of our most ancient and useful technologies. But we haven’t only used string for practical purposes. We’ve also long used it to tickle our minds. Listen: disi.org/string-theorie…