Chris Kempes
Resident Faculty
Santa Fe Institute
Van Savage
Professor in Ecology, Evolutionary Biology and Biomathematics
University of California, Los Angeles
Alan Lightman
Professor of the Practice of Humanities
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Melanie Mitchell
Davis Professor of Complexity
Santa Fe Institute
Michael Lachmann
Theoretical Biologist
Santa Fe Institute
Sara Walker
Astrobiologist and Theoretical Physicist
Arizona State University
Mark Buchanan
Science Writer
Freelance
David C Krakauer
President
Sante Fe Institute
Doyne Farmer
Professor of Mathematics
University of Oxford
Fotini Markopoulou
CEO
Empathic Technologies
Eric Beinhocker
Professor of Public Policy Practice
The Institute for New Economic Thinking
Steen Rasmussen
Professor and Director
University of Southern Denmark
idea
Complexity
When science hits a limit, learn to ask different questions
Chris Kempes & Van Savage
idea
Computing and artificial intelligence
How do you teach a car that a snowman won’t walk across the road?
Melanie Mitchell
essay
Biology
Life ≠ alive
A cat is alive, a sofa is not: that much we know. But a sofa is also part of life. Information theory tells us why
Michael Lachmann & Sara Walker
idea
Economics
How ergodicity reimagines economics for the benefit of us all
Mark Buchanan
essay
Technology and the self
Collaborators in creation
Our world is a system, in which physical and social technologies co-evolve. How can we shape a process we don’t control?
Doyne Farmer, Fotini Markopoulou, Eric Beinhocker & Steen Rasmussen
essay
The future
At the limits of thought
Science today stands at a crossroads: will its progress be driven by human minds or by the machines that we’ve created?
David C Krakauer
essay
Complexity
Uncertain times
The pandemic is an unprecedented opportunity – seeing human society as a complex system opens a better future for us all
Jessica Flack & Melanie Mitchell
essay
Complexity
All stars
Is a great team more than the sum of its players? Complexity science reveals the role of strategy, synergy, swarming and more
Jessica Flack & Cade Massey
essay
Biology
Living orbs of light
Solving the mystery of how and why fireflies flash in time can illuminate the physics of complex systems
Orit Peleg
essay
Sleep and dreams
Why do we sleep?
Adults sleep less than babies. Sperm whales sleep less again. A new mathematical theory unlocks the mysteries of slumber
Van Savage & Geoffrey West
essay
Knowledge
A sliver of reality
Science and mathematics may never fully capture the physical universe. Are there hard limits to human intelligence?
David H Wolpert