Santa Fe Institute

The popular Science On Screen series returns to Santa Fe Wednesday evening, May 8, with Simon DeDeo and the 1992 cult hacker film Sneakers.

SFI's 2013 Community Lecture series debuted March 14 with UC-Boulder's Leysia Palen describing how victims, observers, and “citizen-responders” are using modern technology to participate in disaster response. Watch her presentation.

Speaking at SFI yesterday, noted climate scientist James Hansen told an overflow crowd that efforts to stem climate change will be ineffectual as long as fossil fuels remain the cheapest form of energy.

SFI's crowdfunding campaign has reached its goal. The resulting research will help scientists preserve the threatened landscapes on which indigenous human groups depend. 

The 2012 Science On Screen series in Santa Fe wrapped up December 13 to a full house, with "The Gods Must Be Crazy" and Murray Gell-Mann's distinctive insight and witty analysis of the groundbreaking 1980 comedy.

On the eve of the end of the Mayan calendar, the author of the Santa Fe Reporter's "First (and last) guide to the apocalypse" notes that she wishes she had taken advantage of SFI's brainiacs when she had the chance.

In an SFI talk, renowned science historian George Dyson explores several ideas pursued by the late Stanislaw Ulam (1909-1984) that have become tenets of modern mathematics and physics. Watch the talk.

SFI's 2012 Stanislaw Ulam Memorial Lecture Series featured renowned zoologist and complexity pioneer Robert May, who considered the complex systems that matter most to humanity's future. Watch his lectures.

In his blog "Compounding My Interests," Elliott Turner recounts the high points of a recent SFI Business Network meeting, "Risk: The Human Factor," held at Morgan Stanley in New York.

At a unique event in Santa Fe, SFI's Geoffrey West and Cochiti Pueblo artist Mateo Romero discussed how creativity influences and inspires their work.

In a recent SFI panel discussion, some of the biggest thinkers in science explored why and how complexity is a pervasive feature of our universe -- in systems from genes to societies. Watch it here.

In an SFI Community Lecture, Duncan Watts talks about how we get duped by shared assumptions and demonstrates how learning to suspect our common sense can lead to better solutions. Watch the lecture.

Friends sacrifice for one another without apparent concern for consequences or reciprocation. In a June 27 community lecture in Santa Fe, SFI Omidyar Fellow alumnus Dan Hruschka explored the evolutionary puzzle of human friendship. Watch the video.

On May 17 in Santa Fe, SFI's Murray Gell-Mann joined screenwriter Danny Rubin to give the comedy classic "Groundhog Day" a novel spin: Can Bill Murray help us understand the essence of scientific practice? Watch the video.

Are historic events inevitable based on the conditions in which they arise, or are they a unique result of the particular actions of people? SFI Omidyar Fellow Scott Ortman explores this big question in a brief video. Watch it here.

In a historic discussion at SFI in May 2012, a hand-picked group of scholars examined the long-term scientific, political, social, and cultural legacies of the Manhattan Project in a timely discussion of a world event with a lasting influence on science and society.

In an SFI community lecture in Santa Fe, author James Gleick tells the story of information and explored some ways information technologies have changed the very nature of human consciousness. Watch his presentation here.

In an SFI Community Lecture on April 9 in Santa Fe, Rebecca Newberger Goldstein considered intuition as an essential part of our moral and philosophical thinking. Watch the video here.

In a February community lecture, Brian Christian shared his experiences as a "confederate" in an annual man vs. computer "Turing Test," offering insights on ways computers are reshaping what it means to be human. Watch his presentation here.

SFI President Jerry Sabloff tells readers of the Santa Fe New Mexican what the Institute does, and why 2012 is a year for asking big questions at SFI.

On Sunday, October 30, in Santa Fe, the Santa Fe Institute and the Santa Fe Symphony collaborated to produce a unique concert event exploring the interface between music and science. Listen to the radio interview here.

In an October 5 community lecture, Molly Shaffer Van Houweling explored how free access to digital media is blurring the lines between intellectual property and individual expression and what that means for copyright law. Watch the video here.

The Santa Fe Institute is seeking nominations and applications for resident faculty positions.

Cryptography has come a long way since invisible ink and decoder rings. In an April 13 SFI community lecture, Cris Moore describes how we might protect information in a future world of quantum computing. Watch the video here.

A new book by Duncan Watts reviews recent research in social science and social networking and shows how what we call common sense can mislead us and undermine our ability to address complex issues in business, government, and life.