News + Events

An SFI working group explores the interactions between pre-industrial humans and other species, and what those interactions might tell us about modern society.

Human settlements sprawl according to common factors, and modern cities show similar patterns to ancient ones, but hunter-gatherer encampments look much different. An SFI working group is trying to figure out why.

Some 30 researchers gather at SFI this week to discover how social networks influence wealth inequality.

During a January 24 talk in Santa Fe, neurobiologist Christof Koch presented a theory about which brains can experience consciousness and which cannot. Watch his talk here.

The Winter 2017 issue of SFI's quarterly newsletter is available online. Download it here.

Models from ecology may have some important things to teach us about politics, competition, and our modern-day social echo chambers. 

Two sets of mathematically inclined, multidisciplinary postdocs convene at the Santa Fe Institute.

Working Group explores the suspiciously simple computer science question: Does P = NP?

Circuits aren't just for electronics; living circuits exist in the biological world as well.

This week at SFI, a multidisciplinary group of experts is gathered at SFI to work toward a quantitative science of how living things process energy and information to solve problems.

A new research program at SFI looks at laws as operating systems for human societies.

During an October 18 SFI Community Lecture in Santa Fe, mathematician Jordan Ellenberg explored how math can help us think about the seemingly uncertain matters that dominate our lives. Watch his talk here.

In two lectures, Seth Lloyd explores what happens when one system gains an advantage in collecting and processing information – an advantage he believes underlies all creation and destruction in our universe. Watch his lectures here.

A team of ecologists met at SFI recently to begin synthesizing an efficient theory that aims toward a more unified understanding of ecology.

During an SFI Community Lecture in Santa Fe, Rosalind Picard reveals some of the surprises she has discovered at the intersection of human emotion and wearable tech. Watch her talk here.

Drawing from network science, decision-making tools with artificial intelligence, and social influence theories, experts gathered at SFI recently to explore new ways to spark large-scale social change.

To prepare for climate change, urbanization, or antibiotic resistance, we need to know how the microbial world we are immersed in will respond to stress. A recent SFI meeting sought progress.

Watch linguist John McWhorter deliver a community lecture in which he rethinks the widely-held belief that the language we speak shapes how we experience life.

During a working group this week at SFI, roughly a dozen ecologists and computer scientists will explore ways emerging technologies might help researchers better understand why and how individuals in migrating groups make the choices they do.

Researchers meet at SFI this week to understand how two evolutionary strategies — migration and cooperation — might have co-evolved, and in what situations one strategy prevails.