COMPLEXITY

Nov 20 2024 118 ep. 56 mins 3.9k
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The official podcast of the Santa Fe Institute. Subscribe now and be part of the exploration!

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Nature of Intelligence, Ep. 5: How do we assess intelligence?

Nov 20 2024 48 mins  
When it comes to assessing intelligence, people have all kinds of tests — the SAT, IQ tests, and so on. There’s controversy over how fairly these tests really measure human intelligence, but at the very least, we know that they correlate with some general reasoning skills when people take them. That assumption breaks down when we try to assess intelligence in non-humans. What d

Nature of Intelligence, Ep. 4: Babies vs Machines

Nov 06 2024 38 mins  
There’s an argument to be made that if we train AI systems to learn the way babies do, we’ll get them closer to human-like intelligence. But how our own learning development functions in babyhood is still a mystery that researchers are untangling. We know that the information babies absorb is very different from how an LLM learns, and in today’s episode, with guests Linda Smi

Nature of Intelligence, Ep. 3: What kind of intelligence is an LLM?

Oct 23 2024 45 mins  
Large language models, like ChatGPT and Claude, have remarkably coherent communication skills. Yet, what this says about their “intelligence” isn’t clear. Is it possible that they could arrive at the same level of intelligence as humans without taking the same evolutionary or learning path to get there? Or, if they’re not on a path to human-level intelligence, where are the

Nature of Intelligence, Ep. 2: The relationship between language and thought

Oct 09 2024 37 mins  
Complex language is unique to the human species. It’s part of how we evolved, the backbone of our societies, and one of the primary ways we judge others’ intellect. Is it our intelligence that leads to our language abilities, or conversely, does our ability for language enhance our intelligence, or both? How do language and thinking interact? And can one exist without the other

Nature of Intelligence, Ep. 1: What is Intelligence

Sep 25 2024 43 mins  
Depending on whom you ask, artificial intelligence is either going to solve all humanity’s problems, or it’s going to kill us. Business leaders are getting ready for it to “disrupt” entire industries, and educators are re-thinking how to teach in the age of ChatGPT. It can feel like artificial intelligence is going to transform everything about the way we live. But in order

Trailer for The Nature of Intelligence

Sep 19 2024 3 mins  
Right now, AI is having a moment — and it’s not the first time grand predictions about the potential of machines are being made. But, what does it really mean to say something like ChatGPT is “intelligent”? What exactly is intelligence? In this season of the Complexity podcast, The Nature of Intelligence, we'll explore this question through conversations with cognitive and

Physics of Life, Ep 6: Multiple worlds, containing multitudes

Apr 10 2024 40 mins  
In the final episode of this season, we hear from a NASA researcher whose expertise spans from studying samples in deep, untouched regions of our planet all the way to organic chemistry happening in space. We consider the possibility of other, past origins of life on Earth and look at the rich potential to learn from sample return missions, including the recent OSIRIS-REx mission t

Physics of Life, Ep 5: How human history shapes scientific inquiry

Mar 27 2024 33 mins  
In this episode, we examine how the course of human history has shaped our scientific knowledge, why the physics community prioritizes some questions over others, and why progress in complex systems research is especially difficult. Academia continues to operate within set boundaries and students are taught certain concepts as fundamental and to skirt others completely. However, th

Physics of Life, Ep 4: The physics of collectives

Mar 13 2024 33 mins  
How do groups solve problems? Are there conditions that create a pathway to innovation and groundbreaking inventions? In today’s episode, we look at the science of collectives to learn about the patterns that emerge as human societies grow, the importance of a collective structure to foster ideas and create impact, and – from collectives like ants and immune systems – the imp

Physics of Life, Ep 3: Why is life so diverse?

Feb 28 2024 29 mins  
In the first two episodes of this season, we’ve examined how fundamental rules like scaling laws constrain evolution for all forms of life. But if everything is bound to these core rules, then why do we see exceptions? In this episode, Abha and Chris get into the incredible diversity of plants and animals on this planet, where that diversity comes from, and if it’s possible to