Santa Fe Institute

Reserve your free tickets to SFI’s next Community Lecture with renowned developmental psychologist Alison Gopnik:

“Transmission Versus Truth: What Will It Take to Make an AI as Smart as a 4-Year-Old?”

October 21, 7:30 pm at The Lensic Performing Arts Center.

Tickets: lensic.org/events/aliso...

In search of the optimal toolkit In a new paper in Science Advances, SFI External Professor Marcus Hamilton and colleagues present a new model showing the tradeoffs between the cost and utility of new tools in small-scale societies.

Every society must balance the costs of invention with the benefits of innovation.

In a new paper in Science Advances, SFI External Professor Marcus Hamilton and colleagues present a new model showing the tradeoffs between the cost and utility of new tools in small-scale societies.

SFI welcomes Visiting Postdoctoral Fellow Jacob Calvert The human brain is remarkably good at detecting patterns in the world around us. We notice behaviors, rhythms, and recurrences, and often build analogies to explain them. But not all of these intuitiv...

SFI welcomes Visiting Postdoctoral Fellow Jacob Calvert.

A mathematician and data scientist, Calvert studies how collective behaviors emerge and recur across physical and biological systems. “I try to see which analogies actually hold up to the microscope of precise mathematics” he says.

Brief: Synthetic self-assembling and self-reproducing cells A paper published in PNAS in May describes work by External Professor Juan Pérez-Mercader and colleagues to create biochemistry-free self-assembling and reproducing 

SFI External Professor Juan Pérez-Mercader and colleagues recreated a “primordial pond” in the lab. When energized, it formed micrometer-scale structures that make and replicate their own parts. They note that the behavior they observed could be the essential step that preceded life on Earth.

In August, the AIP Foundation celebrated SFI External Professor France Córdova and announced an Endowed Forum in her honor. Córdova has been an astrophysicist, University president, NASA chief scientist, NSF Director, and, now, President of the Science Philanthropy Alliance. 

www.santafe.edu/news

SFI External Professor Jessika Trancik was named the director of MIT’s Sociotechnical Systems Research Center (SSRC) this summer. SSRC combines expertise from engineering, physical sciences, and social sciences to address complex societal challenges related to evolving technology.

santafe.edu/news

SFI External Professor Luis Bettencourt and co-author Nicholas Marchio (University of Chicago) use the first complete dataset of more than 415 million buildings in sub-Saharan Africa to map infrastructure deficits across 50 countries.

santafe.edu/news

Various innovations contributed to declining costs of photovoltaic systems Since the 1970s, the cost of solar-energy systems has plummeted by over 99 percent. In a recent paper published in PLOS One, SFI External Professor Jessika Trancik (MIT) and colleagues identify the in...

Since the 1970s, the cost of solar-energy systems has plummeted by over 99%. In a recent paper published in PLOS One, SFI External Professor Jessika Trancik (MIT) and colleagues identify the innovations in various photovoltaic components that led to this spectacular decline. 

santafe.edu/news

YouTube video by The Generalist Maintaining Human Intelligence in the AI Era | David Krakauer (President of the Santa Fe Institute)

SFI President David Krakauer joins The Generalist Podcast to talk about intelligence, the influence of AI on human thinking, and how to preserve creativity and understanding in a rapidly changing information landscape.

Watch the full interview: www.youtube.com/watch?v=SSBL...

Final week to apply for the 2026 SFI Complexity Postdoctoral Fellowships

If you're an early-career scholar and passionate about collaborative, transdisciplinary research beyond traditional departments, this is the postdoc fellowship for you.

Deadline: Oct 1, 2025

Apply: santafe.edu/sfifellowship

Research News Brief: Could humans and AI become a new kind of evolutionary individual? In a recent op-ed in PNAS, SFI External Professor Michael Hochberg and co-author Paul Rainey explore whether deepening interdependence between humans and AI could lead to a new form of evolutionary in...

Could humans and AI become so interdependent that they form a new kind of evolutionary individual? In this op-ed, SFI External Professor Michael Hochberg and co-author Paul Rainey explore whether deepening interdependence between humans and AI could lead to a new form of evolutionary individuality.

Catch up on our most recent Community Lecture: "Machining the Ghost: Ideating in the Age of AI" with Dan Rockmore. This was the fifth of six community lectures for 2025, and all are available to watch on SFI’s YouTube channel.

Watch here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w2al0jNTDC8

The AI Raj: How tech giants are recolonizing power Just as the East India Company’s success justified new powers, AI firms seek to leverage technical prowess to assume public functions.

In an essay for the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, SFI External Professor Allison Stanger examines how AI firms are reshaping infrastructure, governance, and power. Her piece draws historical parallels and raises pressing questions about the role of private technology in public life.

Tomorrow: the 5th event in SFI’s 2025 Community Lecture Series!

Join us at the Lensic Performing Arts Center for Dan Rockmore’s lecture, “Machining the Ghost: Ideating in the Age of AI” — 7:30pm.

Free tickets: lensic.org/events/sfi-d... or watch the live stream on SFI’s YouTube

Self-Assembly Gets Automated in Reverse of ‘Game of Life’ | Quanta Magazine In cellular automata, simple rules create elaborate structures. Now researchers can start with the structures and reverse-engineer the rules.

In cellular automata, simple rules create elaborate structures. Now researchers are working backward — starting with the result to learn the rules behind it. @georgemusser.com, SFI’s 2025 Journalism Fellow, explores how this could reshape computation and self-organization in Quanta:

In August, an SFI working group explored the challenges and opportunities of digital-twin technology—virtual representations of physical objects, designed not as simple models but as complex systems that use real-time data to mirror their real-world counterparts.

santafe.edu/news

In July, NSF announced a $100M investment in AI research across six institutes. Three SFI researchers will contribute: @melaniemitchell.bsky.social & Melanie Moses (UNM) on science underlying AI tools for mental health, and Cris Moore on ML methods for AI accuracy and reliability.

santafe.edu/news

The 2026 Complexity Postdoctoral Fellowships applications are open, offering early-career scholars intellectual freedom, transdisciplinary collaboration with leading researchers, and a competitive salary with research and collaboration funds.

Deadline: Oct 1, 2025
Apply: santafe.edu/sfifellowship

Reserve your free tickets to SFI’s Community Lecture with Dan Rockmore: “Machining the Ghost: Ideating in the Age of AI,” on September 16, 7:30pm at @TheLensic.

Generative AI is reshaping how people come up with ideas — for better and for worse.

Tickets: lensic.org/events/sfi-d...

Can courts safeguard fairness in an AI age? 

SFI's Cris Moore and Stephanie Forrest, with colleagues in the Computing Community Consortium, offer guidance on how AI might be used responsibly in the U.S. criminal justice system.

https://santafe.edu/news

The latest issue of SFI's monthly e-newsletter is now available. Catch up on August's news and sign up to receive the next issue in your inbox. https://f.mtr.cool/wcwqgvjctd

@carlbergstrom.com
@blaiseaguera.bsky.social

SFI welcomes ten new External Faculty members for 2025.

These distinguished researchers expand our global network and help advance the science of complex systems across disciplines and institutions.

Learn more about them here: santafe.edu/news

Did you miss SFI’s 30th Ulam Lectures with Nobel Laureate Venki Ramakrishnan? They're now available to watch on SFI’s YouTube channel. Two lectures on the molecular machinery of life and the science of aging.

Watch here:

Night 1 - youtu.be/xJ5BFBbakSk&t
Night 2 - youtu.be/uhK9ElOZ7n4

Tomorrow: Venki Ramakrishnan returns for night two of the 30th Ulam Lecture Series to explore what science reveals about aging and death—and the future of longevity. Based on his 2024 book Why We Die.

Free tickets: lensic.org/events/30th-ulam-lecture-series or watch the live stream on SFI’s YouTube

Tomorrow: Venki Ramakrishnan opens the 30th Ulam Lecture Series with a look inside the ribosome — the molecular machine making life possible. He’ll discuss his Nobel-winning work and advances in visualizing life at the atomic scale.

Free tickets: https://lensic.org or watch online on SFI’s YouTube

SFI President David Krakauer joins StarTalk with Neil deGrasse Tyson to discuss emergence and the scientific frameworks that help us search for order in the complexity of evolving worlds. 

Watch the full interview: https://youtu.be/wGhRW-pJWIc?si=d_cFoKVA-Af9foBy

It might start as a joke, belief, or rumor, easy to dismiss. But then it twists, builds momentum, and spreads like wildfire. Why do some ideas die out while others go viral?

A new study by researchers from the University of Vermont and the Santa Fe Institute offers answers: santafe.edu/news

Unfold the history of proteins and you find rich, unexplained complexity. This August, an SFI working group with @ELSI_origins and @ASU_SCAS used machine learning and assembly theory to explore hidden rules underlying all folded matter, from proteins to potential new drugs.

santafe.edu/news

Applications are open for SFI's 2026 Complexity Postdoctoral Fellowships. SFI offers early-career scholars intellectual freedom, competitive benefits, research funds, and collaboration with leading scientists.

Learn more: santafe.edu/news-center/news/join-sfi-as-a-complexity-postdoctoral-fellow