Diverse Intelligences Summer Institute #DISI
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divintelligence.bsky.social
Diverse Intelligences Summer Institute #DISI
@divintelligence.bsky.social
Fostering interdisciplinary collaboration among scholars and storytellers interested in the origins, nature, and future of intelligences.

Web: www.disi.org

Podcast: Many Minds (@manymindspod.bsky.social)
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Applications for the 2025 Diverse Intelligences Summer Institute (DISI) are now open!!

Are you interested in intelligence, mind, and cognition in all its forms? Early-career scholars from any discipline—and storytellers in any medium—are encouraged to apply!

More info: disi.org
Reposted by Diverse Intelligences Summer Institute #DISI
New paper on the social learning of bubble net feeding by humpbacks in British Columbia, published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B 🐋
royalsocietypublishing.org/rspb/article...

#marmam @bcwhales.bsky.social @seamammalresearch.bsky.social @lrendell.bsky.social @uniofstandrews.bsky.social [1/5]
The diffusion of cooperative and solo bubble net feeding in Canadian Pacific humpback whales
Abstract. Animal culture, information and behaviours acquired and shared by social learning are a form of biodiversity with intrinsic and practical value.
royalsocietypublishing.org
January 21, 2026 at 11:52 AM
Reposted by Diverse Intelligences Summer Institute #DISI
New preprint out!🧪🌍🔥

I observed 17 bird species at two prescribed fires in Sweden. They appeared to mostly ignore the fire, and some (such as this skylark) even sang through the smoke - an important comparison with birds from fire-prone regions (reviewed here).

www.authorea.com/users/102018...
January 19, 2026 at 4:48 PM
Reposted by Diverse Intelligences Summer Institute #DISI
Cow Tools!

We have lived alongside cows for nearly 10,000 years.
We breed them and exploit them

It is now, only now, that we have discovered THEY CAN USE TOOLS

Here I describe our study

(paper) www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... in @currentbiology.bsky.social
with @auersperga.bsky.social
January 19, 2026 at 5:26 PM
Reposted by Diverse Intelligences Summer Institute #DISI
1/7 Look, Mom, no hands!

They have studied the age at which chimpanzees take the most risks (jumping and doing crazy things from tree to tree). It turns out that they have a peak in childhood, and it decreases as they grow older. This tells us something very interesting about ourselves.
January 16, 2026 at 8:59 AM
Reposted by Diverse Intelligences Summer Institute #DISI
IQ is a fraught concept, to say the least. Many regard it with squeamishness or outright disdain. Yet it's also one of the most researched constructs in all of psychology. How should we think about it?

From the archive, our interview with @ent3c.bsky.social!

Listen: disi.org/how-should-w...
January 16, 2026 at 5:47 PM
Reposted by Diverse Intelligences Summer Institute #DISI
My latest on Substack -- a write-up of the talk I gave at NeurIPS in December.

aiguide.substack.com/p/on-evaluat...
On Evaluating Cognitive Capabilities in Machines (and Other "Alien" Intelligences)
(Apologies for the length of this post, which means it gets cut off in the email version.
aiguide.substack.com
January 14, 2026 at 6:43 PM
Reposted by Diverse Intelligences Summer Institute #DISI
A new academic term is ramping up. Have you considered putting our episodes on your syllabi?

Conversations offer an accessible and engaging format—your students will thank you! We have 100+ episodes to choose from, covering many forms of mind from all disciplinary angles.

disi.org/manyminds/
January 14, 2026 at 5:14 PM
Reposted by Diverse Intelligences Summer Institute #DISI
I've been working for ages on a comprehensive revamp of the Stanford Encyclopedia Entry on "Animal Consciousness", with new sections on non-Western perspectives, methodological challenges and evolutionary big pictures, and it's out today: plato.stanford.edu/entries/cons.... Hope you find it useful!
January 13, 2026 at 3:00 PM
Reposted by Diverse Intelligences Summer Institute #DISI
There's a commonsense view of human names—of where they come from and what they're for—that's guiding our search for names in animals. Could it be leading us astray?

Discussed in our latest episode, an essay from @kensycoop.bsky.social!

Listen: disi.org/in-search-of...
January 9, 2026 at 5:07 PM
Reposted by Diverse Intelligences Summer Institute #DISI
Excited this piece is finally out in Philosophy of Science. We argue that, paradoxically, we can have certainty about theorems in math, the proofs of which we can never understand. That's weird and tells us something important about why we do math in the first place #philsky tinyurl.com/3dxxb98a
A Priori Knowledge in an Era of Computational Opacity: The Role of Artificial Intelligence in Mathematical Discovery | Philosophy of Science | Cambridge Core
A Priori Knowledge in an Era of Computational Opacity: The Role of Artificial Intelligence in Mathematical Discovery
www.cambridge.org
January 7, 2026 at 2:23 PM
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Happy new year!! 🎉

As we pause before our 2026 run, we're sharing an episode from our friends at 'On Humans' @ilarimakela.bsky.social! It's a conversation with biologist & historian @matthewcobb.bsky.social about our understanding of the brain.

Listen or read: onhumans.substack.com/p/can-the-br...
Can the Brain Understand Itself?
Scientist and historian Matthew Cobb explores the limits of neuroscience.
onhumans.substack.com
January 6, 2026 at 6:37 PM
Reposted by Diverse Intelligences Summer Institute #DISI
Thrilled to see this paper out, two years after starting our collaboration at @divintelligence.bsky.social
My co-authors and I are happy to present our framework "Collective Intelligence as Collective Information Processing (CIP)."

Here we propose decomposing different information processing mechanisms to unify disparate phenomena traditionally classified as "collective intelligence."
December 30, 2025 at 7:58 PM
Reposted by Diverse Intelligences Summer Institute #DISI
🚨Excited to share our new theoretical framework to classify and spark mechanistic inquiries into various forms of collective intelligence!

Soon to be published in @cognitionjournal.bsky.social

Thanks to @divintelligence.bsky.social

Thread by Cody Moser @culturologies.co 👇🏽
My co-authors and I are happy to present our framework "Collective Intelligence as Collective Information Processing (CIP)."

Here we propose decomposing different information processing mechanisms to unify disparate phenomena traditionally classified as "collective intelligence."
December 30, 2025 at 7:43 PM
Reposted by Diverse Intelligences Summer Institute #DISI
New episode!! 🎉🎙️

An audio essay from @kensycoop.bsky.social about names in the natural world.

The search for "name-like" symbols in animals is intensifying. But if the enterprise is to succeed, we first need to pause and ask ourselves: What even is a name?

Listen: disi.org/in-search-of...
December 22, 2025 at 8:22 PM
Reposted by Diverse Intelligences Summer Institute #DISI
Why do humans have linguistic intuition? And why should you care?

A short thread about my new paper in @cadlin.bsky.social

This work has the most original insight I've ever had, a genuinely new idea about the nature of language

cadernos.abralin.org/index.php/ca...

1/20
Why Do Humans Have Linguistic Intuition? | Cadernos de Linguística
cadernos.abralin.org
December 15, 2025 at 4:14 PM
Reposted by Diverse Intelligences Summer Institute #DISI
Excited to announce a new book telling the story of mathematical approaches to studying the mind, from the origins of cognitive science to modern AI! The Laws of Thought will be published in February and is available for pre-order now.
December 18, 2025 at 3:59 PM
Reposted by Diverse Intelligences Summer Institute #DISI
To survive and flourish, many animal species rely on ecological knowledge. But this knowledge is not always spread across the group—it's often held by certain "keystone individuals."

Just one of the topics discussed in our latest episode, w/ @pbrakes.bsky.social!

Listen: disi.org/the-value-of...
December 16, 2025 at 5:00 PM
Reposted by Diverse Intelligences Summer Institute #DISI
Super proud of this paper with @apvelilla.bsky.social and @babeheim.bsky.social, now out in Psych Review.

Non-paywalled version (preprint) here: osf.io/preprints/so...
How likely are you to invest in a new business? Ask your partner to marry you? Move to a new country?

A new model by SFI External Professor Paul Smaldino and colleagues explains how wealth, experience, and environment shape our risk tolerance — and how those effects persist across generations.
Personal risk tolerance has sweeping implications for how societies evolve
How much risk is any individual willing to take on? That depends, in part, on their individual resources and environment, which shape the learning strategies that influence their personal proclivity t...
www.santafe.edu
December 9, 2025 at 9:58 PM
Reposted by Diverse Intelligences Summer Institute #DISI
New episode!! 🎙️🎉

A chat w/ @pbrakes.bsky.social about animal cultures and animal conservation.

Culture was once thought to be uniquely human. No longer. We now know culture is found throughout the natural world. How does this complicate conservation?

Listen: disi.org/the-value-of...
December 8, 2025 at 7:03 PM
Reposted by Diverse Intelligences Summer Institute #DISI
🚨Job Alert plz RT!

Johns Hopkins Psych & Brain Sciences is looking for a new colleague using behavioral or computational approaches to study cognition!

We are excited about many areas of (esp higher) cognition in human adults, children, or nonhuman animals

Open-rank

apply.interfolio.com/178146
December 2, 2025 at 2:54 AM
Reposted by Diverse Intelligences Summer Institute #DISI
Apparent case of learned tool use by wolves.

https://youtu.be/SiuQF68tdWI?si=k7DWNrI0y5jASt-o

#EvoBio #HPBio
Cameras capture BC sea wolf raiding crab traps in first possible ‘tool use’
YouTube video by Global News
youtu.be
November 25, 2025 at 6:05 PM
Reposted by Diverse Intelligences Summer Institute #DISI
🎥 Watch the Lakatos Award Lecture 2025 by Mazviita Chirimuuta on "Apocalyptic Technology: #AI and the Limits of #Science"

Mazviita Chirimuuta received the award for her book “The Brain Abstracted: Simplification in the History and Philosophy of Neuroscience”

www.youtube.com/watch?v=_KkX...
Mazviita Chirimuuta (University of Edinburgh): Apocalyptic Technology: AI and the Limits of Science
YouTube video by LSE Philosophy
www.youtube.com
December 2, 2025 at 12:08 PM
Reposted by Diverse Intelligences Summer Institute #DISI
The sound of your uncle's laugh; an ice cream cone you had ten years ago. Why do we hold on to memories like these? Are they more than mere mental clutter?

Just one of the topics discussed in our latest episode, w/ @aliboyle.bsky.social & @jomahr.bsky.social!

Listen: disi.org/what-is-memo...
December 1, 2025 at 6:03 PM
Reposted by Diverse Intelligences Summer Institute #DISI
New episode!! 🎉🎙️

A conversation with @aliboyle.bsky.social & @jomahr.bsky.social about the functions of memory.

We may not immediately think of memory as an evolutionary puzzle. But in certain respects—and from certain angles—it is quite puzzling indeed.

Listen: disi.org/what-is-memo...
November 24, 2025 at 6:26 PM
Reposted by Diverse Intelligences Summer Institute #DISI
I’m recruiting PhD students at NYU (start Sept 2026).
Focus: cultural evolution, innovation & cooperation, AI & society, progress studies & development.

Deadline to apply is Dec 1- very soon.

I’ll share more about the move & new work soon.

Please share with students & retweet!
November 19, 2025 at 7:07 PM