Diverse Intelligences Summer Institute #DISI

"Evolution Evolving is a landmark book written by stellar scientists who have brought together numerous interesting and relevant examples that show why development matters for evolution."

Thankyou @kampourakisk.bsky.social for your wonderful review in American Biology Teacher. See shorturl.at/2Gso8

If you're a Many Minds listener—even just an occasional one—we would love to hear from you!

Many Minds podcast – Listener survey A brief survey for listeners of the Many Minds podcast.

Happy 6th anniversary to us!! 🎉🎉

Thanks for spending time with us, old friends and new! As we celebrate this milestone, we've launched a short audience survey to get your thoughts on the show (and its future).

We would be most grateful for your participation!

Link: forms.gle/AnJSopuX8Cho...

New episode!! 🎉🎙️

A conversation w/ @melaniemitchell.bsky.social about metaphors and AI.

Are current AI systems like human minds? Or more like alien intelligences, role players, mirrors, libraries, or stochastic parrots? And does our choice of metaphor matter?

Listen: disi.org/manyminds/

This would be a cool opportunity for #swarmintelligence or #basalcognition folks to attend!

APPLY TO THIS!!! It's such a fun experience!!

📣📣📣

Applications for the 2026 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

DISI is an outstanding experience! Apply to keep shaping what makes this community so special!!

This is THE Summer school you want to do: expand your knowledge and your view on intelligence whilst getting to network across disciplines and inspiring people ⭐️🤟🏼👇🏼

Same amazing community, new location this year!!

Feel free to reach out with questions. And please share widely!

📣📣📣

Applications for the 2026 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

Ida Momennejad, The Ontological Reversal of Computation and the Brain - PhilArchive The Brain Abstracted (2025) critiques treating abstractions in neuroscience as complete explanations of the brain, for their oversimplification and control-orientation. Chirimuuta argues that neurosci...

On the invitation for a commentary on Mazviita Chirimuuta's The Brain Abstracted, I had the pleasure of writing on equating the brain with computation.

The Ontological Reversal of Computation and the Brain

in Philosophy & the Mind Sciences.
Below see what I agree & disagree with in the book.
🧵 1/n

Many Minds: Seven metaphors for AI If you wanted a petri dish for understanding metaphors—how they emerge and evolve and jostle with each other—it would be hard to do better than the world of AI. We talk about AI systems variously as c...

I enjoyed talking with @kensycoop.bsky.social on the Many Minds podcast about the metaphors we use to conceptualize AI.

manyminds.libsyn.com/seven-metaph...

Screening, sorting, and the feedback cycles that imperil peer review The process of peer review is vital to contemporary science, but is also under enormous strain. This study uses mathematical models to dissect the threats to the long-term viability of peer review, su...

1. Kevin Gross and I have a new paper out today PLOS Biology.

We used economic models based around screening games and the market for unpaid labor to highlight a meltdown cycle threatening peer review.

A new preprint, co-authored with @johnwkrakauer.bsky.social:

The Deliberation Taboo

Cognitive science is, nominally, the science of thinking. We argue that the field has no theory of what thinking is and, even worse, that the topic has largely dropped out of focus. 1/

osf.io/preprints/ps...

first empirical paper from the Aulet lab! What does learning to count do to a brain? We trained neural networks on different tasks and only counting (i.e., predicting the number of dots in a dot array) reorganized representations around number. New preprint:

Pace of ecology drives the tempo of visual perception across the animal kingdom Nature Ecology & Evolution - Using phylogenetic comparative methods across 237 species from disparate phyla, the authors show that species with fast-paced ecologies have higher temporal...

Our new paper is now out showing how time perception in animals is linked to their ecology. Using data from 237 species we show temporal perception is faster in species that fly and pursuit predators www.nature.com/articles/s41... 🌐

Dogs often howl along to music. But can they flexibly adjust the pitch of their voice to match the music? Our newly published paper shows that Samoyeds have this ability! authors.elsevier.com/c/1mfk53QW8S...

Last November, I took part in a workshop on Minimal Cognition at the University of Valencia. Now, there is a Special Issue in Biology & Philosophy on Minimal Cognition. Check out the call:

The "premastication" of food for babies—also called "kiss feeding"—is widespread in apes and humans. Could it have been an evolutionary stepping stone to the romantic kiss?

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

Listen: disi.org/origins-of-t...

Animal cultures matter for conservation, but also to animals - Learning & Behavior A growing acceptance that many nonhuman animal communities have distinct cultures – group-variable patterns of behavior and information sustained over time by social learning – is beginning to reshape...

"Animal cultures matter first and foremost because they matter to the animals themselves."

If you enjoyed our recent episode on the value of animal cultures, you may be interested in this new paper by @simonfitzpatrick.bsky.social & @kristinandrews.bsky.social!
link.springer.com/article/10.3...

Origins of the kiss - DISI Exploring our world's diverse forms of mind—human, animal, machine—from diverse perspectives.

My interview with @manymindspod.bsky.social! Come for a deep dive into the evolution of kissing 💋, stay for the earth-shattering insights 🤯

"fish don't run" 🐠🏃

"monkeys tend to loll around quite a lot" 🙈

"chimps have moved on to grass-in-bumhole behaviour" 🍑🌱

disi.org/origins-of-t...

Bots have made their way to Prolific experiments. Our lab has stopped online testing of adults entirely now for this reason - we want to know if what we study is real. Probably data collected 2-3 years ago are ok, but moving forward we just can't know. www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

PhD student grant (3 years) on the evolution of written communication My team recruits a PhD student to work under the supervision of Olivier Morin on the evolution of written communication, within a project jointly led by Olivier Morin, Hugo Mercier, and Marc Allassonn...

CALL: a PhD grant (3 years) to do a PhD with me at @cognitionens.bsky.social on the evolution of graphic codes. euraxess.ec.europa.eu/jobs/410213

New episode!! 🎉🎙️

A conversation w/ @matildabrindle.bsky.social about the evolution of kissing.

Kissing is not just a quirk of human behavior. It's found across the animal kingdom and in most of our closest primate relatives. What functions could it be serving?

Listen: disi.org/origins-of-t...

🚨New Paper on Bonobo and Chimpanzee tool flexibility. As so often performance is leveraged by the captivity effect yet the two species differ in explorative behavior and how readily they switch between tool types. For more 👇🏼 royalsocietypublishing.org/rsos/article... @rachelaharrison.bsky.social

On Brian Cantwell Smith and the Promise of AI Today I had the bittersweet pleasure of participating in a symposium honoring the late philosopher Brian Cantwell Smith, a good friend whom I’d known for over 30 years.

I wrote about the late philosopher Brian Cantwell Smith, and his profound thinking about AI and the nature of intelligence.

aiguide.substack.com/p/on-brian-c...

This is an open call for pitches for an original short documentary series on conservation science.

Calling science and wildlife short documentary filmmakers!

Scientific American is searching for powerful, character-driven stories about the science behind conservation research.

💰 Grant amount: Up to $80,000 production funding
🗓️ Apply by 8 March 2026

Apply here: sciam.com/protectors-o...

The late philosopher Daniel Dennett had a notable penchant for metaphor—but he rarely used just one. Instead, he often engaged in what @sflusberg.bsky.social calls "metaphorical triangulation."

Just one of the topics discussed in our latest episode!

Listen: disi.org/the-aura-of-...

Does playful teasing help great apes learn about social relationships? Abstract. Understanding social relationships is critical to succeeding in primate societies. In species with complex social networks (including humans), co

Great apes may use playful teasing to learn about their social relationships. In a new paper, Erica Cartmill & I propose a bond-testing hypothesis for ape teasing. Out today in Phil Trans Biology: royalsocietypublishing.org/rstb/article...