Join Evelina Fedorenko, an MIT Associate Professor exploring the brain's language functions, along with Steve Piantadosi, a UC Berkeley expert on child language acquisition, and Gary Lupyan, who investigates language evolution at UW-Madison. They delve into the dynamic interplay between language and thought, discussing whether intelligence emerges from language or the other way around. The conversation touches on the challenges posed by large language models to traditional linguistics, individual cognitive processes, and the fascinating disconnect between language abilities and reasoning skills.

In this engaging discussion, Alison Gopnik, a renowned psychologist from UC Berkeley, and John Krakauer, a distinguished professor of neuroscience at Johns Hopkins, dive into the essence of intelligence. They unravel how infants learn through causal exploration and share insights on the distinctions between human and machine intelligence. The conversation also tackles the philosophical implications of AI's advancement and examines the interplay between emotional and physical pain, revealing the deep connections within our cognitive experiences.

Dive into the fascinating world of intelligence as experts dissect what it truly means for machines to be 'smart.' Explore the differences between human cognition and AI capabilities, revealing the limits of current technology. Delve into the relationship between language and thought, questioning whether machines can ever replicate human intelligence. With insights from cognitive scientists and AI researchers, the conversation promises to challenge your understanding of intelligence across species.

NASA's Heather Graham discusses astrobiology, biosignatures, and designing instrumentation for spaceflight. The podcast explores Katherine Johnson's story through a rock opera, origins of life in Earth's depths, evolution, regulation in organisms and organizations, comparison of company evolution to cellular systems, and the significance of asteroid sample returns for studying Earth's history.

David Krakauer and Sean Carroll discuss human history's impact on scientific inquiry, from genetic causality debates to the quest for emergent laws in complex systems. They explore the balance between simplicity and complexity in physics, interdisciplinary challenges in research, and the entropic nature of life and the universe. The podcast highlights the Santa Fe Institute's role in promoting adaptive scientific inquiry.

Exploring the intelligent behavior of ants and its relevance to human societies. Discussing the role of city size in innovation and communication technologies. Highlighting the power of collectives in driving breakthrough inventions. Analyzing the necessity of rules for coherent functioning in complex systems.

Delving into the enigma of life diversity, the podcast explores scaling laws in organisms and the ecological network of metastatic cancer. It discusses biodiversity in the face of climate change and the importance of scientific trans-culturalism. Exploring how organisms adapt to diverse environments through scaling laws offers prospects for future challenges.

Two scientists discuss the principles of organization behind complexity, exploring the origins and evolution of life, the importance of memory and information, the physics of life, the role of linear polymers, parasites in life and their potential presence in the universe, and the implications of assembly theory on understanding complexity.

Physics of Life podcast explores the interdisciplinary nature of physics and life. Guests delve into topics like the limits of the brain, compression in complexity science, energy budgets in the brain, dynamics of living systems, scaling laws in organisms, and the hidden order in nature.

Trailer for Complexity: Physics of Life, from the Santa Fe Institute