We value our choices, but making them can be overwhelming. Whether it's choosing where to eat or how to vote, decision-making can become particularly challenging when we like all our options—or none of them. By understanding how the brain makes decisions, we can alter our approach to decision-making and make choosing less stressful.

Decision Making

When you're awake, all your brain’s functions gradually deteriorate. Sleep somehow restores them and may hold the key to understanding how brains operate—by tuning them to the edge of chaos. Understanding this tipping point helps explain the incredible power of the brain, offering insights that connect evolution, development, and neurological disease.

Brain Criticality

How we perceive reality is shaped by the interactions between our memories, present sensations, and future expectations. How do our brains distinguish between reality and what we perceive as reality? Once we recognize how much control our brains exert over our beliefs about reality, we can empower ourselves and others to create the best version of it.

Neurobiology of Perception

Will AI systems ever become sentient? How should we treat them if we feel uncertain? The prospect of AI systems possessing their own thoughts, feelings, and emotions is no longer an issue confined to science fiction or the distant future. There is a realistic possibility that some AI systems will soon have these capacities, and we should start developing an ethical framework to address this issue now, so that we can be prepared if and when the time comes.

Ethics of AI sentience

What if consciousness isn’t a mysterious aspect of the universe—but its very foundation? In this thought-provoking talk, a philosopher challenges conventional science and revives a bold, forgotten theory: that consciousness pervades all matter. From quarks to brains, could experience be woven into the fabric of reality itself? Prepare to question everything you thought you knew about the mind—and your place in the cosmos.

Purpose of the Universe

Our universe is filled with complexity—galaxies, gemstones, sharks, supernovae, teapots, and telephones. By identifying commonalities among evolving systems, both living and nonliving, we can develop an expanded law of evolution that describes the emergence of complex phenomena and reflects the creativity of the cosmos.

Nature’s Missing Law

Our planet's natural phenomena encompass numerous cycles in space and time. These events range from micrometers to thousands of miles, and from milliseconds to millions of years. Throughout Earth's multi-billion-year history, these rhythms collide, interact, and unfold, influencing humanity and shaping our experience of time.

Geodynamic Timescales

Life thrives far from equilibrium, driven by dynamic energy flows that build complexity and break symmetry. These flows create patterns, from the mesmerizing murmur of starlings to the rippling protein waves in cells, revealing a self-organizing dance in the physics of living systems. By understanding these patterns, we can understand the arrow of time, energy, and the processes that sustain life, challenging us to perceive existence as a vibrant, evolving ballet.

Physics of Life

Social interactions are essential for the survival and success of many animals, including humans. But how does the brain adapt to support these interactions? By comparing solitary wild bees and those in complex societies, scientists are uncovering fundamental biological patterns that illuminate how the 'social brain' develops and evolves to create the diversity of social life on our planet.

Evolution of Social Behavior

Viruses rely on social interactions for their most fundamental biological processes: reproduction and survival. This dependence means that viruses, just like other life forms, experience the evolutionary forces of cooperation and conflict. However, for viruses, these forces manifest at the molecular level. By exploring the social lives of viruses, we uncover a hidden world of viral diversity and unlock new tools to combat future pandemics.

The Social Lives of Viruses

Contrary to conventional wisdom, life does not simply reside on our planet. Life is a physical extension of Earth that has profoundly influenced the planet over billions of years. Together, life and the broader planetary environment create a single, highly interconnected, and self-regulating system that is itself alive.

2025 Speakers