CSCSC25 Conference Highlights

Key themes and insights from three days of dialogue at the intersection of complexity science and contemplative studies

<aside> 🎤

Keynote Themes

Martin Nowak: Mathematics, Evolution, and Divine Thought

Professor Nowak presented a scientific worldview integrating three fundamental origins: the universe, life, and language. Key insights:

• Mathematics as eternal guide: Mathematics exists as an immaterial, atemporal framework that guides the material world—suggesting reality beyond pure materialism
• Cooperation as evolutionary force: Beyond mutation and selection, cooperation emerges as a third fundamental principle creating biological complexity and preparing the way for altruism and love
• Evolution and consciousness: Over 3.5 billion years, evolution has produced beings capable of awareness, pursuing truth, and experiencing love
• The soul beyond evolution: While bodies evolve, consciousness and free will point to an immaterial dimension not reducible to evolutionary processes

Discussion themes: The role of time in observer-dependent cosmos, whether free will can be expressed mathematically, and how mathematical laws reflect eternal truths.

Michael Levin: Continuum of Mind and Biological Intelligence

Dr. Levin presented groundbreaking research on the scaling of cognition across biological systems:

• Intelligence as spectrum: Mind, intelligence, and consciousness exist on a continuum rather than in discrete categories
• Cellular cognition: Individual cells exhibit complex behaviors, learning capabilities, and goal-directed problem-solving
• Bioelectrical morphology: Cells can be guided to form radically different structures through bioelectrical pattern manipulation
• Platonic space hypothesis: Novel biological behaviors (like Xenobots) suggest organisms access a structured "latent space" of mathematical patterns—not through evolutionary selection but through deeper organizing principles
• Memory and transformation: Identity is fundamentally dynamic; we continuously reinvent ourselves through memory reconstruction

Philosophical implications: Challenged boundaries between living/non-living, individual/collective, and raised questions about consciousness distribution in nature.

Gary Lupyan: Language, Cognition, and AI

Professor Lupyan explored how language fundamentally shapes thought and its implications for AI:

• Language augments cognition: Language doesn't merely communicate—it transforms how we categorize, perceive, and process information internally
• Compression and abstraction: Language provides uniquely powerful ways to compress and abstract information across domains
• AI and language models: Recent LLMs suggest language may be uniquely suited for training general intelligence due to its ability to express relationships and patterns across multiple domains
• Contextual understanding: Models can infer meaning from relationships and context rather than explicit training—mirroring human pragmatic inference
• Categorical perception: Language affects not just how we think but literally what we perceive at the sensory level

Discussion themes: Non-human communication, unique properties of human language, and implications for artificial general intelligence.

</aside>

<aside> 🔬

Research Presentations

Adam Goldstein: Organic Alignment in AI Collectives

Introduced mathematical frameworks for measuring emergence and collective benefit in AI systems:

• Quantifying causal emergence using Markov chains and coarse-graining
• Metrics for measuring whether AI collectives benefit their constituent parts
• "Care attractors": Self-sustaining patterns of care within collectives
• Roadmap for different levels of alignment (physical to cultural)

Adam Safron: Rhythmic Entrainment and Consciousness

Explored how shared rhythms alter consciousness and enable human connection:

• Rhythmic activities lead to both "unselfing" (letting go of suffering self) and "co-selfing" (bonding through shared rhythms)
• Implications for understanding collective consciousness and synchronization

Matthieu Barbier: Downward Explanation in Science

Emphasized importance of functional roles and context over purely compositional explanations:

• Top-down causation complements bottom-up mechanisms
• Context and function matter as much as constituent parts

David Theurel: Classical Physics and First-Person Experience

Presented "bit from it" approach where measurements and observations derive from physical interactions:

• Used classical physics to study limitations of what can be observed
• Bridged physics and phenomenology through measurement theory
• Showed how observer-dependence emerges even in classical systems </aside>

<aside> 🧘

Contemplative Practices Integration

Throughout the conference, contemplative practices were woven into the scientific dialogue:

• Daily opening meditations: Led by various participants, drawing from Christian, Buddhist, and other traditions
• Embodied complexity meditation (Neil Theise): Explored body's interconnectedness from cellular to quantum levels, experiencing the "boundless body"
• Calm abiding and insight practice (Fred): Buddhist techniques to explore the nature of mind and ground awareness
• Goethean phenomenology: Applying qualitative observation to scientific inquiry
• Polarity practice (Ryan): Using Goethe and Coleridge's approach to hold tensions productively

Key insight: Contemplative practice doesn't frame the world in terms of problems to solve, but rather invites direct experience and integration—complementing problem-oriented scientific approaches.

</aside>

<aside> 💬

Breakout Discussions: Key Themes

Science and Contemplation Integration Challenges

• Modern framing problem: Current academic structures create artificial barriers between complexity studies and contemplative practices
• Generational shift: Younger scientists increasingly open to integrative approaches, particularly influenced by psychedelic research and consciousness studies
• Bridging communities: Need for concrete ways to connect complexity science and contemplative research networks

The Problem vs. Contemplative Approach

Key tension emerged between:

• Problem-oriented intelligence: Western/scientific focus on obstacles, optimization, problem-solving
• Contemplative intelligence: Non-problem framing, direct experience, integration of polarities

Rather than resolving this tension, the community recognized it as a generative polarity to maintain.

Scientific Creativity and Intuition

Discussions explored:

• Role of intuition in scientific discovery
• How contemplative practices might enhance scientific creativity
• The nature of insight and its relationship to formal reasoning
• Systems thinking applied to personal contemplative practice

Wisdom vs. Knowledge

Wisdom framework emerged:

• Wisdom is not fixed content but capacity—to perceive clearly, respond appropriately, hold complexity
• Meta-cognitive skill: Knowing what kind of knowledge is relevant in what context
• Requires integration of first-person (introspection), second-person (dialogue), and third-person (objective) perspectives
• Emerges through practice over time, not just conceptual learning

Language and Conceptual Schemes

• How language shapes what we can think and perceive
• Need for shared vocabulary between complexity science and contemplative traditions </aside>

<aside> 🤝

</aside>

<aside> 🌱

</aside>

Conference recordings available on CSCSC YouTube Channel