Francis Heylighen is a professor at the Free University of Brussels (Vrije Universiteit Brussel), where he functions as the research director of the Center "Leo Apostel", and the associated research group "Evolution, Complexity and Cognition." His interdisciplinary research explores how complex systems emerge, self-organize and evolve, with particular emphasis on collective intelligence, distributed cognition, cybernetics, and the emergence of a “global brain” connecting people and technology.

How do living systems develop goals and values—and what does that tell us about artificial intelligence? David Sloan Wilson and Francis Heylighen discuss the evolutionary origins of agency, purpose and values, and why today’s AI systems differ fundamentally from living organisms. Their conversation expands from individual organisms to collective intelligence and the noosphere, exploring how humans and increasingly intelligent technologies might become parts of a more highly organized global system—and why Heylighen sees reasons for optimism about where that transition could lead.

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This episode is from the podcast, Evolving Alignment.

Evolving Alignment explores one of the central questions of our time: How can humanity and artificial intelligence coevolve in ways that enhance cooperation, creativity, and human flourishing?

Hosted by evolutionary scientist David Sloan Wilson, each episode features leading thinkers from fields including evolutionary biology, cultural evolution, artificial intelligence, economics, psychology, philosophy, complexity science, and the social sciences. Rather than focusing on the narrow technical challenge of aligning AI systems with human interests, these conversations examine the broader evolutionary processes that have enabled living systems to solve problems of cooperation at ever higher levels of complexity, producing increasingly sophisticated forms of biological and cultural organization.

Can we learn from the deep history of evolution to shape a future in which humans and AI cooperate rather than compete, and develop new forms of collective intelligence we can only begin to imagine today? Evolving Alignment brings together many of the world’s leading researchers to explore these questions—and to consider how the choices we make today may influence the future evolution of intelligence itself.

Evolving Alignment is presented by Human Energy, a catalytic hub for evolving collective consciousness. ‍Learn more about Human Energy here, https://www.humanenergy.io/about