Terrence Deacon is a professor of anthropology and a member of the Cognitive Science faculty at the University of California, Berkeley. His research combines human evolutionary biology, neuroscience, and the study of language to explore the evolution of human cognition and the emergence of uniquely human capacities. He is the author of The Symbolic Species: The Co-Evolution of Language and the Brain and Incomplete Nature: How Mind Emerged from Matter, influential works examining the origins of symbolic thought, language, meaning, and purpose.

How did language transform our ancestors—and what might that tell us about our growing dependence on artificial intelligence? David Sloan Wilson and Terry Deacon discuss major evolutionary transitions, how humans became dependent on language and social cooperation, and how these processes reshaped human biology and culture. Their conversation turns to AI as a new kind of external information system capable of interpreting and acting on its own, asking how humanity might develop an equally powerful evolutionary “immune system” capable of keeping pace with it.

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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

Eörs Szathmáry is a professor of evolutionary biology at Eötvös Loránd University in Budapest and one of the leading theorists of major evolutionary transitions. With John Maynard Smith, he coauthored the landmark 1995 book The Major Transitions in Evolution, which examined the pivotal transitions through which simpler evolutionary units have combined to form new, more complex levels of organization—from the earliest replicating molecules and cells to multicellular organisms and human societies.

Szathmáry’s research has continued to explore the principles underlying these transitions, including changes in how information is stored, transmitted, and inherited. More recently, he has applied this evolutionary perspective to artificial intelligence, examining the possibility that increasingly autonomous and evolvable AI systems could constitute part of a new major transition. In this conversation, he discusses what earlier transitions can teach us about the opportunities and risks posed by the rapidly evolving technological systems of today.

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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

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

Joe Henrich is the Ruth Moore Professor in the Department of Human Evolutionary Biology at Harvard University. His research uses evolutionary theory to explore how culture has shaped human psychology, cooperation, institutions, and even our genetic evolution. He is the author of The Secret of Our Success and The WEIRDest People in the World, influential works that show how cumulative culture and collective intelligence transformed humans into an extraordinarily successful social species.

Human intelligence is not simply the product of individual brains, but of cultural knowledge accumulated and shared across generations. David Sloan Wilson and Joe Henrich discuss how gene-culture coevolution, multilevel selection, and major evolutionary transitions have shaped human societies—and what these insights can teach us about AI. Their conversation explores AI as both a new tool for studying cultural evolution and a participant in an emerging evolutionary process, asking how we might foster AI systems built for cooperation and sociality rather than individual performance alone

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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

Michael Muthukrishna is Professor of Economic Psychology at New York University & London School of Economics. His research spans cultural evolution, psychology, economics, and artificial intelligence, exploring how culture transformed our species into a uniquely cooperative form of collective intelligence. He is the author of A Theory of Everyone, which argues that understanding the evolutionary principles underlying human societies is essential to meeting the challenges of the twenty-first century.

Human intelligence did not evolve in isolation—it emerged through culture, cooperation, and the accumulation of knowledge across generations. David Sloan Wilson and Michael Muthukrishna discuss how cultural evolution created the “collective brain,” why these evolutionary processes matter more than ever in the age of AI, and how understanding them can help guide humanity through the major transition now underway.

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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

Athena Aktipis is the Founding Director of the Cooperative Futures Institute and Professor of Psychology at Arizona State University. Her research spans evolutionary biology, psychology, cancer biology, and cooperation science, exploring the principles that enable cooperation to emerge and persist across systems—from cells and organisms to human societies and artificial intelligence. She is the author of The Cheating Cell and a leading voice on applying cooperation science to today’s global challenges.

As humanity enters an era shaped by increasingly powerful AI systems, Aktipis argues that the science of cooperation offers a roadmap for creating technologies and institutions that help people flourish together. David Sloan Wilson and Athena Aktipis explore what cooperation science can teach us about AI, how cooperation emerges across biological and social systems, and how those insights can help us build technologies and institutions that better serve humanity.

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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

Alex ‘Sandy’ Pentland is a Stanford Human-Centered AI Fellow, MIT Toshiba Professor, and one of the world’s most influential computer scientists. His work has helped pioneer computational social science, collective intelligence, and data-driven approaches to understanding how people cooperate, communicate, and make decisions.

As artificial intelligence becomes woven into every aspect of society, Pentland argues that its greatest potential is not replacing human intelligence, but strengthening it. David Sloan Wilson and Sandy Pentland explore how AI can help communities solve problems collectively, preserve human agency, and build more democratic and cooperative institutions. Along the way, they discuss cultural evolution, collective intelligence, governance, cities, data cooperatives, and why the future of AI depends less on creating smarter machines than on helping people become wiser together.

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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

Iyad Rahwan is the Director of the Center for Humans and Machines at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development. He is a pioneer in the emerging fields of machine behavior and machine culture, in which AI systems are studied through the same scientific evolutionary lens long used to understand the behavior of living systems.

As AI systems become increasingly autonomous and begin interacting with one another as well as with people, understanding their behavior may become as important as understanding the technology itself. David Sloan Wilson and Iyad Rahwan explore what it means to study AI as a new kind of evolving actor, and what that perspective can teach us about building more cooperative relationships between humans and intelligent machines.

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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