The Artificiality Institute is at the frontier of thinking about cognitive symbiosis with machines. Join us at this year's Summit to imagine something better—for all of us.
We are not just spectators of the world. We are participants in its unfolding. Consciousness matters because it changes how possibility becomes reality, even if we don’t fully understand how.
Today’s digital consent patterns might make sense if data could be used as a currency, benefiting the owner and creator. But that isn't how the internet actually operates. Perhaps a new, alternative metaphor might make more sense: data as an "impression”.
The Artificiality Institute is at the frontier of thinking about cognitive symbiosis with machines. Join us at this year's Summit to imagine something better—for all of us.
The original intent for artificial intelligence was about meeting and beating human intelligence. The Turing Test. Eliza. Machine versus human. Who can fool whom. That competitive frame brought us to this moment, but now we can see it's locked us into serious downsides as we approach human-level performance in AI. It's reductive, unimaginative, and fundamentally competitive.
We have to change this.
Biology offers a richer framework. Symbiosis and co-evolution. Distributed cognition and agency everywhere. Creativity as the "adjacent possible." Consciousness as "felt uncertainty." Life's most dramatic leaps came from collaboration at the cellular level, creating entirely new forms of cognition, agency, and meaning.
Join us for the Artificiality Summit: October 23-25 in Bend, Oregon
Early Bird Special: Save $500. Register by June 30th!
What if that's what's happening now? What if we're not in competition with artificial intelligence but in the early stages of symbiogenesis with it? We're exploring how intelligence emerges when biological and synthetic systems collaborate, staying grounded in what makes us human rather than seeking to transcend it.
We have to think differently about identity, about collective intelligence, about what it means to be human when intelligence is no longer exclusively ours. How do we move from "me" to "we" to "us"—from individual cognition to collaborative sense-making to something entirely new?
Our institutions, emerging policies, the breathless headlines keep defaulting to the competition frame. We optimize for efficiency and productivity rather than discovery and human ingenuity. Big consulting is talking about 40% labor cost reductions. VCs base investment plans on replacing people with AI. Tech leaders say the only human roles left will be "kindness" and "empathy." What's incredible is that all this talk comes without having any vision for what this means economically, other than a distributive tax regime that defies the logics of our political environment.
We're genuinely worried. If the tech industry invents abundant intelligence, economics tells us it may collapse the economic value to each other. The internet fills with AI slop. This is madness.
That's why we think this year's Summit really matters. We have to imagine something different and better.
The Artificiality Institute is at the frontier of thinking about cognitive symbiosis with machines. This is one of the few gatherings exploring what intelligence becomes when it's no longer exclusively biological. How do we design for distributed cognition? What does agency and decision making look like when it emerges across multiple substrates? These questions don't have frameworks yet and we need all our minds on inventing them.
The Artificiality Institute may be small but we're ahead. While the world debates replacement, optimization, and productivity we're exploring what's beyond—how we might think with AI.
At this year's Summit, you can expect immersive, participatory learning. We've crafted experiences that engage your body, emotion, intellect, and reflection through movement sessions, shared meals, musical reflections, firesides, debates, and provocation talks. You'll meet everyone—speakers, participants, us, our amazing volunteers.
Forget those other AI events where you just observe and listen. This is community as Bend does it—inquiry through connection. Fun, actually.
This year's lineup is incredible, tbh. We have a new venue with space for side conversations and more time for talking. Our speakers this year are:
The Summit runs October 23-25, 2025 in Bend, Oregon. Full agenda is here.
Early bird pricing ends June 30th—save $500.
Please reach out if you've any questions—we love to talk about the Summit!
Join us for the Artificiality Summit: October 23-25 in Bend, Oregon
Early Bird Special: Save $500. Register by June 30th!
Writing and Conversations About AI (Not Written by AI)
