Complexity Explorer Santa Fe Institute

INTELLIGENT SYSTEMS

Interpreting the World

Intelligence depends fundamentally on how information, concepts, and the world itself are represented. Across fields, researchers have developed increasingly powerful empirical and mathematical theories for understanding how representations are formed, structured, transformed, and used. To understand intelligence more deeply, this school places the study of representation at the center of inquiry – bringing together theoretical, mathematical, and empirical approaches while drawing on profound work in the humanities to challenge, inform, and extend our understanding of what representation is and how it shapes intelligent thought.