Alison Gopnik, The Evolution of Human Intelligences | Natural Philosophy Forum Lecture 2025

The Johns Hopkins Natural Philosophy Forum sponsors an annual Distinguished Lecture, to be given by a scientist or philosopher working on illuminating the fundamental structure of reality. The 2024-25 lecture was given on May 29, 2025, by Alison Gopnik of the University of California, Berkeley, on "The Evolution of Human Intelligences: Exploit, Explore, Empower."

This year's lecture was part of the inaugural Natural Philosophy Symposium (https://www.naturalphilosophyhopkins..... Videos of other lectures are available on this channel.

Abstract:
A common model of AI suggests that there is a single measure of intelligence, often called AGI, and that AI systems are agents who can possess more or less of this intelligence. Cognitive science, in contrast, suggests that there are multiple forms of intelligence and that these intelligences trade-off against each other and have a distinctive developmental profile and evolutionary history. Exploitation, the pursuit of goals, resources and utilities, is characteristic of adult cognition. I argue however, that two very different kinds of cognition characterize childhood and elderhood. Childhood is characterized by exploration. In particular, children seek out information about the world. However, forgoing reward for exploration requires support and nurturance from others - it requires care and teaching. Care and teaching are particularly characteristic of elders and the intelligence of care has a distinctive structure - it involves empowering others - giving them the resources they need to be effective The combination of these different kinds of intelligence across the course of a life explains human success, and this has important implications for AI.

http://naturalphilosophyhopkins.org/
http://alisongopnik.com/
‪@hopkinsnaturalphilosophyforum‬

#science #philosophy #naturalphilosophy #johnshopkins #AI #psychology #intelligence