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Santa Fe Institute presents
The Beautiful Engineering of Us: From Neuros to Collective Minds, June 23, 2026 7:30 PM
Accessibility at the Lensic
- The mezzanine and balcony do not have elevator access.
- Removable seats for wheelchair access or bariatric seating are available in rows BB, A, B, and S in our Orchestra level.
- If you need seats removed for this access, please include that information in your order notes and call the box office at (505) 988-1234.
- Removable seats are marked with a wheelchair on the seat map.
- Seats with adjustable armrests for easier access are available in seats D101, D112, H101, H112, K1, and K2.
- Seats with extended legroom are in row O in the Orchestra and row K in the Balcony.
- The venue is equipped with a Telecoil Hearing Loop; if you have a t-coil enabled hearing device, you can activate it once you arrive. If you do not have a t-coil enabled hearing device, receivers are available for loan. Please ask an usher for assistance.
- Areas with limited telecoil reception will have a warning before purchasing your tickets.
- An accessible restroom is located in the lobby.
- Restrooms are located in the atrium attached to the Lensic; there are no concessions or restrooms located in the mezzanine.
- For more information, visit https://lensic.org/visit/accessibility
Tickets
- Access Digital Tickets by logging into https://wallet.lensic.org
- All sales are final. No refunds or exchanges.
- For information on service fees, visit https://lensic.org/visit/box-office-hours-and-ticket-policies/
Additional Options
Item details
Date
June 23, 2026 7:30 PM
Location
Lensic Performing Arts Center
Name
Santa Fe Institute presents
The Beautiful Engineering of Us: From Neuros to Collective Minds
Description
Tickets on sale: Thursday, May 21, 2026 at 10am.
For more than century, neuroscience has viewed intelligence as a property of individual brains. But brains did not evolve in isolation. Humans are an intensely social species whose minds are continuously shaped by other minds. Increasingly, evidence suggests that our most sophisticated cognitive abilities emerge not from solitary brains, but from networks of interacting people. Human intelligence is fundamentally collective: our brains evolved not simply to think, but to think together.
In this lecture, Thalia Wheatley will explore conversation as a powerful mechanism for coupling minds—aligning attention, beliefs, emotions, and behavior across individuals. Drawing on research from neuroscience, psychology, and network science, she will show how everyday features of human interaction are precision tools that synchronize brains, strengthen social connection, and shape mental health. She will conclude by considering what this means in the age of AI, and how machine intelligence differs from the deeply social intelligence forged over millions of years of evolution.
Wheatley is Professor of Psychological and Brain Sciences and Director of the Center for Social Brain Sciences at Dartmouth. Her research investigates how ideas and emotions are created collectively and how one person can influence another in ways that ripple across the social webs they inhabit.
Accessibility at the Lensic
- The mezzanine and balcony do not have elevator access.
- Removable seats for wheelchair access or bariatric seating are available in rows BB, A, B, and S in our Orchestra level.
- If you need seats removed for this access, please include that information in your order notes and call the box office at (505) 988-1234.
- Removable seats are marked with a wheelchair on the seat map.
- Seats with adjustable armrests for easier access are available in seats D101, D112, H101, H112, K1, and K2.
- Seats with extended legroom are in row O in the Orchestra and row K in the Balcony.
- The venue is equipped with a Telecoil Hearing Loop; if you have a t-coil enabled hearing device, you can activate it once you arrive. If you do not have a t-coil enabled hearing device, receivers are available for loan. Please ask an usher for assistance.
- Areas with limited telecoil reception will have a warning before purchasing your tickets.
- An accessible restroom is located in the lobby.
- Restrooms are located in the atrium attached to the Lensic; there are no concessions or restrooms located in the mezzanine.
- For more information, visit https://lensic.org/visit/accessibility
Tickets
- Access Digital Tickets by logging into https://wallet.lensic.org
- All sales are final. No refunds or exchanges.
- For information on service fees, visit https://lensic.org/visit/box-office-hours-and-ticket-policies/