Collective Emergence and Intentionality Workshop Programme

Edzell, Scotland, 17-20 July 2026

Chaired by Gabriel Ramos-Fernández, Zara Anwarzai, Cody Moser and Amanda Seed
Organised by the Global Research Centre for Diverse Intelligences, University of St Andrews

Day 1 – What structures complex group-level phenomena?

9:00	Welcome. Framing the workshop, introductions, programme.
9:20	Panel 1 On complex collective behaviour: What makes a collective behaviour complex and intelligent? Explanations from intentionality, emergence, and self-organisation. Kirk Ludwig Ludwig (2015). Is Distributed Cognition Group-Level Cognition? Ludwig (2017). Do Corporations Have Minds of Their Own? Seth Bullock Bullock, S (2024). Alife for AI for Collective Intelligence. Bullock, S (2018). Artificial Life Together. Augie Faller McLaughlin (1997). Emergence and Supervenience.
10:05	Q&A following the panel.
10:40	Break
11:15	Conversations around themes of panel and Q&A.
12:30	Lunch
14:00	Panel 2 On agency, intention, emergence, or other binding features of collectives: What grounds a collective? Kathryn Nave Altschuler & Wu (2010). Cellular Heterogeneity: Do Differences Make a Difference? Edelman (2001). Degeneracy and Complexity in Biological Systems. Tomas Veloz Veloz (2021). Goals as Emergent Autopoietic Processes. Veloz (2025). Toward Aitiopoietic Cognition: Bridging the Evolutionary Divide Between Biological and Machine-Learned Causal Systems. Linnea Gyllinberg Gyllingberg et al. (2026). Self-Organizing Physical and Biochemical Interactions Explain Diverse Behaviours in Physarum polycephalum.
14:45	Q&A following the panel.
15:05	Split into three subgroups to discuss themes of the panel and Q&A.
16:30	Break
17:00	Working hypotheses and questions to carry into Day 2.
18:00	Dinner

Day 2 – Testing positions and building toward collaborative research

9:00	Framing the goals of the day.
9:20	Panel 1 On tracking information sharing and representations across groups: How can we empirically study collective behaviours and how groups solve problems? Gabriel Ramos-Fernandez Ramos-Fernandez et al. Collective Representations: An Interdisciplinary Perspective. Derek Ball List & Pettit (2011). The Aggregation of Intentional Attitudes. Kasim Terzic
10:05	Q&A following the panel.
10:40	Break
11:15	Conversations around topics from the panel and Q&A.
12:30	Lunch
14:00	Panel 2 On collective behaviour across the disciplines: What, if anything, binds the collective phenomena we are studying? Ben Falandays Falandays & Smaldino (2026). The Emergence of Cultural Attractors: How Dynamic Populations of Learners Achieve. Takao Sasaki Sasaki & Biro (2017). Cumulative Culture Can Emerge from Collective Intelligence in Animal Groups. Egan et al. (2026). Multimodal Mechanisms of Self-Assembly in Ant Pontoon Bridging. Cody Moser Falandays et al. (2026). Dissolving the Individual/Collective Divide. Zara Anwarzai Anwarzai, Moser et al. (2026). Collective Intelligence as Collective Information Processing.
14:45	Q&A following the panel.
15:25	Split into three subgroups to discuss topics from the panel and Q&A.
16:30	Break
17:00	Research project pitches and main arguments for a perspective paper or book.
18:00	Dinner

Participant list (in alphabetical order; early career researchers in bold):

1. Zara Anwarzai, Simon Fraser University
2. Derek Ball, University of St Andrews
3. Seth Bullock, University of Bristol
4. Ben Falandays, Arizona State University
5. August Faller, University of the Fraser Valley
6. Linnéa Gyllingberg, University of California
7. Kirk Ludwig, Indiana University
8. John Madock, University of Florida
9. Keneth Mavor, University of St Andrews
10. Cody Moser, Mohammed VI Polytechnic University
11. Kathryn Nave, University of Edinburgh
12. Andre Nikowitz, University of St Andrews
13. Gabriel Ramos-Fernandez, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México
14. Gideon Salter, Liverpool Hope University
15. Takao Sasaki, University of Rochester
16. Amanda Seed, University of St Andrews
17. Kasim Terzic, University of St Andrews
18. Tomas Veloz, Vrije Universiteit Brussel