Website Search

 

Streaming Video

Video Playlists

Includes Feature Films, Kistler Prize Acceptance Speeches, Interviews, Lectures, and Scholar Visions of the Long-term Future

 

Recent Publications

“Global Transitions and Asia 2060” Executive Summary

“Water – The Crisis Ahead” Executive Summary

Winter 2010 Newsletter

All Foundation publications are available for download from our Publications page.

 

RECENT Events

“Global Population and the Planetary Future – 2011”

• Humanity 3000 Workshop
• October 2011

Walter P. Kistler Book Award

• Dr. Laurence C. Smith
• October 2011

12th Annual Kistler Prize

• Dr. Charles A. Murray
• September 2011

Norman Myers Lecture

• Walter P. Kistler Lecture Series
• May 2011

“Global Transitions and Asia 2060” Workshop

• Taipei, Taiwan
• November 2010

Peter Ward Lecture

• Walter P. Kistler Lecture Series
• October 2010

“Managing the Future”

• Talk by Sesh Velamoor
• July 2010

 

 

 

 

Programs

Center for Human Evolution

 

HOME | WORKSHOPS 1 2 3 4 5

 

Workshop 2

“The Evolution of Human Intelligence”

Convened February 11–12, 1999 | Foundation For the Future Building, Bellevue, Washington

Summary

The Foundation For the Future determined that a second Center for Human Evolution workshop on “The Evolution of Human Intelligence” was needed in order to more fully explicate the topic. Three months after Workshop 1, Workshop 2 brought together a fresh roster of six scholars to present papers and address the same series of questions. Again, the first set of questions asked: How will human intelligence evolve into the future? Will the “bell curve” for humanity change, and, if it does, in what direction? How will technology augment human intelligence?

The second set of questions addressed the long-term future: How will humanity’s long-term future unfold? Will it evolve or will it be consciously determined? What in the human makeup will be the key drivers of this future: intelligence, culture, other factors?

In the third set of questions, participants reflected on collective intelligence: Is there such a thing? How does it relate to individual intelligence? Is collective intelligence an optimization or a compromise? Will collective intelligence/individual intelligence remain compartmentalized in terms of race/nation/culture or will it emerge in a global context?

Proceedings (7.7 MB PDF) of this workshop, including transcripts of presentations and all dialogic sessions, available for download.

Papers presented

“Evolving Higher Intellectual Functions,” Dr. William Calvin
“The Role of Genetics in Psychiatric and Behavioral Disorders,” David E. Comings, M.D.
“What's Different about the Human Brain?” Dr. Terrence Deacon
“The Effects of Variations in the Serotonin Transporter Gene,” Dr. Dean Hamer
“Intelligence: The Evolutionary Dimension,” Dr. Seymour W. Itzkoff
“Mass Extinctions,” Dr. Peter Ward

Participants

William H. Calvin
Author and Neurobiologist
University of Washington
Seattle, WA USA

David E. Comings
Director, Dept. of Medical Genetics
City of Hope National Medical Center
Duarte, CA USA

Terrence Deacon
Professor, Dept. of Anthropology
Boston University
Boston, MA USA

Dean Hamer
Chief, Gene Structure and Regulation Section, Laboratory of Biochemistry
National Cancer Institute
Bethesda, MD USA

Seymour W. Itzkoff
Professor Emeritus, Dept. of Sociology
Smith College
Northampton, MA USA

Peter D. Ward
Professor, Dept. of Geological Sciences
University of Washington
Seattle, WA USA