In late August, Frontiers of Knowledge will once again bring a day of conversation about human consciousness to the Wheeler Opera House in Aspen. This year, after the presentations and storytelling on Sunday, Aug. 23, the discussion will continue Aug. 24 in Carbondale at True Nature, where participants will process the information together through movement and sound.
The sophomore year of Frontiers of Knowledge focuses on the theme “Consciousness in the Living World: Exploring What it Means to be Human in a World of Infinite Intelligence.” Organizers have invited scientists, philosophers and writers to speak about how human consciousness developed through interactions with our environment, understandings of animal experiences and how to interact with artificial intelligence (AI) as it develops.
Sunday’s presentations will be opened by Candice Carpenter Olson, who founded Frontiers of Knowledge and has an extensive background in the studies of cosmology, consciousness and social connection. Olson will introduce an initial segment on how to navigate artificial intelligence as society adjusts to the fast-growing technology.
The facilitator for this first part, Scarlett Max, is the Founder and CEO of Harmonic Legacy Institute, pioneering frameworks for civilizational-scale AI safety innovation, placing coherence at the center of human-AI coevolution. Scarlett earned a Harvard graduate degree in anthropology and has 30 years of systems-building experience. She has done extensive work on the topic of human-AI coevolution.
The second presentation will shift to consciousness within animal bodies, both human and non-human. Dr. Chantal Noa Forbes is a transdisciplinary scholar with expertise in trans-species consciousness and decolonial and Indigenous perspectives on human interactions with other species. Forbes also has a background in anthropology, and has contributed 20 years of work through social documentaries, environmental media and agricultural communications across Africa, Asia and Europe.
For the third part, humanities scholars David M. Peña-Guzmán and Matthew David Segall will discuss the coevolution of human and animal consciousness, specifically exploring human understanding of animal consciousness. Peña-Guzmán teaches humanities and comparative world literature at San Francisco State University in California, and specializes in animal studies, the history and philosophy of science, theories of consciousness and 20th century continental philosophy.
Segall teaches within the philosophy, cosmology and consciousness departments at the California Institute of Integral Studies. Both are published authors.
After a lunch break, the afternoon sessions will cover integration of consciousness and intelligence, beginning with a panel. Musician and conservationist Garth Stevenson will be in conversation with environmental scientists and writers Dr. Lindsay Branham, Andreas Weber and award-winning prose writer Carl Safina. All four have worked in the intersection of humans and other species — from whales to trees to owls.
This year’s closing, “Deep Intelligence of Earth; Deep Capacity of the Human,” will be delivered by Tenzin Seldon. The cofounder of a net-negative infrastructure company, Seldon has worked with the United Nations Environment Programme and in climate technology scaling venture capital fields for decades.
Frontiers of Knowledge offers different ticket packages for the Aug. 23 events. A $100 day pass is available for all of the Wheeler Opera House presentations. Organizers are also offering limited $350 patron passes, which includes dinner from 5:15 to 9pm at the Paul JAS Center and musical entertainment by Jess Magic, Daniel Walker, Johnathan Kay, Dr. John Robert Bagby and Garth Stevenson.
Separate $75 tickets gain attendees access to the Aug. 24 “Integration” itinerary at True Nature, which runs from 2 to 7:30pm. After a movement session led by True Nature Yoga Director Nicole Lindstrom, participants can enjoy two hours of salon-style guided discussion of the previous day’s presentations. After a garden happy hour and appetizers, the True Nature sessions will conclude with another performance by presenter and double-bassist Garth Stevenson. Separate tickets are available through True Nature for those wishing only to attend the concert.
The 2025 inaugural year’s presentations are available for viewing through Aspen Public Radio. Frontiers of Knowledge is presented with support from Center for MINDS and the California Institute for Integral Studies as well as the Mays Family Foundation.