2026 AKML & Symposium (2 Oct 2026)

Fri, 02 Oct 2026 04:00:00 GMT

Registration is for

In-Person Attendance ONLY

All IGS Members in Good Standing Will Receive Instructions on How to Livestream the Event Online Prior to the AKML

The 74th Annual

Alfred Korzybski

Memorial Lecture

and the Symposium on

Language,

Listening,

Literacy,

and Algorithms

October 2nd-4th, 2026

Call for Papers and Proposals

Co-Sponsored by the

New York Society for General Semantics

the International Bateson Institute

the Media Ecology Association

the Tomkins Institute

and the 404 Festival of Art and Technology

featuring

Ted Chiang

speaking on

"No Machine

Has Passed the

Turing Test"

It is now commonly asserted that the Turing Test is no longer a useful metric because current LLMs easily pass it. In this talk, Ted Chiang will offer a different interpretation of Turing's paper and what Turing actually meant by a thinking machine. Linguistic fluency of the type that Turing described is a very high bar, one so high that not only have we not achieved it, but we should arguably not even be aiming for it.

Ted Chiang is an American science fiction writer. His work has won four Nebula awards, four Hugo awards, six Locus awards, the PEN Malamud Award, and the Media Ecology Association's Mary Shelly Award. His novella “Story of Your Life” was the basis of the film Arrival (2016). His most recent short story collection, Exhalation (Knopf, 2019), was listed as one of the Top Ten Books of 2019 by The New York Times, and included in President Barack Obama’s 2019 reading list. In 2023, he was named one of Time Magazine’s 100 Most Influential People in AI.

The lecture, dinner, and symposium are being held at the historic Players Club in Gramercy Park, Manhattan.

Registration is free for IGS members and their guests, but all attendees must be registered in advance in order to gain admittance to the club. More information regarding the dinner and symposium schedule will be made available at a later date.

Please note that as an historic 19th century landmark, the site is not handicap accessible. Dress code is business casual and is strictly enforced, including no sneakers, shorts, ripped jeans, t-shirts).

Bateson Double Book Launch (7 Oct 2026)

Wed, 07 Oct 2026 22:00:00 GMT

Join us on Wednesday October 7th

for a Double Book Launch

Sponsored by the

New York Society for General Semantics

Co-Sponsored by the

Institute of General Semantics

Registration Via the NYSGS Event Page Required

Daughter, Father and a New Way of Thinking

On Wednesday, October 7th the New York Society for General Semantics is hosting an unusual double book launch bringing together the pioneering work of writer and filmmaker Nora Bateson and her late father, British-born thinker Gregory Bateson. Many of the ideas now familiar in conversations about systems, like "feedback loops", "differences that make a difference", and "orders of change", come from their work.

The launch runs from 6 to 9 PM at the Players, 16 Gramercy Park South, NYC, 10003. It includes short readings from both books, conversation with Nora Bateson and editor Phillip Guddemi, and a signing. The event is free and open to the public, but registration is required for admittance. A cash bar serving wine and beer will be available.

To register, click here.

The launch introduces two new books, conceived half a century apart, both of which explore how we can live, learn and relate to one another and to the wider living world in a time of rapid change.

Belly by Nora Bateson, is a collection of stories, essays, images, poems, and reflections about families, food, grief, celebration, and the ways we make sense of the world together. It invites us to notice the subtle patterns in our own relationships, homes and communities. This work requires us to rethink what it means to "make a change". Nora Bateson is known for developing the concept of "warm data"—ways of noticing the many overlapping contexts that shape our lives. Her writing offers us a language for feelings and experiences we may already recognize but never quite had words for.

Gregory Bateson’s ‘Ecology of Mind’: The Course, is based on a series of university lectures given in the 1970s by Nora Bateson’s father. Gregory Bateson worked across anthropology, psychology and environmental thought, and was one of the early pioneers of systems thinking and cybernetics, the study of feedback and communication in living systems. Many everyday phrases about "patterns", "context" and mind" have roots in his work. This new volume presents his ideas in his own spoken voice, transcribed from the classroom and edited by his student, Philip Guddemi, is highly accessible for a general readership.

The event is open to anyone interested in culture, ecology, community life, or new ways of thinking about how our lives connect with one another and with the wider environment.

Nora Bateson is a writer, filmmaker and educator. She works internationally with communities, organizations and institutions, helping people think together about complex issues such as climate, education, and social change. She is president of the International Bateson Institute, and a Trustee of the Institute of General Semantics.

Gregory Bateson (1904–1980) was a British-born anthropologist and thinker whose work has influenced psychology, communication theory, ecology and cybernetics. He is best known for his book Steps to an Ecology of Mind. He delivered the 1970 Alfred Korzybski Memorial Lecture.

Institute of General Semantics upcoming events

2026 AKML & Symposium (2 Oct 2026)

Bateson Double Book Launch (7 Oct 2026)