Krakauer et al. challenge the traditional view of biological individuals, arguing that individuality is instead a process of "temporal integrity" that measures how an aggregate propagates information from its past into its future. What are the limitations of this approach? Is it possible to characterize individuals without taking semantics and pragmatics into account? In this review, I will address this and other important questions regarding the characterization of life using only syntactic information.

The Origin of Life Early Career Network (OoLEN) is pleased to announce that this year’s Interdisciplinary Origin of Life Meeting for Early Career Researchers (IOoL2026) will be held in Tokyo, Japan at the Earth-Life Science Institute (ELSI) on 9-11 September 2026.

The ninth edition of the Summer School "Digital Tools for Humanists" is scheduled to take place from May 25 to May 30, 2026. Hosted by the University of Pisa, the program is organized under the direction of the "Laboratorio di Cultura Digitale" (Laboratory for Digital Culture).

The European Astrobiology Institute (EAI) Summer School, titled "Biosignatures and the Search For Life on Mars (and other planets)", is scheduled for June 18–26, 2026, in Iceland. The program focuses on identifying life in various environments, including early Earth, subsurface Earth, and Mars, through a mix of lectures and field studies.

The Barcelona School of Economics (BSE) Summer School in Complexity and Emergence in Economic and Social Systems offers graduate students and professionals intensive training in complex system tools. The program features lectures and hands-on coding (Python) covering agent-based modeling, network analysis, and AI to study economic dynamics.

This workshop is a specialized event held at the University of Antwerp, Belgium, on June 4-5, 2026. It explores alternatives to the traditional "mind as computer" view in cognitive science, featuring talks on the philosophy of biological brains.

The NERDS (NEtwoRks, Data, and Society) team at the IT University of Copenhagen welcomes applications from aspiring postdocs in the areas of Data Science, Mathematical Modeling, and Network Science with applications to inference, forecasting, and mitigation in future epidemics. Starting in September 2026 or soon thereafter.

The Belgrade School on Complex Systems (BeComplex 2026) is an international workshop organized by the Faculty of Physics at the University of Belgrade. It is scheduled to take place from June 21 to June 27, 2026. The event is designed to bring together global experts across diverse fields—including physics, biology, economics, and neuroscience—to explore the common motifs of complex systems.

Autotelic Creative Artificial Intelligence (ACAI) refers to AI systems that are intrinsically motivated to set, pursue, and achieve their own goals, driven by curiosity and play rather than predefined external rewards.

The NERDS (NEtwoRks, Data, and Society) team at the IT University of Copenhagen welcomes applications from aspiring PhD students in the areas of Data Science, Mathematical Modeling, and Network Science with applications to inference, forecasting, and mitigation in future epidemics. Starting in September 2026 or soon thereafter.