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

See below for full schedule

The 74th Annual

Alfred Korzybski

Memorial Lecture

and the Symposium on

Language,

Listening,

Literacy,

and Algorithms

October 2nd-4th, 2026

Co-Sponsored by the

New York Society for General Semantics

the International Bateson Institute

the Media Ecology Association

and the Tomkins Institute

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).

Schedule:

Friday October 2nd

5:00 PM Check-In Opens

Wine and Cheese Reception

6:15 PM Presentation

Introduction: Peggy Cassidy, Trustee, Institute of General Semantics and

President, New York Society for General Semantics

Presentation: Rea Beaumont, University of Toronto

7:00 Dinner

8:00 Welcoming Remarks

Lance Strate, President, Institute of General Semantics

Presentation of the IGS Prizes and Awards

Eva Berger, Secretary, Institute of General Semantics

Jacqueline Rudig, Trustee, Institute of General Semantics

Introduction of the 74th Annual Alfred Korzybski Memorial Lecture

Laura Trujillo Liñan, Trustee, Institute of General Semantics and

President, Asociación Mexicana de Semántica General

“No Machine Has Passed the Turing Test”

Ted Chiang

Saturday October 3rd

8:00-9:00 AM Check-In and Breakfast Reception

9:00-10:15 AM The Map is Not the Territory

Moderator: Nora Bateson, International Bateson Institute

“A Non-Aristotelian Hero: A General Semantics Reading of the Odyssey”

Martin H. Levinson, Institute of General Semantics

“Níl ach an Léirscáil an Choigríoch (The Map is Not the Territory): Media Representations of the Irish Language and the Lived Experience of Speakers”

Grace Foley, Trinity University

“General Semantics and YouTube: Rizzing the Reach”

Fred Cheyunski, Independent Scholar

“Cognizant Prompting: A General Semantics Approach to Artificial Intelligence”

Eva Berger, College of Management Academic Studies

10:30-12:00 Language in Thought and Action

Moderator: Susan Drucker, Hofstra University

“The Unspeakable Level”

Christopher Mayer, Institute of General Semantics

“The Art of Thinking: An Update on Condillac’s Work”

Robert T. Ackland, University of Illinois at Chicago

“Changing Times–Changing Meanings: Word Games in Conflict Media Discourse”

Yuliya Krylova-Grek, National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy

“The Role of Language in Promoting Global Citizenship Education”

Ricardo Meneses Calzada, Universidad Panamericana

“Midst”

Annelyse Gelman, University of Iowa

12-1:00 Lunch Break

1:00-2:15 Language Habits in Human Affairs

Moderator: Thom Gencarelli, Manhattan University

“A Language of Listening”

Mary P. Lahman, Manchester University

“Dialogue and the Necessity of Listening”

Joshua Clements, Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College

“Listening Differently to Communication Theory: Poetic Praxis”

Janie M. H. Fritz, Duquesne University

“For the Good of Plato”

Valerie V. Peterson, Grand Valley State University

2:30-3:45 The Art of Awareness

Moderator: Christopher Mayer, Institute of General Semantics

“Panels and Pointing in the Language and Literacy of (Un)Sequential Art”

Christina M. Knopf, SUNY Cortland

“What Are We Reading For?”

William Schear, University of Northern Colorado

“The End of First-Year Writing”

Geoffrey Bogan, University of Mississippi

“Composer John Weinzweig: Orchestral Music and Performing Silence”

Rea Beaumont, University of Toronto

4:00-5:15 The Tyranny of Words

Moderator: Eva Berger, College of Management Academic Studies

“Two Dominant Trends in New Media: Decentralization and Asynchronization”

Corey Anton, Grand Valley State University

“Mapping the Attention Economy Landscape: Political Economy and a Crisis in Media Ecology”

Jermaine Charles, New York University

“Laws of Media, Media of Law: Reading Law in the Digital Age”

Aleksander Cywiński, University of Szczecin, Kinga Flaga-Gieruszyńska, University of Szczecin, Marcin Janowski, University of Szczecin, Aleksandra Klich, University of Szczecin, and Kalina Kukiełko, University of Szczecin

“The Collapse of Consciousness of Abstracting: Media Manipulation from Daguerre to AI”

Susan Drucker, Hofstra University

5:30-7:00 People in Quandaries

Moderator: Corey Anton, Grand Valley State University

“Algorhythms: Suffering, Rhythm, and Technological Life”

Tiffany Petricini, Penn State Erie, The Behrend College

“Distinction without Difference: The Homogenizing Impact of ‘Nearest Neighbors’ Algorithms on Search and Society”

Ryan-Ashley Anderson, Independent Scholar

“From Cultural to Algorithmic Semiotypes: How AI Reconfigures Communicative Behavior”

Igor Korolyov, Taras Shevchenko National University, and Olena Marina, Munster Technological University

“Beyond Babel: Reclaiming Human Meaning in the Age of Artificial Intelligence”

Laura Trujillo-Liñán, Universidad Panamericana

“Ecosystem Engineers: General Semantics Education and Algorithmic Rhetoric”

Ryan P. McCullough, West Liberty University

Sunday October 4th

8:00-9:00 AM Check-In and Breakfast Reception

9:00-10:15 Operational Philosophy

Moderator: Jacqueline Rudig, Institute of General Semantics

“The Best of Times, The Worst of Times: Defining the Paradoxical Reality of AI

William Jefferson, Independent Scholar

“Modeling Language is Not Intelligence: AI, LLMs and World Models”

Michael Grabowski, Manhattan University

“AI, Art, the Artificial, and Artifice”

Thom Gencarelli, Manhattan University

“A Counter to the Grand Narrative of AI: Map, Mind and Power”

Sthitipragnya Dash, Independent Scholar

10:30-11:45 Steps to An Ecology of Mind

Moderator: Peggy Cassidy, Adelphi University

“Relationships and Maps”

Ana Sofía Durazo, Prepatoria Panamericana

“Among-ing”

Nora Bateson, International Bateson Institute

“Wonder”

Özüm Üçok-Sayrak, Duquesne University

“The Media Ecology of Stickball”

Robert Albrecht, New Jersey City University

12:00-1:15 Levels of Knowing and Existence

Moderator: Laura Trujillo Liñan, Universidad Panamericana

“A New Language of History for Meeting Humanity’s Greatest Challenges”

Jesse Lydia Henshaw, Independent Scholar

“Language, Listening, Literacy and Algorithms: A Hermeneutic-Personalist Approach to Human Understanding in the Digital Age”

Elsa G. Sánchez Huerta Villalba, Universidad Panamericana

“The Manhattan-Toronto Dream Project: Re-Formulating the Alexandrian Archive”

Mark Goldhagen, Independent Scholar

“Financial Rhetoric’s Construction of Totality and Exclusion of the Other: Digital Assets, Gamification and Prediction Markets”

Elisha Sidhu, Duquesne University

1:30-3:00 Crazy Talk, Stupid Talk

Moderator: Mary P. Lahman, Manchester University

“The Room Where It (Didn't) Happen: Spatial Intelligence for Higher Education”

Tiffany Petty Gilliam, Duquesne University

“Real New York Women, Real Impact on Language, Listening, Learning, and Literacy in Early Childhood: Ms. Rachel and Bari Koral as AI Antidotes, Yet Aided by Algorithms”

Donna Flayhan, Independent Scholar

“The Map is Not New York: Film, Television, and the Construction of an Imagined City”

Gohar Aznauryan, Institute of General Semantics

“Riffing on Ryun and Keino”

Tim Lyons, Independent Scholar

“From Aristotle to AI: Media, Cybernetics, and Evolving Information Environments”

Lance Strate, Fordham University

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)