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• 2026 AKML & Symposium

  • Start
    02 Oct 2026
  • End
    04 Oct 2026
  • Location
    The Players Club, 16 Gramercy Park S, New York, NY 10003

  Registration is for 

  In-Person Attendance ONLY

  For Members of the 

  Institute of General Semantics

  Registration

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

  Full Schedule Added Below

  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 Musical Performance/Presentation

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

                                       President, New York Society for General Semantics

  Piano Recital:  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

   

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

    Gohar Aznauryan, Institute of General Semantics

   

  “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

   

  “Playing with Perspective: Canadian Composer John Weinzweig 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

   

  “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

   

  “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

   

  “Riffing on Ryun and Keino”

    Tim Lyons, Independent Scholar

   

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

    Lance Strate, Fordham University

  
  

  
  

  Show details
• Bateson Double Book Launch and Signing

  • When
    07 Oct 2026
  •  
    6:00 PM - 9:00 PM
  • Location
    The Players Club, 16 Gramercy Park S, New York, NY 10003

  Register

  Join us on Wednesday October 7th

  for a Double Book Launch

  Co-Sponsored by the

  Institute of General Semantics

  
  

  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.

  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. 

  
  

  Show details