# Institute for Cross-Disciplinary Engagement **Entity class:** Interdisciplinary institute and public-engagement program **Aliases:** ICE at Dartmouth; Dartmouth ICE **Active program period represented by archive:** 2016–2021 **Institution:** [[wiki/Dartmouth College|Dartmouth College]] ## Definition The **Institute for Cross-Disciplinary Engagement (ICE)** was created at Dartmouth under theoretical physicist [[wiki/Marcelo Gleiser|Marcelo Gleiser]] to make the science–humanities boundary traversable in both directions. Its program joined scientists, philosophers, writers, theologians, artists, and public intellectuals around consciousness, free will, reality, time, mortality, religion, knowledge, intelligence, technological transformation, and the future of civilization. The [[wiki/John Templeton Foundation|John Templeton Foundation]] records Grant 55342 to the Trustees of Dartmouth College, led by Gleiser, at **$4,145,147**. Dartmouth’s launch announcement used a lower approximate amount. The institute’s delivery architecture included [[wiki/ICE Fellows Program|fellows]], [[wiki/ICE Public Dialogues|public dialogues]], workshops, the **launching conference**, DartmouthX/edX courses, videos, podcasts, and publications. A 2024 Dartmouth account says Gleiser’s later **Incubator for Human Flourishing** followed five years directing ICE. ## Governance and operations - **director:** [[wiki/Marcelo Gleiser|Marcelo Gleiser]]. - **assistant director and public contact:** **Amy Flockton**. - **steering board:** **K. C. Cole**, [[wiki/Paul Davies|Paul Davies]], **Everard Findlay**, Gleiser, [[wiki/Rebecca Goldstein|Rebecca Goldstein]], [[wiki/Seth Lloyd|Seth Lloyd]], [[wiki/Marilynne Robinson|Marilynne Robinson]], [[wiki/Adina Roskies|Adina Roskies]], **William Storrar**, and [[wiki/Peter Ulric Tse|Peter Ulric Tse]]. - **host institution:** [[wiki/Dartmouth College|Dartmouth College]]. - **funder:** [[wiki/John Templeton Foundation|John Templeton Foundation]]. ## Programs and convenings - **The Sciences, the Humanities, the Future** — September 30–October 1, 2016. - [[wiki/ICE Fellows Program|ICE Fellows Program]] — a visiting-fellow network spanning philosophy, physics, astrobiology, history, religion, ecology, communication, and social epistemology. - [[wiki/ICE Public Dialogues|ICE Public Dialogues]] — events at [[wiki/92NY|92Y/92NY]], [[wiki/ICE Public Dialogues|Museum of Science Boston]], [[wiki/ICE Public Dialogues|City Arts & Lectures]], [[wiki/ICE Public Dialogues|Chicago Ideas]], Arizona State University, and Dartmouth. - **DartmouthX** / [[wiki/edX|edX]] courses — scalable educational layer. - multimedia archive and podcast hosted by [[wiki/ICE Fellows Program|Franklin Jacoby]]. ## Complete participant graph ### Founding conference and board [[wiki/Marcelo Gleiser|Marcelo Gleiser]] · **K. C. Cole** · [[wiki/Paul Davies|Paul Davies]] · **Everard Findlay** · [[wiki/Rebecca Goldstein|Rebecca Goldstein]] · [[wiki/Seth Lloyd|Seth Lloyd]] · [[wiki/Marilynne Robinson|Marilynne Robinson]] · [[wiki/Adina Roskies|Adina Roskies]] · **William Storrar** · [[wiki/Peter Ulric Tse|Peter Ulric Tse]] · [[wiki/Maria Popova|Maria Popova]] · [[wiki/Mary-Jane Rubenstein|Mary-Jane Rubenstein]] · [[wiki/Alan Lightman|Alan Lightman]] · **Phil Hanlon** · **Amy Flockton** ### Fellows [[wiki/ICE Fellows Program|Franklin Jacoby]] · [[wiki/ICE Fellows Program|Graham Hubbs]] · [[wiki/ICE Fellows Program|Matthew Nisbet]] · [[wiki/Monica Gagliano|Monica Gagliano]] · [[wiki/ICE Fellows Program|Gabriel Rabin]] · [[wiki/ICE Fellows Program|Philipp Höhn]] · [[wiki/ICE Fellows Program|Eric Campbell]] · [[wiki/Michela Massimi|Michela Massimi]] · [[wiki/ICE Fellows Program|Mark Sprevak]] · [[wiki/David Grinspoon|David Grinspoon]] · [[wiki/ICE Fellows Program|Tasneem Zehra Husain]] · [[wiki/ICE Fellows Program|Daniel Singer]] · [[wiki/ICE Fellows Program|Bertrand Guillaume]] · [[wiki/Alan Lightman|Alan Lightman]] · [[wiki/ICE Fellows Program|Anthony Aveni]] · [[wiki/ICE Fellows Program|Emanuele Ciancio]] · [[wiki/ICE Fellows Program|Salman Hameed]] · [[wiki/Adam Frank|Adam Frank]] · [[wiki/Evan Thompson|Evan Thompson]] · [[wiki/Mary-Jane Rubenstein|Mary-Jane Rubenstein]] · [[wiki/ICE Fellows Program|Damian Sowinski]] ### Public-dialogue, conference, and workshop participants [[wiki/Antonio Damasio|Antonio Damasio]] · [[wiki/David Chalmers|David Chalmers]] · [[wiki/B. Alan Wallace|B. Alan Wallace]] · [[wiki/Sean Carroll|Sean Carroll]] · [[wiki/Jill Tarter|Jill Tarter]] · [[wiki/Patricia Churchland|Patricia Churchland]] · [[wiki/Jimena Canales|Jimena Canales]] · [[wiki/Ed Boyden|Ed Boyden]] · [[wiki/Mark O'Connell|Mark O’Connell]] · [[wiki/Siddhartha Mukherjee|Siddhartha Mukherjee]] · [[wiki/Elizabeth Kolbert|Elizabeth Kolbert]] · [[wiki/Jaron Lanier|Jaron Lanier]] · [[wiki/ICE Public Dialogues|Sue Halpern]] · [[wiki/ICE Public Dialogues|John Browne]] · [[wiki/ICE Public Dialogues|Tad Friend]] · [[wiki/Richard Powers|Richard Powers]] · [[wiki/Carol Cleland|Carol Cleland]] · [[wiki/Robert Hazen|Robert Hazen]] · [[wiki/ICE Public Dialogues|Vanessa Woods]] · [[wiki/Brian Hare|Brian Hare]] · [[wiki/ICE Public Dialogues|M. T. Anderson]] · [[wiki/Joyce Banda|Joyce Banda]] · [[wiki/ICE Public Dialogues|Barry Randolph]] · [[wiki/Robin Wall Kimmerer|Robin Wall Kimmerer]] · [[wiki/Ayaan Hirsi Ali|Ayaan Hirsi Ali]] · [[wiki/Mary Flanagan|Mary Flanagan]] · [[wiki/ICE Public Dialogues|John Haldane]] · [[wiki/Bill McKibben|Bill McKibben]] · [[wiki/Martin Rees|Martin Rees]] · [[wiki/Kim Stanley Robinson|Kim Stanley Robinson]] · [[wiki/Peter Singer|Peter Singer]] · [[wiki/Terry Tempest Williams|Terry Tempest Williams]] · [[wiki/Michel Bitbol|Michel Bitbol]] · [[wiki/Christopher Fuchs|Christopher Fuchs]] · [[wiki/Jenann Ismael|Jenann Ismael]] · [[wiki/ICE Public Dialogues|Peter Lewis]] · [[wiki/ICE Public Dialogues|Robert Sharf]] · [[wiki/Jeremy DeSilva|Jeremy DeSilva]] · [[wiki/ICE Public Dialogues|Shinge Sherry Chayat]] · [[wiki/ICE Public Dialogues|Richard Beaudoin]] · [[wiki/ICE Public Dialogues|Eliot Michaelson]] · [[wiki/ICE Public Dialogues|Susanna Schellenberg]] · [[wiki/ICE Public Dialogues|John Kulvicki]] · [[wiki/ICE Public Dialogues|Heather Hurst]] · [[wiki/ICE Public Dialogues|Franco Rossi]] ## Intellectual routes - **mind and agency:** [[wiki/Consciousness|Consciousness]], [[wiki/Hard Problem of Consciousness|Hard Problem]], [[wiki/Free Will|Free Will]], neuroethics, and moral responsibility. - **intelligence across substrates:** [[wiki/Artificial Intelligence|AI]], machine intelligence, [[wiki/Extraterrestrial Intelligence|extraterrestrial intelligence]], [[wiki/Plant Intelligence|plant intelligence]], and [[wiki/Planetary Intelligence|planetary intelligence]]. - **human transformation:** [[wiki/Transhumanism|Transhumanism]], [[wiki/Life Extension|Life Extension]], cyborgs, augmentation, and immortality. - **cosmos and origins:** cosmology, multiverse, astrobiology, time, life, and planetary evolution. - **meaning and value:** [[wiki/Science and Religion|Science and Religion]], spirituality, faith, pantheism, human flourishing, and the limits of knowledge. - **civilizational futures:** climate, democracy, digital behavior modification, tribalism, the Anthropocene, and the future of humanity. ## Successor and adjacent Templeton work - **Incubator for Human Flourishing** — launched by Gleiser with William Egginton and Kari Gleiser. - **The Seekers** — Templeton World Charity Foundation project led by Gleiser. - **Spiritual Loop Project** — CTI project under William Storrar on machine intelligence and spiritual progress. - [[wiki/92NY|Seven Days of Genius]] — earlier Templeton-funded 92Y platform that included consciousness, AI, and the brain. ## Launching conference — The Sciences, the Humanities, the Future **Entity class:** Founding conference **Title:** The Sciences, the Humanities, the Future **Dates:** September 30–October 1, 2016 The **ICE Launching Conference** inaugurated the **Institute for Cross-Disciplinary Engagement** at Dartmouth. It joined free will, neuroscience, philosophy, cosmology, multiverse theory, art, memory, memetics, alien life, science communication, theology, and interdisciplinarity in one program. **Participants and contributions:** - **K. C. Cole** — science and public meaning. - [[wiki/Seth Lloyd|Seth Lloyd]] — “A Turing Test for Free Will.” - [[wiki/Paul Davies|Paul Davies]] — extraterrestrial intelligence and cosmic context. - [[wiki/Maria Popova|Maria Popova]] — memory, memetics, art, and science. - [[wiki/Marcelo Gleiser|Marcelo Gleiser]] — institute framing and moderation. - [[wiki/Adina Roskies|Adina Roskies]] — free will in the age of neuroscience. - [[wiki/Rebecca Goldstein|Rebecca Goldstein]] — scientists and philosophers as intellectual partners. - [[wiki/Mary-Jane Rubenstein|Mary-Jane Rubenstein]] — God and the multiverse. - [[wiki/Alan Lightman|Alan Lightman]] — physicist–novelist interface. - **William Storrar** — instituting interdisciplinarity. - **Phil Hanlon** — Dartmouth institutional welcome. **Sources:** [ICE — Launching Conference](https://www.ice.dartmouth.edu/conference); [ICE — Conference archive](https://www.ice.dartmouth.edu/ice-launching-conference-day-1) ## Consolidated governance, operations, and successor records These profiles retain the institutional alignments formerly dispersed across one-paragraph files. Names with independently developed, high-value nodes remain linked elsewhere in this page. - **Amy Flockton** — arts administrator and program operator; coordinated conference, fellows, public-dialogue, communications, and archive-facing operations; the ICE site’s historical social account identifies Amy Guertin Flockton. Sources: [Institutional or primary profile](https://www.ice.dartmouth.edu/); [ICE archive](https://www.ice.dartmouth.edu/) - **Everard Findlay** — cultural strategist, curator, and philanthropist; founded Everard Findlay LLC and has worked across art, culture, philanthropy, conservation, and public convening; his ICE contribution was curatorial and connective rather than scientific authorship. Sources: [Institutional or primary profile](https://www.ice.dartmouth.edu/about/steering-board); [ICE archive](https://www.ice.dartmouth.edu/) - **K. C. Cole** — science writer and educator; worked for decades as a science writer at the Los Angeles Times, taught at USC Annenberg, created Categorically Not!, and wrote on physics, culture, Frank Oppenheimer, and the Exploratorium. Sources: [Institutional or primary profile](https://annenberg.usc.edu/faculty/kc-cole); [ICE archive](https://www.ice.dartmouth.edu/) - **Phil Hanlon** — mathematician and university leader; served as Dartmouth’s eighteenth president and previously as University of Michigan provost; his institutional role supplied executive sponsorship rather than authorship of ICE’s individual scholarly claims. Sources: [Institutional or primary profile](https://president.dartmouth.edu/people/philip-j-hanlon-77); [ICE archive](https://www.ice.dartmouth.edu/) - **William Storrar** — theologian and research-center leader; directed the Center of Theological Inquiry from 2005 to 2025 and led the Spiritual Loop Project on machine intelligence, pastoral potential, and spiritual progress. Sources: [Institutional or primary profile](https://www.ctinquiry.org/who-we-are); [ICE archive](https://www.ice.dartmouth.edu/) - **Kari Gleiser** — organizational and program co-lead; supports the design and operation of the Incubator’s interdisciplinary meetings on meaning, ethics, AI, and human flourishing. Sources: [Institutional or primary profile](https://fas.dartmouth.edu/news/2024/12/marcelo-gleiser-launches-interdisciplinary-think-tank); [ICE archive](https://www.ice.dartmouth.edu/) - **William Egginton** — humanities scholar and institute co-lead; Johns Hopkins professor working on literature, philosophy, the humanities, the history of ideas, Cervantes, Borges, and the public value of humanistic inquiry. Sources: [Institutional or primary profile](https://krieger.jhu.edu/modern-languages-literatures/directory/william-egginton/); [ICE archive](https://www.ice.dartmouth.edu/) ### DartmouthX **Entity class:** Digital education initiative **DartmouthX** is Dartmouth College’s partnership with edX for producing public online courses. **Dartmouth ICE** sponsored and oversaw two cross-disciplinary offerings: Marcelo Gleiser’s _Question Reality! Science, Philosophy, and the Search for Meaning_ and Peter Ulric Tse’s _Libertarian Free Will: Neuroscientific and Philosophical Evidence_. **Sources:** [ICE at Dartmouth — Online Courses](https://www.ice.dartmouth.edu/activities/online-courses); [ICE at Dartmouth — home](https://www.ice.dartmouth.edu/) ### Incubator for Human Flourishing **Entity class:** Interdisciplinary think-tank initiative The **Incubator for Human Flourishing** is a Dartmouth-centered, Templeton-funded initiative launched by [[wiki/Marcelo Gleiser|Marcelo Gleiser]] with **William Egginton** and **Kari Gleiser**. Dartmouth describes a three-year program of nine meetings on questions including artificial intelligence, ethics, meaning, and human flourishing. Gleiser explicitly presented it as following his five years directing the **Institute for Cross-Disciplinary Engagement**. This is a documented succession of intellectual work, not a claim that the two programs are administratively identical. **Sources:** [Dartmouth — Marcelo Gleiser Launches Interdisciplinary Think Tank](https://fas.dartmouth.edu/news/2024/12/marcelo-gleiser-launches-interdisciplinary-think-tank) ### The Seekers **Entity class:** Research and public-intellectual project **The Seekers** was a $234,810 Templeton World Charity Foundation project led by [[wiki/Marcelo Gleiser|Marcelo Gleiser]] at [[wiki/Dartmouth College|Dartmouth]]. It was framed as a manifesto for a worldview connecting human flourishing, cultural development, nature, and species survival. **Sources:** [Templeton World Charity Foundation — The Seekers](https://www.templetonworldcharity.org/projects-resources/project-database/0556); [Templeton World Charity Foundation — Marcelo Gleiser and The Seekers](https://www.templetonworldcharity.org/blog/marcelo-gleiser-the-seekers) ### Spiritual Loop Project **Entity class:** Research project **Full title:** The Spiritual Loop Project: Assessing the Pastoral Potential of Machine Intelligence for Spiritual Progress The **Spiritual Loop Project** was a $234,000 Templeton World Charity Foundation project led by **William Storrar** at the [[wiki/Center of Theological Inquiry|Center of Theological Inquiry]]. It asked whether machine intelligence could support spiritual progress, pastoral work, and religious community. **Sources:** [Templeton World Charity Foundation — Spiritual Loop Project](https://www.templetonworldcharity.org/projects-resources/project-database/0492); [CTI — Research Reports](https://www.ctinquiry.org/research-reports) ## Relationships - **disambiguation:** [[wiki/ICE|ICE]]. - **institutional bridge:** [[wiki/John Templeton Foundation|Templeton]] → [[wiki/Dartmouth College|Dartmouth]] → ICE → venues and participants. - **public New York partner:** [[wiki/92NY|92Y/92NY]]. - **research method:** [[wiki/Convergence Research|Convergence Research]] and [[wiki/Two Cultures|Two Cultures]]. - **disambiguation route:** [[wiki/ICE|ICE disambiguation]], [[collections/Consciousness Continuity|Consciousness Continuity]], and [[collections/Transhumanism and the Epstein Science Network|Transhumanism network]]. ## Sources / Provenance - [ICE at Dartmouth — home](https://www.ice.dartmouth.edu/) - [ICE — Steering Board](https://www.ice.dartmouth.edu/about/steering-board) - [ICE — Fellows Program](https://www.ice.dartmouth.edu/fellows-program) - [ICE — Public Dialogues and Workshops](https://www.ice.dartmouth.edu/public-dialogues-workshops) - [ICE — Launching Conference](https://www.ice.dartmouth.edu/conference) - [Templeton Grant 55342](https://www.templeton.org/grant/the-institute-for-cross-disciplinary-engagement-at-dartmouth-2) - [Dartmouth — Incubator for Human Flourishing](https://fas.dartmouth.edu/news/2024/12/marcelo-gleiser-launches-interdisciplinary-think-tank) ## British influence and transatlantic elite-network layer ICE’s British-influence route is documented through its principal funder rather than through British ownership of Dartmouth. [[wiki/John Templeton|John Templeton]] passed through the [[wiki/Rhodes Scholarship|Rhodes Scholarship]] and [[wiki/Balliol College|Balliol College, Oxford]], later became a British citizen and knight, and built the philanthropic complex that funded ICE. ICE itself then connected Dartmouth to British and Commonwealth intellectual figures including [[wiki/Paul Davies|Paul Davies]], **William Storrar**, [[wiki/Martin Rees|Martin Rees]], and [[wiki/ICE Public Dialogues|John Haldane]]. This is best classified as **transatlantic elite-network and epistemic infrastructure**, not proof of British governmental control. The relevant mechanism is philanthropic selection and support of institutions, fields, convenings, prestige, and public vocabulary. See [[wiki/Philanthropic Capital as Civilizational Middleware|Philanthropic Capital as Civilizational Middleware]] and [[collections/War With Empire|War With Empire]].