These proceedings illustrate and support the observation that many of the most important and challenging activities at the forefront of research range broadly across the conventional disciplines and that, viewed as a whole, such topics represent emerging syntheses in science which may be recognized eventually as new disciplines. Our informal discussions, which have been taped but not summarized in the proceedings, have examined the basis for our concern that these syntheses are frequently poorly defined and nurtured and that new academic options, including the Institute described here, are urgently needed to further define and expedite research in these fields. We have asked some more detailed questions; for example, how do we initially choose staff; how should we rank the emerging syntheses in defining initial programs; what form of governance is desirable during the formative years; and how must it be modified with time and growth?

Our discussions have produced agreement that a number of barriers impede the recognition, support, and pursuit of research at the boundaries between disciplines and that the innovations proposed by the Santa Fe Institute should help lower these barriers. We have agreed that our first priority in organizing the permanent Institute must be on recruiting first-rate people. A major part of the permanent staff and the students must possess the breadth of interest necessary to pursue research on a large number of highly complex and interactive systems which can be properly studied only in an interdisciplinary environment. A ranking of themes will occur naturally as such people are recruited. We have further agreed that education, largely centered on research on these themes, must be our major concern.

The most significant recommendation for planning the future of the Institute is that, as soon as adequate resources are available, it should sponsor multidisciplinary networks of individuals whose research interests involve a common theme and whose efforts will be mutually supportive. The conclusion that the Institute should begin operations in the network mode is based on the following considerations:

1. Networks comprised of the most productive individuals and appropriately qualified students and offering workshops, strengthened communications, and a central campus staffed with non-resident, visiting, and permanent faculty can begin immediately to meet an increasingly urgent need to better organize and nurture interdisciplinary efforts at the forefront of research.

2. Such a program will offer prompt benefits not only to the participants and their research programs but also to their home institutions.

3. The sponsorship of networks on selected themes will serve an important purpose by better defining and emphasizing the importance of various emerging syntheses that tend to be fragmented and overlooked within the conventional disciplines.

4. The Institute will benefit from interactions with network participants in the careful identification and recruiting of senior faculty, junior staff, and graduate students.

5. The Institute can deliberately explore the relative merits of major themes suitable for long-term pursuit on the Santa Fe campus.

Accordingly, the Institute will devote its early resources to the formation of a few such networks each year while continuing to move toward full-scale operation as a teaching and research Institute. Even after reaching its full growth, the Institute will probably continue to maintain and expand such networks as a necessary means to strengthen vital parts of the scientific enterprise.

Some of the network themes proposed for early consideration include a program on theoretical neurophysics; the modeling of evolution, including the evolution of behavior; strategies to model troublesome states of minds and associated higher brain functions; nonlinear systems dynamics, pattern recognition, and human thought; fundamental physics, astronomy, and mathematics; archaeology, archaeometry, and forces leading to extinction of flourishing cultures; and integrated approach to information science; and the heterogeneity of genetic inventories of individuals.

Looking to the longer term, the Institute will plan to develop a campus that is large enough to provide sites for nearby, independent academic organizations representing social, political, and behavioral sciences and parts of the humanities. As experimental, computational, and mathematical tools grow in capacity, it is possible to envision a time, not far off, when the rigor of the hard sciences and elements of human experience and wisdom will be joined more effectively together so that we can better model and hope to understand the most complex and interactive systems of all, those which govern our bodies and brains and those developed within past and present societies which shape and govern much of our lives. There can be little doubt that the upsurge in sophisticated experimentation, the explosive growth of very large scale, parallel processor computing, the increasing capability of models which treat nonlinear dynamic processes, and the development of new machine languages and algorithms far exceeding the power of those now in use will generate enormous forces for achieving noble or destructive ends. They must be wisely directed. With wisdom, the diffusion of the hard sciences into what are now considered the soft sciences may well become the most important achievement of the twenty-first century. To help insure that the next generations can rise to this challenge, the Institute must strive to promote a unity of knowledge and recognition of shared responsibility that will stand in sharp contrast to the present growing polarization of intellectual cultures perceived so well by C. P. Snow nearly a generation ago.

It was not part of the workshop’s agenda to consider the problem of obtaining the financial resources required to realize its plans. Some concern was voiced that the widespread demand for increased support throughout academia would make it extremely difficult to establish any new enterprise. However, a consensus was evident that the need and anticipated benefit easily justified the projected cost, that the time is ripe, and that these new ideas should be put forward without delay. Encouraged by these views the Institute has established a full-time development office and will actively pursue a fundraising campaign until adequate resources are obtained.