Mutual Aid, Life, and Computation

On March 9, 2026, the Schwartz Reisman Institute for Technology and Society will host an in-person dialogue between renowned security technologist and SRI Visiting Senior Policy Fellow, Bruce Schneier and computational scientist, VP and Fellow at Google, Blaise Agüera y Arcas. Together, they will explore Mutual Aid, Life, and Computation — a provocative rethinking of how cooperation, rather than competition, underpins biological evolution, economic systems, and artificial intelligence.

Drawing on insights from theoretical biology, game theory, economics, and multi-agent reinforcement learning, this conversation will challenge dominant models that frame intelligence as individuals acting against environments or each other. Instead, Schneier and Agüera y Arcas will examine how symbiosis, mutualism, and collective computation drive the emergence of complexity — from the origins of life to the design of modern AI systems.

Venue:

, University of Toronto, Room W240 (second floor)

Entrance: 108 College St, Toronto, ON M5G 0C6

Talk title: "Mutual Aid, Life, and Computation"

Abstract:

Game theory, classical economics, Darwinian evolution, and reinforcement learning all typically model an individual "versus" an environment, or individuals "versus" each other. However, when we delve into the origins of life and its increasing complexity over time, we find that symbiosis (mutualism) and symbiogenesis (the formation of larger entities out of smaller ones) are fundamental. Moreover, these phenomena are best understood as purposive and computational. Beginning with recent work on theoretical biology and multiagent reinforcement learning, this talk will explore some of the wide implications of a cooperative and multiscale perspective-- including with respect to modern AI.

About the speaker

is a VP and Fellow at Google, where he is the CTO of Technology & Society and founder of Paradigms of Intelligence (Pi). Pi is an organization working on basic research in AI and related fields, especially the foundations of neural computing, active inference, sociality, evolution, and Artificial Life. In 2008, Blaise was awarded MIT’s TR35 prize. During his tenure at Google, Blaise has innovated on-device machine learning for Android and Pixel; invented Federated Learning, an approach to decentralized model training that avoids sharing private data; and founded the Artists + Machine Intelligence program. Prior to Google, Blaise was a Distinguished Engineer at Microsoft, where he worked in a variety of roles, from inventor to strategist, and led teams with strengths in experience design, pro­to­typ­ing, machine vision, augmented reality, wearable com­put­ing and mapping.

About the moderator

SRI Visiting Senior Policy Fellow is an internationally renowned security technologist, called a “security guru” by The Economist. He is the author of over one dozen books—including his latest, Rewiring Democracy—as well as hundreds of articles, essays, and academic papers. His influential newsletter “Crypto-Gram” and his blog “Schneier on Security” are read by over 250,000 people. He has testified before the United States Congress, is a frequent guest on television and radio, has served on several government committees, and is regularly quoted in the press. Schneier is a fellow at the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University; a Lecturer in Public Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School; a board member of the Electronic Frontier Foundation and AccessNow; and an Advisory Board Member of the Electronic Privacy Information Center and VerifiedVoting.org. He is the Chief of Security Architecture at Inrupt, Inc.

About the Schwartz Reisman Institute for Technology and Society

The Schwartz Reisman Institute for Technology and Society is a research institute at the University of Toronto that explores the ethical and societal implications of technology. Our mission is to deepen knowledge of technologies, societies, and humanity by integrating research across traditional boundaries to build human-centred solutions.

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Event Venue & Nearby Stays

U of T: Schwartz Reisman Innovation Campus, 108 College Street, Toronto, Canada

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