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Science & Cocktails: Predicting human life

Tuesday 19 May 2026

In Tolhuistuin - Club

Doors: 19:00, Support: 19:30, Main programme: 20:30

Program is half seated, half standing

This show is part of

Kosmos

Science & Cocktails is a series of public talks by scientists with live music and smoky dry-ice chilled cocktails in your hand

19:00 doors open for cocktails
19:30 music by My Purse
20:30 talk by Sune Lehmann

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Predicting Human Life

If we had extremely detailed data about every person in an entire country… what could we really know? Could we predict when someone will die? And what happens when we include not just individual data, but entire social networks? Family, friends, colleagues? How predictable are human lives, actually?

A few years ago, speaker Sune Lehmann had a striking realization: Large Language Models aren’t really about language. They’re about sequences. Language just happens to be one of the most refined systems of sequences we have: words unfolding according to grammar, context, and social rules. But what if we apply that same logic to something else?

Human lives can also be understood as sequences. You are born, assigned a birth weight, move to a certain address, start school, meet people, change jobs. Step by step, a life unfolds. Using Denmark’s uniquely detailed registry data, Sune Lehmann and his team trained a new kind of model; one that treats life itself as data. The result is a system that can detect patterns in human lives with remarkable precision.

During this edition, Sune Lehmann takes us inside this radical approach to understanding human lives and the questions it raises about prediction, privacy, and what it means to be human.

About
This event is an initiative by the Dutch Institute for Emergent Phenomena (DIEP) with the support of the University of Amsterdam. Science & Cocktails Amsterdam is presented in cooperation with Paradiso Amsterdam

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Line-up

Club

Sune Lehmann
My Purse

About the speaker

Sune Lehmann is a professor of complexity and network science at the Technical University of Denmark and a professor of data science at the Center for Social Data Science (SODAS) at the University of Copenhagen. His work explores how large-scale data can be used to understand human behaviour and the structure of social systems.

Trained as a physicist, Lehmann combines methods from complex systems, machine learning, and statistical analysis to study patterns in how we live, move, and interact. His research spans topics such as human mobility, sleep, academic performance, epidemic spreading, and behaviour on social media. He is a member of the Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters and serves as Chief Scientist at the Danish National Center for AI in Society (CAISA).

More information

Sune Lehmann

TEDx Talks

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About the music

The newly formed supergroup My Purse (formerly known as Saus) has been making waves in Amsterdam, where they all grew up. With members from Yodel Queen, Cardigan Inn, and Hondenfokker, they deliver a multi-voiced celebration of playful punk, bursting with fresh energy.

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How to get to Tolhuistuin

Tolhuistuin (formerly Paradiso Noord) is located at IJpromenade 2 in Amsterdam North. A free ferry runs from Amsterdam Central Station to Buiksloterweg. From there, turn left and you’ll walk straight into Tolhuistuin. For club nights, the rear entrance (Buiksloterweg 5C) is used. This entrance can be reached via Overhoeksplein

Restaurant
Tolhuistuin also has a restaurant where you can enjoy a meal before the show. We recommend making a reservation in advance via this website.

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