Living architecture: workshop report from the European Conference on Artificial Life, Lyon, France, 4 September 2017

2018 ◽  
Vol 26 (2) ◽  
pp. 85-88 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin M Hanczyc ◽  
Barbara Imhof ◽  
Andrew Adamatzky
Keyword(s):  
Artificial Intelligence ◽  
Neural Networks ◽  
Built Environment ◽  
Artificial Life ◽  
Feedback Loops ◽  
Living Systems ◽  
Workshop Report ◽  
European Conference ◽  
Open Questions ◽  
The Future

Imagine evolving swarms of robots interacting and by doing so reshaping and cultivating our habitat. This habitat could be here on Earth, on a distant planet or moon, or within a self-contained spacecraft. What would these robots look like and made of what type of material? What kind of information, hardware or software? What are the architectural necessities? There are many open questions when trying to envision the future of architecture; but, in this particular workshop, the goal was not only to imagine the future but also to create it. With this particular goal in mind, the Living Architecture workshop at European Conference on Artificial Life (ECAL) 2017 brought together practitioners from the sciences and architecture to share ideas and technologies to examine possible paths forward. Living Architecture is a specific substantiation of the broader notion of Living Technology where living systems or artificial systems with life-like properties are developed towards technological applications. In Living Architecture, objects designed in the built environment would contain living systems as part of their functionality (such as bioreactors for energy) or artificial distributed systems with feedback loops (such as neural networks or artificial intelligence). In this way, Living Architecture represents a congruence in functionality and form between living systems, technology and architecture.

scholarly journals Emergence of Organisms

Entropy ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 22 (10) ◽  
pp. 1163
Author(s):  
Andrea Roli ◽  
Stuart A. Kauffman
Keyword(s):  
Artificial Intelligence ◽  
Adaptive Behavior ◽  
Artificial Life ◽  
Living Systems ◽  
Self Sufficiency ◽  
Evolution Of Life ◽  
High Level ◽  
Hostile Environments

Since early cybernetics studies by Wiener, Pask, and Ashby, the properties of living systems are subject to deep investigations. The goals of this endeavour are both understanding and building: abstract models and general principles are sought for describing organisms, their dynamics and their ability to produce adaptive behavior. This research has achieved prominent results in fields such as artificial intelligence and artificial life. For example, today we have robots capable of exploring hostile environments with high level of self-sufficiency, planning capabilities and able to learn. Nevertheless, the discrepancy between the emergence and evolution of life and artificial systems is still huge. In this paper, we identify the fundamental elements that characterize the evolution of the biosphere and open-ended evolution, and we illustrate their implications for the evolution of artificial systems. Subsequently, we discuss the most relevant issues and questions that this viewpoint poses both for biological and artificial systems.

Artificial Life as a Tool for Biological Inquiry

1993 ◽  
Vol 1 (1_2) ◽  
pp. 1-13 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charles Taylor ◽  
David Jefferson
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Evolution ◽  
Artificial Life ◽  
Living Systems ◽  
Grand Challenge ◽  
Open Problems ◽  
Maintenance Of Sex ◽  
Open Questions ◽  
Shifting Balance ◽  
The Origin Of Life ◽  
Natural Life

Artificial life embraces those human-made systems that possess some of the key properties of natural life. We are specifically interested in artificial systems that serve as models of living systems for the investigation of open questions in biology. First we review some of the artificial life models that have been constructed with biological problems in mind, and classify them by medium (hardware, software, or “wetware”) and by level of organization (molecular, cellular, organismal, or population). We then describe several “grand challenge” open problems in biology that seem especially good candidates to benefit from artificial life studies, including the origin of life and self-organi- zation, cultural evolution, origin and maintenance of sex, shifting balance in evolution, the relation between fitness and adaptedness, the structure of ecosystems, and the nature of mind.

Turing, Searle, and the Wizard of Oz

2010 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 88-102
Author(s):  
S. D. Noam Cook ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Artificial Intelligence ◽  
20Th Century ◽  
Artificial Life ◽  
The Other ◽  
Living Systems ◽  
Wizard Of Oz ◽  
Central Elements ◽  
Future Technologies

Since the middle of the 20th century there has been a significant debate about the attribution of capacities of living systems, particularly humans, to technological artefacts, especially computers—from Turing’s opening gambit, to subsequent considerations of artificial intelligence, to recent claims about artificial life. Some now argue that the capacities of future technologies will ultimately make it impossible to draw any meaningful distinctions between humans and machines. Such issues center on what sense, if any, it makes to claim that gadgets can actually think, feel, act, live, etc. I outline this debate and offer a critique of its persistent polarization. I characterize two of the debate’s major camps (associated roughly with Turing and Searle); argue that the debate’s structure (including key assumptions inherent to each camp) precludes resolution; and, contend that some central clashes within the debate actually stem from an inadequately drawn distinction between claims about the capacities of artifacts and claims about the proper criteria for assessing such attributions. I offer a different perspective in which I: challenge some central elements of the debate that contribute to its perennially irresolvable state; hold that the debate needs to be placed more squarely in sync with how we in fact treat the attribution of such capacities to humans themselves; and, offer (unlike the other two camps) a foothold for making moral assessments of such proposed technologies.

Homo Ludens, Machine Ludens: The Way to Ideal Neural Network and Background of Posthumanism

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (1-1) ◽  
pp. 151-165
Author(s):  
Maria Ivanchenko ◽  
◽  
Pavel Arkhipov ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Biological Sciences ◽  
Artificial Intelligence ◽  
Neural Networks ◽  
Homo Sapiens ◽  
Philosophical Concept ◽  
Critical Methodology ◽  
Strong Artificial Intelligence ◽  
The Future ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Creation

The article consists of an introduction, a main part with three sections and a conclusion. The purpose of the study is to disclose the content of the concepts of “A Man Playing”, “A Machine Playing”, “Posthumanism” and “Essentiocognitivism”; review current advances in artificial intelligence and neural networks. The article focuses on the philosophy of posthumanism in the context of its application in machine learning, as well as a new philosophical concept called “essentiocognitivism” in its relation to artificial intelligence. The object of the study is the philosophical concept of essentiosocognitivism. The subject of the article is the consideration of certain aspects of this concept related to artificial intelligence as a “playing machine” and the positioning of a human being in the world of posthumanism. In the course of the work, critical methodology was used, on the basis of which the strengths and weaknesses of artificial neural networks were highlighted, the current state of the most famous playing neural networks, such as OpenAI and Alpha series from DeepMind, was analyzed, and the upcoming development of AI is considered in the context of a technological singularity. A philosophical comprehension has been made of certain aspects of essentiocognitivism, which play an important role in the history of the development of posthumanism. It is noted that the future of neural networks is largely determined by the gaming industry and moves towards the creation of a strong artificial intelligence, like the Playing Machine. Scientific novelty consists in examining a fundamentally new concept in the history of philosophy and substantiating the place and role of AI in the evolution of intelligent man. In the course of work, it was revealed that AI and, in particular, promising neural networks allow us to predict the probable future of mankind. As a basic thesis, we use the position derived from biological sciences that the evolution of the species Homo sapiens is not over, and will continue in a technological manner. As a result of the study, a working concept of essentiocognitivism was introduced, and the conclusion was made that trans- and posthumanism can solve many global problems of mankind. It is emphasized that the future lies in the creation of a strong AI.

scholarly journals What Does Artificial Life Tell Us About Death?

2011 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
pp. 1-5 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carlos Gershenson
Keyword(s):  
Artificial Life ◽  
Living System ◽  
Value Of Life ◽  
Living Systems ◽  
The Future ◽  
The Mind ◽  
The Relationship

This paper discusses how concepts developed within artificial life (ALife) can help demystify the notion of death. This is relevant because sooner or later we will all die; death affects us all. Studying the properties of living systems independently of their substrate, ALife describes life as a type of organization. Thus, death entails the loss of that organization. Within this perspective, different notions of death are derived from different notions of life. Also, the relationship between life and mind and the implications of death to the mind are discussed. A criterium is proposed in which the value of life depends on its uniqueness, i.e. a living system is more valuable if it is harder to replace. However, this does not imply that death in replaceable living systems is unproblematic. This is decided on whether there is harm to the system produced by death. The paper concludes with speculations about how the notion of death could be shaped in the future.

scholarly journals What Does Artificial Life Tell Us About Death?

2013 ◽  
pp. 17-22
Author(s):  
Carlos Gershenson
Keyword(s):  
Artificial Life ◽  
Living System ◽  
Value Of Life ◽  
Living Systems ◽  
The Future ◽  
The Mind ◽  
The Relationship

This paper discusses how concepts developed within artificial life (ALife) can help demystify the notion of death. This is relevant because sooner or later we will all die; death affects us all. Studying the properties of living systems independently of their substrate, ALife describes life as a type of organization. Thus, death entails the loss of that organization. Within this perspective, different notions of death are derived from different notions of life. Also, the relationship between life and mind and the implications of death to the mind are discussed. A criterium is proposed in which the value of life depends on its uniqueness, i.e. a living system is more valuable if it is harder to replace. However, this does not imply that death in replaceable living systems is unproblematic. This is decided on whether there is harm to the system produced by death. The paper concludes with speculations about how the notion of death could be shaped in the future.

scholarly journals Affective Embodiment and the Transmission of Affect in Ex Machina

Philosophies ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
pp. 53
Author(s):  
Fahn
Keyword(s):  
Artificial Intelligence ◽  
Science Fiction ◽  
Original Film ◽  
Artificial Life ◽  
Conscious Thought ◽  
The Future ◽  
Intelligence Science ◽  
Emotional Capacity

The focus of posthuman thought centers on a shift in the humanistic paradigm; focusing on a state of existence that lies beyond being “human”, including bioengineering, artificial intelligence, and synthetic embodiment. Inspired by continuous breakthroughs in the research and creation of artificial intelligence, science fiction has moved beyond the realm of portraying artificial intelligence that is capable of conscious thought to speculate upon a future creation of machines that feel, and initiate feeling in return. The influence of posthuman discourse is prevalent in science fiction film narratives and demonstrates a heavy emphasis on the deconstruction of humanity’s belief in our unique emotional capabilities. This paper draws upon Alex Garland’s 2015 original film and screenplay Ex Machina as textual reference to explore posthuman prospects in AI by envisioning possibilities where emotional capacity no longer separates humans and machines. In a world where artificial intelligence could be given artificial life, how is affect addressed, and redressed? This paper argues the importance of affective embodiment and material experiences in AI that shape the future of posthuman becoming.

Synthetic biology and (embodied) artificial intelligence: opportunities and challenges

2018 ◽  
Vol 26 (1) ◽  
pp. 41-44 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pasquale Stano ◽  
Yutetsu Kuruma ◽  
Luisa Damiano
Keyword(s):  
Artificial Intelligence ◽  
Synthetic Biology ◽  
Artificial Life ◽  
Research Question ◽  
Contemporary Debate ◽  
European Conference ◽  
Scientific Exploration

On the 4th of September 2017, the 14th European Conference on Artificial Life (ECAL 2017, Lyon, France) hosted a satellite workshop dedicated to a frontier research question: ‘What can Synthetic Biology offer to (Embodied) Artificial Intelligence (and vice versa)?’ This workshop, as the previous three of the ‘Synthetic Biology (SB)–Artificial Intelligence (AI)’ workshop series, brought together specialists from different disciplines to address the contemporary debate on the evolution of embodied artificial intelligence from a new angle. In a few words: defining the possible roles that SB – an emerging research line combining biology and engineering – can play in the process of establishment of the so-called ‘Embodied paradigm’ in the scientific exploration of cognition and, in particular, in artificial intelligence.

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