IEEE ALIFE 2009
IEEE ALIFE 2009 brings together researchers working on the emerging
areas of Artificial Life and Complex Adaptive Systems, especially
connections and applications to Biology, Robotics, Space Sciences and
Predictive Methods for Understanding and Synthesizing Life-like Systems.
Artificial Life is the study of the simulation and synthesis of
living systems. In particular, this science of generalized living and
life- like systems provides engineering with billions of years of
design expertise to learn from and exploit through the example of the
evolution of organic life on earth. Increased understanding of the
massively successful design diversity, complexity, and adaptability of
life is rapidly making inroads into all areas of engineering and the
Sciences of the Artificial. Numerous applications of ideas from nature
and their generalizations from life-as-we-know-it to life-as-it-could-
be continually find their way into engineering and science.
Keynote Speakers:
Ralf Der (Max Planck Institute for Mathematics in the Sciences, Germany)
"Guided Self-Organization of Autonomous Robot Behavior"
Abstract:
This is joint work with Nihat Ay (Max Planck Institute for Mathematics in the Sciences, Germany, & Santa Fe Institute, U.S.A.).
The talk starts with a brief review of self-organization in physical systems
and asks the question how the self-organization processes can be guided in these
systems. Answers are translated to autonomous, embodied robots with many degrees
of freedom. It will be argued that a gradient flow on information theoretic
measures, predictive information in particular, is a viable scenario for
self-organization. We derive on-line learning rules for the maximization of the
predictive information and apply them to a number of example systems like
artificial snakes, dogs, humanoids and some strange artifacts. These examples
show that our learning rules drive these robots to a playful self-exploration
of their bodily affordances. Eventually, possible routes for the guidance of
these self-organization processes are outlined. Videos and more information on
http://robot.informatik.uni-leipzig.de/research/videos/.
Thomas S. Ray (University of Oklahoma, U.S.A.)
"The Human Mind"
Abstract:
The human mind is experienced as a perceptual whole,
yet it is composed of components whose discreteness is normally
obscured by being woven into the complete tapestry of the mind.
Each component is mediated by distinct neurotransmitter receptors.
The diverse set of psychoactive drugs collectively represents a
rich set of tools for probing the chemical architecture of the
human mind. These tools can be used to reveal the components of
the psyche. By activating specific components of the mind, they
are made to stand out against the background of the remainder of the
mental tapestry. Thus both their discreteness and their specific
contribution to the psychic whole can be better appreciated. These
receptor mediated mental components are the distinct elements from
which the mind has been fashioned through evolution.
Bruce J. MacLennan (University of Tennessee at Knoxville, U.S.A.)
"A Model of Embodied Computation for Artificial Morphogenesis"
Abstract:
Life is embodied, and developing artificial life to its full potential will depend on understanding and exploiting the interrelationship of information processing and embodiment. For example, both embryological development and analogous processes of artificial morphogenesis depend on mutually interdependent unfoldings of an information process and of the "body" in which it is occurring. But the theory of embodied computation, like the theory of embodied cognition, provides challenges as well as opportunities. On one hand, such computation is intimately connected with its physical realization, in part because the purposes of embodied computing are often physical (e.g., self-assembly, morphogenesis, microrobotics). These characteristics make embodied computing more difficult than conventional computing, because it is not so idealized (independent of its material realization). On the other hand, embodied computation can make productive use of its physical realization, for example, by using physical states and processes (of the system and its environment) in place of computational representations. Thus it has implicit computational resources unavailable to conventional computing. In order to fulfill this promise, we need both formal and informal models of embodied computing that directly address the interaction of formal and physical processes in embodied computation systems. These will be essential cognitive tools for conceptualizing, designing, and reasoning about embodied computation. In this talk I will present a preliminary design for one such model, which is of general applicability, but especially oriented toward artificial morphogenesis (self-assembly of complex hierarchical structures by processes analogous to embryological morphogenesis).
Important Dates:
November 12, 2008 Paper submission deadline
December 10, 2008 Author notification of acceptance or rejection
January 15, 2009 Deadline for receipt of final manuscript
March 30 - April 2, 2009 Symposium dates
