Complexes

Everyone interested is invited to my public PhD defense, next Wednesday, May 2nd at 2pm, in room D.2.01 (Promotiezaal) of the V.U.B. campus Etterbeek, followed by a reception at the STOA. The details of the defense can be found here . Directions to the VUB can be found here . More details about my thesis can be found here .

3 rd Workshop on Artificial Life and Evolutionary Algorithms As the title clearly indicates, this workshop will focus on scientific research and applications of Artificial Life (ALife) and Evolutionary Algorithms (EA). Therefore, it will cover work on computer based bio-inspired models for studying natural systems as well as for solving engineering and social problems. In general, self-organisation, emergence and evolution of multicomponent systems are themes to be addressed by this workshop. We are targeting the ALife community, the EA community and researchers working in the overlap of these two areas, from computer science and exact sciences in general to social sciences. Recently self-organisation has been gaining popularity among the management community, which is a clear signal that the ALEA themes are extending over new research areas. Topics of Interest - Genetic Algorithms - Evolutionary Strategies - Evolutionary Programming - Genetic Programming - Classifier Systems - Evolut...

The World as Evolving Information Carlos Gershenson Abstract : This philosophical paper discusses the benefits of describing the world as information, especially in the study of the evolution of life and cognition. Traditional studies encounter difficulties because it is difficult to describe life and cognition in terms of matter and energy, falling into a dualist trap. However, if matter and energy, as well as life and cognition, are described in terms of information, evolution can be described consistently as information becoming more complex. Moreover, information theory is already well established and formalized. The paper presents five tentative laws of information, which are generalizations of Darwinian, cybernetic, thermodynamic, and complexity principles. These are further used to discuss the notions of life and cognition, including their origins and evolution. Full paper here .