[alife] Keynote Speakers at IEEE Artificial Life 2009 : Ralf Der, Thomas S. Ray, & Bruce J. MacLennan

[Chrystopher Nehaniv]

2009 IEEE Symposium on Artificial Life
March 30 – April 2, 2009 Sheraton Music City Hotel, Nashville, TN, USA
at the IEEE Symposium Series on Computational Intelligence 2009

http://homepages.feis.herts.ac.uk/~comqcln/IEEE_ALIFE_2009.html

Registration and IEEE SSCI  Convention: http://www.ieee-ssci.org/

Keynote Speakers:

Photo of Ralf Der 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/ 
.


Photo of Thomas S. Ray 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.


Photo of Bruce J. MacLennan 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).