[alife] Extended deadline - Call for abstracts - Agency In The Physical Sciences - ECAL Workshop

Eran Agmon agmon.eran at gmail.com
Thu Jun 8 07:42:52 PDT 2017


Dear Colleagues,

We have extended the deadline of the call for abstracts for our workshop on
“Agency In The Physical Sciences,” which will be held on 4 September 2017 at
the European Conference on Artificial Life (ECAL) 2017 in Lyon, France. The
new deadline is 20 June 2017.

Information theoretic approaches are very welcome!

DESCRIPTION:
Agency is a ubiquitous concept in biology but virtually non-existent in
physics. Roughly, agency can be seen as an abstraction of living organisms
that focuses more on action, perception, and goal-directedness
(normativity) than on replication and growth. "Agent-like" structures can
be found in simple simulation models (physics) such as cellular automata or
reaction-diffusion systems, as well as in the protocells of synthetic
biology. However, "agent-like" currently remains an intuitive
classification. This workshop's purpose is to support research directed
towards making such a classification in a formal or quantitative way.
Relevant questions include:

* What sorts of physical structures can be said to be agents?
* What can be gained by understanding them as agents?
* What sorts of agents are they?
* And by virtue of what physical properties are they those sorts of agents?

The workshop aims to explore questions relating to agency in its most
primitive forms, both in simulation and in physical reality. To this end,
we invite both theoretical and empirical contributions on primitive agency.
* The emphasis for theoretical contributions is on clear definitions and
quantification: we are most interested in concepts that lend themselves to
a rigorous analysis.
* Empirical contributions should describe apparently purposeful, or
otherwise apparently agentive, behaviour in systems simpler than those
previously known to display such behaviour.


CONFIRMED SPEAKERS:
Mark Bedau
Randall Beer
Norman Packard


ABSTRACTS:
We invite the submission of short one- or two-page abstracts. Successful
submissions will be allocated either a 10-minute or 20-minute presentation
slot; submissions should indicate which format the authors would prefer.
Presented abstracts will be collected and published on a web page. Please
send abstracts to: aips.workshop.2017 at gmail.com

DATES:
June 20th: Abstract submission deadline
September 4th: Workshop in Lyon, France


WEBSITE: https://agencyscience.wordpress.com


Best Regards,
Eran Agmon
Martin Biehl
Christopher L Buckley
Simon McGregor
Nathaniel Virgo
Olaf Witkowski


-- 
*Eran Agmon, PhD*
Biological Sciences, Columbia University
http://eagmon.tumblr.com/


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