ALIFE 2025: Ciphers of Life: Proceedings of the Artificial Life Conference 2025

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* Explores the potential of complex systems in shaping the future of communication networks
* Integrates network science, bio-inspired models, artificial intelligence, and higher-order graph theory
* Provides a guide for researchers to use the full potential of complex systems in revolutionizing communication networks

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This book offers a unique perspective on the evolution of scientific theories through the lens of their changing complexity.

To explore this non-trivial connection, the author draws on well-known historical cases from the philosophy of science tradition to test the central theses of the work. At the same time, the book develops a conceptual framework in which the debates on emergence and complexity play a central role.

The opening chapter provides the historical background of emergence, examining both classical and contemporary perspectives, highlighting diverse viewpoints and their contributions to the current discussion.

The second chapter turns to the foundations of complexity science, detailing its key methodologies and emphasizing the role of information in describing and modeling systems.

Building on this foundation, the book introduces a novel quantitative definition of emergent properties, grounded in the concept of parametric model complexity. It discusses how slight variations in control parameters can generate universal features and explores the implications of these dynamics for our understanding of systemic behavior.

Finally, the author shows how this framework illuminates critical aspects of scientific practice, ranging from the criteria guiding theory choice to the relationship between technological innovation and the risk of the appearance of anomalies. By combining historical analysis, conceptual innovation, and formal modeling, the book presents a compelling vision of how complexity and emergence can be predictive indicators of theoretical transformation, recognizing the moments when our current models have reached their limits.

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Engineering Swarms for Cyber-Physical Systems covers the whole design cycle for applying swarm intelligence in Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS) and guides readers through modeling, design, simulation, and final deployment of swarm systems. The book provides a one-stop-shop covering all relevant aspects for engineering swarm systems. Following a concise introduction part on swarm intelligence and the potential of swarm systems, the book explains modeling methods for swarm systems embodied in the interplay of physical swarm agents. Examples from several domains including robotics, manufacturing, and search and rescue applications are given. In addition, swarm robotics is further covered by an analysis of available platforms, computation models and applications. It also treats design methods for cyber-physical swarm applications including swarm modeling approaches for CPSs and classical implementations of behaviors as well as approaches based on machine-learning. A chapter on simulation covers simulation requirements and addresses the dichotomy between abstract and detailed physical simulation models. A special feature of the chapters is the hands-on character by providing programming examples with the different engineering aspects whenever possible, thus allowing for fast translation of concepts to actual implementation. Overall, the book is meant to give a creative researcher or engineer the inspiration, theoretical background, and practical knowledge to build swarm systems of CPSs. It also serves as a text for students in science and engineering.

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COMPUTATION IS A TECHNOLOGY TO THINK WITH. It is an instrument for epistemological discovery. It changes not only what we know but how we know.
Computation was discovered as much as it was invented. It is part of how the universe works, including, as Blaise Agüera y Arcas gracefully shows, what intelligence is.
Among the many rich takeaways that await you as you read What is Intelligence? is that much of what is traditionally categorized as “life,” “intelligence,” and “technology” is combining in new ways (think synthetic biology, artificial life, and AI). So too are the definitions of these terms, in ways that would have been unthinkable only a few years ago.
Are these three words—life, intelligence, technology—actually different names for the effects of a more general process? Just as life is a factory for making more life, and technology is a factory for making more technology, now life makes technologies that make new life that makes new technologies. Ultimately, it may be the same factory, and at its heart is computation.
That such a claim could be made at all is due in no small part to the creative and curious use of our computational tools—or what we might more precisely call artificial computation. With these we discover that the otherwise imperceivable building blocks of our reality and of our own flesh are themselves computational. Computation discovers itself through us.

Read the full book at: whatisintelligence.antikythera.org