Conference Theme: Ghosts in the machine
Artificial life seeks to unravel the mysteries of life and mind, to naturalise the “ghosts in the machine”. What is life? What is the mind? Are these two concepts related?

These ghosts are however elusive, and difficult to identify or even just define at times. To try and learn more about the mind, research in artificial life and other related fields has more recently focused on studies of complexity, emergence, agency, autonomy, or information theory. As a results, this has led to major advancements in robotics, synthetic biology and artificial intelligence, among others. The main research programs in these areas however seem to be simply forgetting about the mind, rather than trying to explain it.

At the same time, with the advent of new technologies such as brain-machine interface, cyborgization, virtual/augmented reality and the metaverse, the boundaries between agents/living organisms and their environment have began fluctuating. Minds are no longer in our (living organism) shells, expanding beyond current spatial boundaries and into a new form of the “extended mind” hypothesis. At ALIFE 2023, we will bring back the focus to studies of the mind, facing the challenges and embracing the opportunities that come with studies of an often neglected but ever so important concept in both artificial life research and our daily lives.

More at: sites.google.com

The Complex Systems Society (CSS) organizes every year a main conference (CCS) – the most important annual meeting for the complex systems research community.

The Complex Systems Society invites bids to host the edition for 2024 and 2025.

The conference is generally held in September/October of each year.

More at: cssociety.org

Many real systems can be modeled as networks, where the elements of the system are nodes and interactions between elements are edges. An even larger set of systems can be modeled using dynamical processes on networks, which are in turn affected by the dynamics. Networks thus represent the backbone of many complex systems, and their theoretical and computational analysis makes it possible to gain insights into numerous applications. Networks permeate almost every conceivable discipline —including sociology, transportation, economics and finance, biology, and myriad others — and the study of “network science” has thus become a crucial component of modern scientific education.

The school “Complex Networks: Theory, Methods, and Applications” offers a succinct education in network science. It is open to all aspiring scholars in any area of science or engineering who wish to study networks of any kind (whether theoretical or applied), and it is especially addressed to doctoral students and young postdoctoral scholars. The aim of the school is to deepen into both theoretical developments and applications in targeted fields.

Read the full article at: ntmg.lakecomoschool.org

The overwhelming majority of humanity lives in large-scale urbanized societies organized as states. This is an evolutionary novel condition—for over 90% of our history humans lived in small-scale societies of hunters and gatherers. This remarkable transformation of human societies is considered to be one of the Major Evolutionary Transitions. But this transition is not yet complete. Unlike biological organisms, or colonies of social insects, human societies are not “organismal-like”. There are huge differences in effectiveness of governance and economic performance among nations. Further, all complex societies (so far, without exceptions) have gone through recurrent integrative and disintegrative phases, marked first by cooperation and growth and then stasis/decline and increased internal violence and immiseration.

In the CSH Winter School 2023 we review fundamental organizational principles of complex human societies, states and cities, and study a wide range of integrative and disintegrative tendencies within them. Our focus is on the balance between centripetal forces, powered by selection on collectives (cities, states, and other polities) and centrifugal forces, arising from the “selfishness” of lower-level units within collectives (special interest groups, kinship networks, and corrupt leaders).

The school will bring together an international, interdisciplinary cast of lecturers and students to review and explore both theoretical and empirical directions currently advanced by different research groups. During the school students will gain exposure to new methods and approaches and develop small research projects on their own.

More at: www.csh.ac.at

Registration is open for the September 2022 Cohort!
“Learn Complexity by Doing” with a diverse cohort of global Participants. Guidance from world-class Facilitators, in a community of practice that meets monthly. Meet future collaborations from all countries, fields, domains, backgrounds, perspectives, and levels of familiarity with Complexity Science – everyone here shares a desire to learn about Complex System behavior by helping to solve the world’s toughest problems together. Your perspective is needed!

Read the full article at: www.complexityweekend.com