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Reposted by Complexity Cat 🐱

George Musser @georgemusser.com · 11h

Swipe up to try a new variant on Conway's Game of Life. And another. And another. This is how artificial-life researchers spread the joy after the #ALIFE2025 conference! They say it's like TikTok, but I wouldn't know.... ⚙️🧫 rulehunt.org?rulesetHex=7... #cellularautomata #gameoflife

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Reposted by Complexity Cat 🐱

Yogi Jaeger @yoginho.spore.social.ap.brid.gy · 3d

Every time you say your chatbot
"thinks, reasons, means, understands, creates"
a little kitten dies.

And every time you say
"AI agent"
a whole species of cute furry animals goes extinct.

SO. JUST. DON'T!

Algorithms have no agency,
don't think, don't […]

[Original post on spore.social]

Page 1 of Spotlight 1.1 of the UNDP Report 2025.

Title: Humans have agency, algorithms do not
Author: Johannes Jaeger

Page 2 of Spotlight 1.1 of the UNDP Report 2025.

Title: Humans have agency, algorithms do not
Author: Johannes Jaeger

Page 3 of Spotlight 1.1 of the UNDP Report 2025.

Title: Humans have agency, algorithms do not
Author: Johannes Jaeger

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Reposted by Complexity Cat 🐱

Angel Goñi-Moreno @angelgm.bsky.social · May 2

Why cellular computations challenge our design principles.

We write about computational theory, information, living cells, complexity, computers, evolution... I really enjoyed writing this piece on #biocomputation. Kudos to Lewis & Bruno. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

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Complexity Cat 🐱 @amahury.bsky.social · 1d

And this is how #ALIFE2025 ends! See you next year in Waterloo, Canada for #ALIFE2026!

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Reposted by Complexity Cat 🐱

Complexity Cat 🐱 @amahury.bsky.social · 1d

Hey #ALIFE2025 people! Have you heard of Assembly Theory? A month ago, I wrote a good, objective essay summarizing AT's contributions, limitations, and possible improvements. It's perfect if you don't want to read all the critiques and counter-critiques that have been written!

Complexity Cat 🐱 @amahury.bsky.social · 29d

As a promising avenue for unifying physics and biology, assembly theory (AT) has been subject of controversy, being both praised and refuted at the same time.

What is its current status? Has it really quantified selection and evolution?/1

#complexitycat🐈‍⬛

amahury.github.io/posts/demyst...

Demystifying Assembly Theory

“It doesn’t make any difference how beautiful your guess is, it doesn’t matter how smart you are who made the guess, or what his name is … If it disagrees with experiment, it’s wrong. That’s all there...

amahury.github.io

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Complexity Cat 🐱 @amahury.bsky.social · 1d

Our last keynote speaker at #ALIFE2025 is @annaciaunica.bsky.social, who discussed the importance of bodies when talking about intelligence and agency. Her integrative approach shows that we need to adapt and extend the notion embodiedment to reflect the co-autopoietic nature of life.

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Complexity Cat 🐱 @amahury.bsky.social · 1d

Hey #ALIFE2025 people! Have you heard of Assembly Theory? A month ago, I wrote a good, objective essay summarizing AT's contributions, limitations, and possible improvements. It's perfect if you don't want to read all the critiques and counter-critiques that have been written!

Complexity Cat 🐱 @amahury.bsky.social · 29d

As a promising avenue for unifying physics and biology, assembly theory (AT) has been subject of controversy, being both praised and refuted at the same time.

What is its current status? Has it really quantified selection and evolution?/1

#complexitycat🐈‍⬛

amahury.github.io/posts/demyst...

Demystifying Assembly Theory

“It doesn’t make any difference how beautiful your guess is, it doesn’t matter how smart you are who made the guess, or what his name is … If it disagrees with experiment, it’s wrong. That’s all there...

amahury.github.io

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Reposted by Complexity Cat 🐱

Angel Goñi-Moreno @angelgm.bsky.social · 1d

Last day in #ALIFE2025 talking about evolutionary robotics. Sounds like here "evolution" and "learning" are clearly separated. I'm still unsure what is the interplay between #evolution, #learning and #adaptability. Surely, #information, #knowledge and #memory are keywords in this discussion.

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Complexity Cat 🐱 @amahury.bsky.social · 1d

How can the physics of the Game of Life be modified to create extended non-equilibrium conditions? What new structures could be created with these changes? Hank Rainwater addresses these questions, showing self-organization and phase transitions in driven CA.

#ALIFE2025

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Reposted by Complexity Cat 🐱

Complexity Cat 🐱 @amahury.bsky.social · 2d

Fully aligned with our work on semantic closure as the main promoter of open-ended evolution at the origin of life. 👇

Quanta Magazine @quantamagazine.bsky.social · 2d

Adding loops into a genome is a complicated and costly business for a cell. New findings suggest that it may be the reason that ancient life became complex. @philipcball.bsky.social reports:
www.quantamagazine.org/loops-of-dna...

Loops of DNA Equipped Ancient Life To Become Complex | Quanta Magazine

New work shows that physical folding of the genome to control genes located far away may have been an early evolutionary development.

www.quantamagazine.org

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Complexity Cat 🐱 @amahury.bsky.social · 1d

Now Cédric Koller proposes a novel analytical method to count short trajectories to simple attractors. His method reveals a quantitative divide between Classes 1/2 and Classes 3/4 of Elementary Cellular Automata.

#ALIFE2025

Complexity Cat 🐱 @amahury.bsky.social · 1d

I start the last day of #ALIFE2025 at the cellular automata session, where Matias Barandiaran presented his work on physical reservoir computing. His approach allows us to explore new diverse structures in graph cellular automata.

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Reposted by Complexity Cat 🐱

Conference on Complex Systems @css-conference.bsky.social · 1d

Did you enjoy #CCS2025? Then you'll love #CCS2026!

Join us October 9–16 for attending the largest #ComplexSystems conference, where beautiful landscapes🍂, brilliant minds👩‍🔬, and our vibrant culture🎠 will converge in one place: @binghamtonu.bsky.social

#CallForSatellites coming soon...🫣

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Reposted by Complexity Cat 🐱

Ricard Solé @ricardsole.bsky.social · 2d

Honored to receive the 2024 Outstanding Publication Award from the Intl Soc for Artificial Life @alife2025.bsky.social for our @royalsocietypublishing.org ublishing.org paper “Fundamental Constraints to the Logic of Living Systems” @sfiscience.bsky.social
royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/full/10....

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Complexity Cat 🐱 @amahury.bsky.social · 2d

What new artificial life research is on the horizon? What are the biggest unsolved problems in the field? Dominique Chen, Emily Dolson, and Hiro Iizuka closed #ALIFE2025 's fourth day with a panel discussing the future of artificial life!

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Complexity Cat 🐱 @amahury.bsky.social · 2d

Now Shin-ichiro Nomura studies the possibility of engineering molecular systems to develop artificial multicellular smart gels combining different droplets from heterogeneous chemical mixtures.

#ALIFE2025

Reposted by Complexity Cat 🐱

George Musser @georgemusser.com · 2d

Tech is depleting not only material resources but also intellectual resources, especially common knowledge. Political polarization erodes agreement on the most basic facts and concepts. "It's almost like seeing the ozone layer deplete before our eyes," said @audreyt.org at #ALIFE2025. ⚙️🧫

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Complexity Cat 🐱 @amahury.bsky.social · 2d

Fernando Rodríguez Vergara uses von Neumann's kinematic automaton as a motivation to distinguish life from computation, being the capacity of adaptation one of the main differences. Algorithms are fixed, substrate-dependent entities lacking organizational closure.

#ALIFE2025

Complexity Cat 🐱 @amahury.bsky.social · 2d

Now at the Synthetic Biology - Artificial Intelligence workshop, Antonio Fleres explains the concept of robosphere: a complex of self-organizing, multi-scale robotic ecosystems capable of autonomous adaptation and interaction with life from nano to macro.

#ALIFE2025

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Reposted by Complexity Cat 🐱

George Musser @georgemusser.com · 3d

Richard Löffler creates lifelike oil droplets during the public event at #ALIFE2025. ⚙️🧫

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Reposted by Complexity Cat 🐱

George Musser @georgemusser.com · 3d

Another mirroring illusion for your puzzling pleasure, created by @eijiwatanabe.bsky.social, demonstrated by @sinalana.bsky.social at #ALIFE2025. ⚙️🧫

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Complexity Cat 🐱 @amahury.bsky.social · 2d

Our keynote speaker today is Blaise Agüera y Arcas, who presented his results on in-silico abiogenesis using a primitive programming language, showing the emergence of self-replicator programs follow a well-defined phase transition.

#ALIFE2025

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Complexity Cat 🐱 @amahury.bsky.social · 2d

Finishing the Agency and Meaning session, Stuart Bartlett introduces a generalization of the Wolpert-Kolchinsky measure of meaning, going beyond viability to include casual leverage density.

#ALIFE2025

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Complexity Cat 🐱 @amahury.bsky.social · 2d

Now Denizhan Pak analyzes spatialized Brain-Body-Environment systems. His approach is based on dynamical systems theory, showing it's possible to characterize these type of systems using a few parameters.

#ALIFE2025

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Complexity Cat 🐱 @amahury.bsky.social · 2d

Nathaniel Virgo gives us a nice overview on the work by Ashby, focusing on a generalization of the good regulator theorem claiming that every good regulator of a system must have a model of that system.

#ALIFE2025

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