I saw the following post from Antonio Alberti, on the linked-in discussion group:
>ALife and AGI > >Dear group participants. > >The relation among AGI and ALife greatly interests me. However, too few recent >works try to relate them. For exemple, many papers presented in AGI-09 >(http://agi-conf.org/2009/) are about program learning algorithms (combining >evolutionary learning and analytical learning). In AGI 2010, virtual pets have >been presented by Ben Goertzel and are also another topic of this forum. There >are other approaches in AGI that uses some digital evolutionary approach for >AGI. For me it is a clear clue that both are related in some instance. > > >By ALife I mean the life-as-it-could-be approach (not simulate, but to use >digital environment to evolve digital organisms using digital evolution >(faster than Natural one - see >http://www.hplusmagazine.com/articles/science/stephen-hawking-%E2%80%9Chumans-have-entered-new-stage-evolution%E2%80%9D). > >So, I would like to propose some discussion topics regarding ALIfe and AGI: > >1) What is the role of Digital Evolution (and ALife) in the AGI context? > >2) Is it possible that some aspects of AGI could self-emerge from the digital >evolution of intelligent autonomous agents? > >3) Is there any research group trying to converge both approaches? > >Best Regards, and my reply was below: For your question 3), I have no idea. For question 1) I can't say I've ever heard of anyone talk about this. For question 2), I imagine the answer is yes, although the boundaries between "what's Alife" and "what's program learning" (for example) may be blurry. So, imagine, for example, a population of many different species of "neurons" (or should I call them automata? or maybe I should call them "virtual ants"?) Most of the individuals have only a few "friends" (a narrow social circle) -- the "friendship" relationship can be viewed as an "axon-dendrite" connection -- these friendships are semi-stable; they evolve over time, and the type & quality of information exchanged in a friendship also varies. Is a social network of friends able to solve complex problems? The answer is seemingly yes, if the individuals are digital models of neurons. (To carry analogy further: different species of individuals would be analogous to different types of neurons e.g. purkinje cells vs pyramid cells vs granular vs. motor neurons. Individuals from one species may tend to be very gregarious, while those from other species might be generally xenophobic. etc.) I have no clue if anyone has ever explored genetic algorithms or related alife algos, factored together with the individuals being involved in a social network (with actual information exchange between friends). No clue as to how natural/artificial selection should work. Do anti-social individuals have a possibly redeeming role w.r.t. the organism as a whole? Do selection pressures on individuals (weak individuals are cullled) destroy social networks? Do such networks automatically evolve altruism, because a working social network with weak, altruistically-supported individuals is better than a shredded, dysfunctional social network consisting of only strong individuals? Dunno. Seems like there could be many many interesting questions. I'd be curious about the answers to Antonio's questions ... --linas ------------------------------------------- agi Archives: https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/303/=now RSS Feed: https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/rss/303/ Modify Your Subscription: https://www.listbox.com/member/?member_id=8660244&id_secret=8660244-6e7fb59c Powered by Listbox: http://www.listbox.com
