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You are hereby invited to our fourth interdisciplinary series on *Evolution, Complexity and Cognition* <http://ecco.vub.ac.be/>: *When?* Next Thursday, May 15, 2008, 2-4 pm. *Where?* The seminar room is B 0.036 (building B, level 0, close to the human sciences computer rooms), on the VUB Campus Etterbeek. Coffee and drinks are available. Free entrance: everybody welcome! *The Ultimate Future of Artificial Life: Towards Artificial Cosmogenesis.* *Clément Vidal* (VUB) *Abstract:* We will try to tackle the question of what could be the ultimate future of ALife from a cosmic viewpoint. We first argue that the natural direction of ALife is a simulation of an entire universe. Two new challenges naturally arise. The first is to simulate open-ended evolution at all levels in a single simulation; i.e. not only in biology, but also to link it up a level below (physical evolution) and a level above (cultural evolution). The second challenge is to probe what would happen if we would "replay the tape of the universe". Assuming that intelligent life would indeed simulate an entire universe, this leads to two tentative hypotheses. Following the soft-ALife program, some authors argued that we could be in a simulation run by an intelligent entity. Following the hard/wet-ALife program, this would lead to an artificial cosmogenesis. This last direction is argued with a careful speculative philosophical approach, emphasizing the imperative to find a solution to the heat death problem. *Keywords*: future of ALife, simulation, heat death problem, cosmological natural selection, cosmological artificial selection, artificial cosmogenesis, selfish biocosm hypothesis, meduso-anthropic principle, developmental singularity hypothesis. *Upcoming speaker:* Geert Biebeaut, "Experiments to test the social construction of shared concepts" *More informations about the ECCO seminars:* See http://ecco.vub.ac.be/?q=node/28 for the full program. Best regards, Clément Vidal. ________________________________________ http://clement.vidal.philosophons.com Centrum Leo Apostel, Vrije Universiteit Brussel Krijgskundestraat 33. B-1160 Brussels, Belgium Tel: +32 2 640 67 37 | Fax: +32 2 644 07 44
