While enactivism is a growing force in cognitive science, we believe it is time to revisit its contributions to biology, and particularly to the origins of life. This workshop’s aims are (1) to revitalize the discussion of autonomy, with the goal of grounding it in quantitative definitions based in observable physical phenomena, and (2) to revisit the topic of the origins of life from an enactive perspective, by focusing on the question of how a new autonomous agent can emerge where none existed before; or perhaps equivalently, how normativity can first emerge from the abiotic physical world.
This workshop will be held at Artificial Life XV in Cancún, Mexico. It will bring together researchers in enactive cognition, computational modeling, biology, and philosophy. Of particular interest are issues related to the maintenance of autonomous systems, and the origins of autonomous systems. See the workshop website for more details.
Submissions to the workshop are extended abstracts (1 or 2 pages). Contributions may be original or previously published. Accepted abstracts will be put online for free download. Authors of accepted submissions will present their project to the workshop in a 5-10 minute talk.
Submission deadline is May 13, 2016. Please send your abstract to: agmon.eran@gmail.com
Notifications will be sent by May 27, 2016.
In order to attend, please register for the main conference through the ALife XV website.
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