Seth Bullock

Last week was Alife in Kyoto - feeling enriched and inspired :) Some of the highlights: keynotes, workshops, Alife art and Japanese sweets making. Dinner table chat about embodiment and time. Thanks to the hard work of the organisers for putting together an awesome conference 👾🍁 #alife2025

#AI4CI, #A&DS and #EFI are delighted to be hosting a #PublicForum on ‘AI in the City’ in historic #Edinburgh

📆 30th Oct 🕰️ 6pm-7.30pm 🏰 Edinburgh Futures Institute

Join us for a broad and rounded discussion between expert panellists

Get your FREE tickets here 👉 www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/ai-in-the-...

absolutely. the idea that realism is a legitimate (or perhaps the only ultimate) aim for a model leads directly to claims that the best models are new sources of cheap empirical data (selling real experimentalists down the river) and also that every other kind of model is by definition second rate.

yeah - relatedly, I bridle at appeals to "realism" in models in general. A model is not improved by giving it a realistic colour or smell - unless colour and smell are foregrounded by the theory that we're interested in.
So it's a theory that should guide model deisgn, not "realism" per se.

Hi Bristol people, what's your opinion on AI?
forms.gle/yXTcWpRib1Dv...
I'm interesed in hearing from a few dozen of you, so please do reshare this message!
#Bristol #AI #Opinions

Bristol's Opinions on AI This is an anonymous poll for collecting opinions on AI from people in Bristol for potential use in an online course on AI being developed at the University that will be made available to the general ...

As part of the course, I'd like to include a range of opinions on AI from a few dozen people in #Bristol. So, if you live or work in Bristol, here's an anonymous 5-min questionnaire for you: forms.gle/JV9ZJp4FYmHQ...
Please give it a go, and share it with any Bristolians that you know! Thank you!

Bristol's Opinions on AI This is an anonymous poll for collecting opinions on AI from people in Bristol for potential use in an online course on AI being developed at the University that will be made available to the general ...

I wonder if this will work? Bristol Uni is making a short online course on AI - what it is, how it works, what it can do, how we can think critically about it. No maths, no coding, no hype, just simple information and explanations available to all students and staff and members of the public. 1/2

A wonderful teacher and one of the greatest influences on me as a young student. So lucky to have started out in COGS where she helped shape the most genuinely interdisciplinary environment that I've ever worked in. I took it for granted at the time but I haven't found anything like it since.

great to see Valentino Braitenberg's Vehicles namechecked in this latest Spotlight!

Our latest @ai4cihub.bsky.social AI4CI ECR Spotlight! I always love these posts - and Bea's advice to "get stuck in and experiment with new things" is very close to my heart!

#AI #Science #Research #CollectiveIntelligence

We're excited to announce our first speaker for the CCS2025 Warm-Up in Siena: Prof. Alberto Antonioni!

Spots are limited. Apply now to secure yours.

Another area (I always worry that I am talking about things you already know about) is the niche construction literature (people like Odling-Smee, Laland, Feldman). There the idea is that complex creatures have more opportunity to shape their environment in ways that protect them from perturbation.

exactly - I ran out of text in the last post, but yes these ecosystem papers are only really relevant if you consider a species to comprise a network of interacting co-dependent adaptations in a way that is analogous to an ecosystem comprising a network of interacting co-dependent species...

Increasing Complexity Can Increase Stability in a Self-Regulating Ecosystem A long standing debate within ecology is to what extent ecosystem complexity and stability are related. Landmark theoretical studies claimed that the more complex an ecosystem, the more unstable it is...

Maybe you are already aware of Robert May's classic "Will a large complex system be stable?" - and #Alife reactions to it by Ezequiel Di Paolo, Inman Harvey, Hywel Williams etc? eg www.academia.edu/98418804/Inc...

I think that you could extrapolate from this to claims about individual species too.

Great internship opportunity for a current MSc/PhD student 👀👀👀‼️

A chance to work on evolutionary simulations for a few weeks in Kyoto with a rising (risen?) star in artificial life research, @sinalana.bsky.social ...

metacognitive science! amsterdam! August!

if you're at #vss2025 come find me to talk about this exciting meeting!

www.metacognitivescience.org

sheitgeist

#ALIFE2025 paper submitted @alife2025.bsky.social ! Just inside the deadline and just under the page limit. Thanking my co-author Conor Houghton for doing the heavy lifting and crossing everything for a Kyoto #ALife trip this winter!

gliders is my favourite

Lecturer in Applied Mathematics at City St George’s, University of London An academic position as a Lecturer in Applied Mathematics is being advertised on jobs.ac.uk. Click now to find more details and explore additional academic job opportunities.

*Permanent* position in Applied Mathematics at City. We are - of course - particularly interested in profiles in Computational Social Science, Network Science, Data Science, and related fields. The application deadline is June 1st.

www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DMY889/l...

We’re hiring two postdocs at UC Davis and Cornell for research on collective intelligence and creativity. This project will use large-scale online experiments to study how groups become smarter and more creative through self-governance. ⅓

Using Collective Intelligence to Develop Design Requirements for a Complex Intervention for Advance Care Planning in the Community Background Engaging people in advance care planning is a challenging systemic problem that requires a social innovation approach and a conceptual framework to guide behavioural and social change eff.....

Using Collective Intelligence to Develop Design Requirements for a Complex Intervention for Advance Care Planning in the Community

onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

Bactoneurons An illustration of two containers with bacteria receiving questions as math problems and 'replying" yes or no

A colorful banner with the number 40 in red and purple and blue, and the text "Celebrate 40 years of Artificial Life

The 20th issue of the Artificial Life newsletter is out!

alife-newsletter.github.io/Newsletter/e...

This edition has a swarm of news about very small creatures! Bring your microscope, your simulator, and come check what is going on!

#ALife⚙️🧫

Interested in live electronic music? Come along - even perform - at the York Electronic Music Open Mic, Fulford Arms York, 12th March 2025. Let me know if you'd like to play! #electronicmusic #york #electronicmusicopenmic #emom #livemusic #experimentalmusic #synths

Interesting. I suppose you have to "read" your examiners to see if they are "pushing you to get you to make your argument work against a critical opponent" or "talking it out with you to get to the bottom of things". I tend to do the latter, but I guess other examiners take the former approach.

unsure of your country/research area; in uk/stem: treat this is as a rare chance to talk with someone that's really read your work (not an exam). don't try to fight the examiners to "win". if you've to do an opening presentation make it v short; then ask if they want more - it's just an icebreaker!

😮

#19 Stakeholder Engagement: Don't put a "Stakeholder Engagement" workpackage at the end of the project workplan - it will look tacked on. Instead, put your engagement activities in a workpackage that runs throughout the project, and finish with a distinctive "Maximising Impact" WP. #AcademicSky

#18 Lit Review: If your project workplan's Task 1 is "Do A Lit Review", you risk reviewers calling you uniformed/unprepared, but if the same task is "Research Team Induction", you look sensible/organised as your new Postdocs/PhDs need to be onboarded and taught the state of the art. #AcademicSky

#17 Workpackages: A WP has a lead, a team, a start + an end. Each is like a box with inputs & outputs. Write a clearly stated *method* that gets you from the inputs to the outputs. Be concise. Be substantive. Work hard to avoid reviews that say: "WPs were vague/flimsy/underspecified". #AcademicSky