What ALife! Podcast

Imy Khan

Welcome to the What ALife! Podcast: a show that explores topics in artificial life (ALife) and related fields, as well as science in general, and the experiences of life as a scientist in the modern era. Expect a blend of light-hearted discussions that try to make complex topics accessible to the masses, research round-ups that keep you in the loop with the progress in our fields, and insightful, deep-dive conversations with a range of scientists and practitioners across all career levels. read less

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Episode 03: Manuel Baltieri: Theories of Agency (Part 1)

Episode 03: Manuel Baltieri: Theories of Agency (Part 1)

Note: There is a minor sound issue in the first 2 minutes (the intro) of this episode which will be rectified shortly. On this episode of the What ALife! Podcast, I am joined by Manuel Balteiri, chief researcher at Araya Inc. (araya.org/en/). Manuel's current research focuses on theories of "agency". How do we define an agent in both physical and artificial systems? What are the boundaries of an agent and the environment? What are the prerequisites or properties that we could look for to identify the presence of an agentic system? These are the sorts of questions we dive into on this episode. Manuel also shares with us his interesting career journey, from his undergrad to his PhD and beyond, leading up to his current work looking at these sorts of questions. 00:00 Episode Intro 02:14 Manuel Intro & Career Trajectory 31:14 Defining an Agent 37:30 Understanding Agency and Boundaries 45:32 Preserving Boundaries and Adaptivity 53:29 The Importance of Goals in Agency 01:02:46 The Illusion of Agency 01:12:46 The Balance Between External and Intrinsic Properties of Agency 01:17:47 The Practical Applications of Agency Links from this episode: Contribute to the ALife Newsletter ⁠Subscribe to the ALife Newsletter⁠ ⁠Emerging Researchers in ALife Discord⁠ Manuel: Website⁠ | Twitter | BlueSky Follow Imy: Twitter: ⁠twitter.com/imy_tk ⁠Get in touch! ⁠podcast@imytk.co.uk⁠ Artwork credit: ⁠Gabriel J. Severino

Episodes

Episode 03: Manuel Baltieri: Theories of Agency (Part 1)

Episode 03: Manuel Baltieri: Theories of Agency (Part 1)

Note: There is a minor sound issue in the first 2 minutes (the intro) of this episode which will be rectified shortly. On this episode of the What ALife! Podcast, I am joined by Manuel Balteiri, chief researcher at Araya Inc. (araya.org/en/). Manuel's current research focuses on theories of "agency". How do we define an agent in both physical and artificial systems? What are the boundaries of an agent and the environment? What are the prerequisites or properties that we could look for to identify the presence of an agentic system? These are the sorts of questions we dive into on this episode. Manuel also shares with us his interesting career journey, from his undergrad to his PhD and beyond, leading up to his current work looking at these sorts of questions. 00:00 Episode Intro 02:14 Manuel Intro & Career Trajectory 31:14 Defining an Agent 37:30 Understanding Agency and Boundaries 45:32 Preserving Boundaries and Adaptivity 53:29 The Importance of Goals in Agency 01:02:46 The Illusion of Agency 01:12:46 The Balance Between External and Intrinsic Properties of Agency 01:17:47 The Practical Applications of Agency Links from this episode: Contribute to the ALife Newsletter ⁠Subscribe to the ALife Newsletter⁠ ⁠Emerging Researchers in ALife Discord⁠ Manuel: Website⁠ | Twitter | BlueSky Follow Imy: Twitter: ⁠twitter.com/imy_tk ⁠Get in touch! ⁠podcast@imytk.co.uk⁠ Artwork credit: ⁠Gabriel J. Severino

Episode 02: Alyssa Adams: From PhD to Postdoc Life and Non-Academia Career Paths; Artificial Life Resources, Religion and Science

Episode 02: Alyssa Adams: From PhD to Postdoc Life and Non-Academia Career Paths; Artificial Life Resources, Religion and Science

On this episode of the What ALife! Podcast, I chat with Alyssa Adams, entrepreneur, and research fellow at Cross Labs (Japan). Alyssa and I dive into what life looks like transitioning out of PhD life and into postdoc life, the challenges and considerations that come with it, as well as how to navigate pursuing a life outside of academia beyond a PhD. Later in the episode, we recommend some useful community resources for anyone interested in learning more about ALife or who wants to find ways to get involved with the community, and we close by discussing our views and experiences with balancing science and religion. 00:00 Introduction and Background 09:35 Transitioning from PhD to Postdoc and Alternate Career Paths 30:54 Balancing Personal Life and Career 49:16 Resources for Getting Involved in ALife 01:02:24 Alyssa's Role as Development Chair on ISAL Board 01:03:19 The Intersection of Religion and Science Links from this episode: Open-endedness: The last grand challenge you’ve never heard of – O’Reilly (oreilly.com) Alife Newsletter (Xmas Edition with lots of ALife resources) Subscribe to the ALife Newsletter Emerging Researchers in ALife Discord Alyssa: Website ProPhound Follow Imy:Twitter: twitter.com/imy_tkGet in touch! podcast@imytk.co.uk Artwork credit: Gabriel J. Severino

Episode 01: Hiroki Sayama: Cellular Automata, Evoloops, Covid19 & How ALifers Can Address Complex Societal Problems

Episode 01: Hiroki Sayama: Cellular Automata, Evoloops, Covid19 & How ALifers Can Address Complex Societal Problems

Welcome to the first episode of the What ALife! Podcast! In this episode, I speak with Hiroki Sayama - Professor in the Department of Systems Science and Industrial Engineering, and the Director of the Binghamton Center of Complex Systems (CoCo), at Binghamton University (USA) - about all things cellular automata (CA): what they are, where they came from, what they are useful for; as well as his own ground-breaking work in CA systems in the late 90s. We also talk about continuous CA, and what the future of CA might look like. We also discuss his more recent work modelling the spread of covid-19 and how artificial life researchers can help address complex societal problems, based on a short paper of the same name. Video of Evoloops in action (YouTube): Spontaneous Evolution of Evoloops in Finite Space (youtube.com) Follow Hiroki: | Twitter/X | Mastodon | BlueSky Follow Imy: Twitter Get in touch! podcast@imytk.co.uk Artwork credit: Gabriel J. Severino