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Emergent communication studies the development of language between autonomous agents, aiming to improve understanding of natural language evolution and increase communication efficiency. While temporal aspects of language have been…
We introduce and study a learning theory which is roughly automatic, that is, it does not require but a minimum of initial programming, and is based on the potential computational phenomenon of self-reference, (i.e. the potential ability of…
Despite their widespread utility across domains, basic network models face fundamental limitations when applied to complex biological systems, particularly in neuroscience. This paper critically examines these limitations and explores…
The fields of neural computation and artificial neural networks have developed much in the last decades. Most of the works in these fields focus on implementing and/or learning discrete functions or behavior. However, technical, physical,…
It is often claimed that the fundamental laws of physics are deterministic and time-symmetric and that therefore our experience of the passage of time is an illusion. This paper will critically discuss these claims and show that they are…
We propose a novel definition of life in terms of which its emergence in the universe is expected, and its ever-creative open-ended evolution is entailed by no law. Living organisms are Kantian Wholes that achieve Catalytic Closure,…
While evolution has inspired algorithmic methods of heuristic optimisation, little has been done in the way of using concepts of computation to advance our understanding of salient aspects of biological phenomena. We argue that under…
By unifying three foundational principles of modern biology, we develop a mathematical framework to analyze the growing tree of life. Contrary to the static case, where the analogy between phylogenetic trees and the tree that grows in soil…
The emergence of life from inanimate matter presents a thermodynamic challenge: the Second Law of Thermodynamics dictates a global trend towards disorder, yet life constitutes localized pockets of profound organization. This paper presents…
In this paper, we develop a representation-theoretic formulation of discrete-time linear systems. We show that such systems are naturally viewed as representations of time groups acting on vector spaces, thereby endowing the state space…
The traditional metaphysical debate between static and dynamic views in the philosophy of time is examined in light of considerations concerning the nature of time in physical theory. Adapting the formalism of Rovelli (1995, 2004), I set…
We study the statistical underpinnings of life. We question some common assumptions about the thermodynamics of life and illustrate how, contrary to widespread belief, even in a closed system entropy growth can accompany an increase in…
Life can be viewed as a localized chemical system that sits on, or in the basin of attraction of, a metastable dynamical attractor state that remains out of equilibrium with the environment. Such a view of life allows that new living states…
Real-time systems are traditionally classified into hard real-time and soft real-time: in the first category we have safety critical real-time systems where missing a deadline can have catastrophic consequences, whereas in the second class…
Artificial life is a research field studying what processes and properties define life, based on a multidisciplinary approach spanning the physical, natural and computational sciences. Artificial life aims to foster a comprehensive study of…
Dynamical systems with long delay feedback can exhibit complicated temporal phenomena, which once re-organized in a two-dimensional space are reminiscent of spatio-temporal behavior. In this framework, normal forms description have been…
The standard assumptions that underlie many conceptual and quantitative frameworks do not hold for many complex physical, biological, and social systems. Complex systems science clarifies when and why such assumptions fail and provides…
Memory is inherently entangled with prediction and planning. Flexible behavior in biological and artificial agents depends on the interplay of learning from the past and predicting the future in ever-changing environments. This chapter…
Physics is a model of nature able to both describe and predict the results of measurements made with respect to reference systems. These reference systems, in turn, are themselves physical and thus subject to the laws of physics. The…
We describe a new class of models of quantum space-time based on energetic causal sets and show that under natural conditions space-time emerges from them. These are causal sets whose causal links are labelled by energy and momentum and…