Ex Machina: Coevolving Machines and the Origins of the Social Universe

​"If we could rewind the tape of the Earth’s deep history back to the beginning and start the world anew — would social behaviour arise yet again?"

In this presentation we will study the book: "Ex Machina: Coevolving Machines and the Origins of the Social Universe" by John H Miller. We will first start with a tutorial of the three major tools used in the book:

1) Game Theory
2) Finite Automata
3) Artificial Evolution (genetic algorithms)

No prior knowledge of these subjects is required. We will then use these tools to understand emergent social behaviour in a series of toy models of conflict and cooperation that are presented in the book. 

Here is brief description of the book:

"In Ex Machina, John H. Miller introduces a methodology for exploring systems of adaptive, interacting, choice-making agents, and uses this approach to identify conditions sufficient for the emergence of social behaviour. Miller combines ideas from biology, computation, game theory, and the social sciences to evolve a set of interacting automata from asocial to social behaviour."

It’s not necessary to read in advance, but you can also download a pdf of the book using the following link: https://www.sfipress.org/books/ex-machina

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Speaker: Nick
Date: 2023-11-21 at 8pm (doors open at 7pm)
Location: Rue Haldimand 14, 1003 Lausanne. Ring Futurarium/Quine. The space is on the right on the second floor.

As usual, you are welcome to bring guests as well as food and drinks to share.