I'm fascinated to see others here with ALife (and origin of life) history engaged or at least following this current wave of "all things collective". I attended the SFI "Collective Intelligence" workshop last year and while I was impressed by parts of it, disappointed as well. My thoughts and opinions and reflections on it all are probably highly idiosyncratic to my personality and unique history, but the emergent/collective discussions emerging here sometimes really tweak me in a good way. I'm sure my confused throwdowns don't do that justice. And chatting up GPT on the topic probably only makes it worse.
<tangent> regarding Bougie-Hippies - I saw the "construct a 'serendipity generator’ " line and was reminded of my first real techno-capitalist inspiration by a bougie-hippie couple of the era... early 1970's a middle-age (probably late 30s?) couple who worked at the radio station with me... she sold ads and he doubled as the station engineer and on-air personality but they also owned and operated a bakery which was open 5-11AM and sold bake-your-own pizzas as well. They drove a 60's VW van with a hand-painted psychadelic logo "Serendipity Engineering" with an "Peace-Sign overlayed Everything Pizza" rendered in technicolor. They were variously the smartest, kindness and hardest working people I knew and while the local gringo-hispanic redneck culture wanted to dismiss them as bougie-hippies, they had to defer to their amazingly clever industriousness and civic spirit. Everyone ate their donuts and pizza, drank their coffee and waved when they heard the characteristic 60hp aircooled boxer engine putting down the street. They were in the bakery at 5AM (before working at the radio station I helped a friend deliver the morning papers during summers. The local and Phoenix dailies by bicycle. Their bakery was our newspaper drop-point and they let us do our folding at one of their tables, returning 2-3 times over the hours for more papers. They both spent their afternoons into evenings at the Radio Station or selling ads to local merchants. I know they had some help at the bakery but they did all the heavy lifting themselves, best I could tell. A real sustainable-power couple? I still don't know if their "hippie affect" (well groomed but bearded, blousy, bell-bottomy) was a put-on or sincere, but their "bourgoise-mercantilist" nature seemed authentic. I suspect they are dead (or living the good bougie-hippy life in their 90s), they had no children so who knows what their hippy-industrial-capitalistic empire became. I last saw them as I escaped small-town Arizona (1975) for small-city Arizona (Flagstaff) and hardly looked back (until just now). I think young Stephen Guerin hadn't arrived in Tempe quite yet? I like to think he and Allison cut a similar profile in China in the 90s? </tangent> On 3/14/25 9:12 AM, glen wrote:
https://bioengineer.org/uncg-professor-explores-symbiotic-group-behavior-mirroring-single-organisms-securing-600000-from-templeton-foundation/PaBST 2025 Abstracts Due March 31 JUNE 22-27 2025 Philosophy and Biology Shop Talks KEYNOTE TALK BY PETER GODFREY-SMITHThis event is an one of yearly ongoing summer workshops supported by the John Templeton Foundation through the grant “The Emergence and Evolution of Goal-Directed Behavior in Collective Entities” (#63454). Talks that are related to topics of the grant will receive priority, but all talks under the broader category of “life sciences” will be considered. Prioritized topics include: holobionts, host-microbiome interactions, symbiosis, biological individuality, system function and health, and formal evolutionary or eco- evolutionary modeling.This summer workshop is aimed at philosophers, scientists, mathematicians, and scholars working on or within the life sciences, with the goal of fostering interdisciplinary interaction and encouraging collaboration. The overall goal of the workshop is to construct a “serendipity generator’, an event structured to provide ample opportunity and room for innovative ideas to naturally emerge. Successful and surprising cross-disciplinary collaborations are difficult to force; instead they are often borne out of chance conversations and interactions during conferences, research cruises, and workshops.PaBST will be organized as a 4-day retreat with the first (22nd) and last (27th) days reserved for arriving and leaving respectively. Participants will be staying at acommon location and preparing their meals together. Each working day will consist of ~4 hours of talks given by participants, broken up by roundtable discussion events and breakout sessions held at a relaxed pace. Mornings and evenings will be left open in order to let the participants engage with each other in smaller groups during organized activities.Submit a ~500 word abstract for a 30min talk by March 31. Works in progress not yet submitted for publication are especially encouraged.Submit abstracts via email to [email protected]The workshop will take place at Luna’s Trail Farm and Event Center in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains of North Carolina. Lodging is limited and accommodations may have to be shared depending on total attendance. On-site camping is also available.Decisions should be made by April 21. Financial support will be available. Students and those without funding alternatives will be prioritized.Questions? email [email protected]
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