ISAL is organising a special session at ALIFE XV on Artificial Life and its societal impact. To maximise the session’s productivity, we are starting the conversation now and we’d love to have your input!

ISAL: Special Session on ALife and Society

At the Fifteenth International Conference on the Synthesis and Simulation of Living Systems (ALIFE XV) Cancún, Mexico 2016

Tuesday July 5th, 14:30-19:00

Organisers: Dr Alexandra Penn, Prof. Mark Bedau, Prof. Steen Rasmussen

Join the Conversation Today: Invitation to Contribute

As part of this society-themed conference, the International Society for Artificial Life has organised a special session on Artificial Life and its societal impact. We will survey the state of the field with a collection of submitted and invited talks, collaboratively set out the “Grand Challenges”, and forge the agenda for the way ahead.

We are taking this opportunity to collate ideas on our technologies and approaches and their possible societal contributions and impact with an interactive and challenging special session. We start with a diverse programme of talks presenting new perspectives on this broad theme. Speakers will act as provocateurs, suggesting new approaches, highlighting challenges and opportunities and asking key questions. This will be followed by extensive group discussion, framing the key issues and challenges for the field and initiating working groups on practical projects to take forward our agenda. Groups will meet during the conference itself to take ideas forward and maximise community momentum. We will report back and set out our next steps for action at the end of the conference.

To maximise the session’s productivity, we are starting the conversation now and we’d love to have your input. Please use the links below to start suggesting and discussing what you think are the most important challenges in the ALife and society agenda and to propose practical actions which we could start to work on as a community.

Join the conversation now:

What are the grand challenges for ALife’s societal impact?

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1r6l86_nfiqtKykKTtDEaGBQi28G1_adOd_s7zz0j-A4/edit?usp=sharing

What practical initiatives can we set up to address these challenges?

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Ld7e4puB3E9gHd7mRiXXRkIgFqeyN7fRVbeOp7KrgSg/edit?usp=sharing