🌻 Summer School as it Could Be @crosslabsai.bsky.social proudly wrapped up Cross Labs ALife Summer School (CLASS), welcoming bright young students who dove into the world of artificial life with curiosity and excitement.

Does not work. Will not work. Current evidence has suggested that robots are not solving this problem, and oftentimes making things worse. Why are we still believing this? Big Robot funding this narrative probably :/ Article may be paywalled, but it's here: www.telegraph.co.uk/business/202...

Hey #ALIFE2025 people! Have you heard of Assembly Theory? A month ago, I wrote a good, objective essay summarizing AT's contributions, limitations, and possible improvements. It's perfect if you don't want to read all the critiques and counter-critiques that have been written!

Can't decide between "Knight of the Thimble", "fish-bender", and "Count as female" so I'll leave the choice to you

Almost back home after an extremely busy, and EXTREMELY fun, @alife2025.bsky.social. I had an absolute blast and my mind and heart are FULL. I am so fortunate to be part of this community. It continues to set the standard for what a scientific community & conference needs to be. You're all awesome!

This year's ALICE guest speakers 🧑‍🔬 - Angel Goñi-Moreno - @angelgm.bsky.social - Alyssa Adams - @alyssa-m-adams.bsky.social - Alexander Mordvintsev - Eric Medvet - @ericmedvetts.bsky.social - Kyrre Glette - @kyrre2000.bsky.social - Stefano Nichele - @stenichele.bsky.social - Susan Stepney

Richard Löffler creates lifelike oil droplets during the public event at #ALIFE2025. ⚙️🧫

Now @imytk.bsky.social introduces us to his computational framework of bio-inspired adaptive systems using social allostatic principles. He followed up his model showing empirical testing of it. #ALIFE2025

We put a lot of effort into creating this year’s MiniCon with lots of exciting talks! The best of it - it is free for everyone! So if you are in Kyoto this Sunday please sign up and join 🙂‍↕️ #ALIFE2025 #ERA

Hello Japan! And see you soon @alife2025.bsky.social!

ERA MiniCon is a blast, and your gateway drug into the conference and the community! All free of charge, come through!

If you're coming to @alife2025.bsky.social and have ideas (even half-baked ideas) for how we can improve #ALIFE outreach efforts, please: - add them in the link below - join us on Monday 6th October 9am to see if we can bring these ideas to fruition! docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

Incredibly high house prices, unaffordable rent, a moderate-high amount of tourism, in a *very* small city that's filled with students and old old money... (That being said, Cambridge is beautiful and my favourite restaurant is there but I'm not sure I would want to live there either 🤔)

Ah yes, very normal behaviour when you want to negotiate a peace deal to not turn up, and instead send 15 planes to kill the other party. And to do it to a country that has continually hosted these negotiations for you. Yes, completely normal behaviour by a state that wants nothing but peace.

Meet Emerging Researchers in #ALIFE2025 at MiniCon October 5th! Warm up and join us the day before the conference for valuable insights on building your research career! MiniCon is a series of career-oriented lectures and events designed for researchers. ⬇️ ⬇️ ⬇️

This follows the call published in the Lancet for all professional and academic associations to “break the selective silence on the genocide in Gaza” and fulfil their moral responsibility by speaking out. Find the call here and support it by signing their petition: www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...

This is a call for the Complex Systems Society to stand with other academic organizations and publicly condemn the ongoing genocide in Gaza 🇵🇸 Add your name to the letter here: docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

#Workshop Call! Does ALIFE have a "marketing problem" ? We think so - and we're trying to do something about it! Come help us, at the Societal Outreach Initiatives for Artificial Life Workshop #ALIFE2025. More details: imytk.github.io/blog/2025/al... @alife2025.bsky.social

Just seen a conference registration fee at just $1600 ($1400 early bird)... At what point can we just admit that this system is completely nonsensical and that we need to cull it and start over? Absolute shambles.

Pretty sure that when I tell the Amazon chatbot that I'd like to speak to an associate, they say, "okay" and pass me over to another chatbot. 😫🥸

Pre-print is up for my paper to be presented at #ALIFE2025 @alife2025.bsky.social! [Social] Allostasis: Or, How I Learned To Stop Worrying and Love The Noise tl;dr: Systems that leverage social & environmental "noise" for reconfiguration of internal parameters > systems that react to and resist it

Such a great contest! And a well-deserved winner! 🐱 😸

me: *adds two words to manuscript* LaTeX: *spills four lines over to the next page*

[1/3] 📣 Decisions are out for Full Papers & Summaries! Camera-Ready Versions Due Aug 18th 2025 (AoE) We’re delighted to announce that notifications for full paper & summary submissions were released on Monday, 4 August 2025. Authors, please check your emails!

Yay, paper accepted! See you soon, @alife2025.bsky.social :) #ALIFE2025

✊🏿💕🎮

Hey #ALifers! Want a free entry to #ALIFE2025? You still have time to sketch up a mascot design to become the face of the conference! Details in the post below.

I have two main goals when I go to Kyoto for @alife2025.bsky.social: 1. Have an awesome and memorable #ALIFE2025 conference. 2. Buy a suitcase load of Pokémon plushies.

The BBC article is, yet again, passive in describing the reason for the mass starvation and malnutrition. How this coloniser force gets away with this time and time again is simply unbelievable. My heart breaks for my Palestinian brothers and sisters. www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/cx...

I finally had time to update PyCX to ver. 1.2! Many new models and bug fixes. Enjoy!! github.com/hsayama/PyCX

The language and attitude towards ME countries is truly baffling at the best of times. "Authoritarian", "dictatorships", won't do business with them bc of "security concerns." All of it is used to push the idea that western world = good and brown ME = bad.

What if AI isn’t about building solo geniuses, but designing social systems? Michael Jordan advocates blending ML, economics, and uncertainty management to prioritize social welfare over mere prediction. A must-read rethink. arxiv.org/abs/2507.062...

👼🗺📍

The next foundational paper of complexity science will be discussed Thurs, July 10, at 2:00 pm EDT. Paper: C. E. Shannon, “A Mathematical Theory of Communication” (1948). people.math.harvard.edu/~ctm/home/te...

Super honoured to be an ambassador for #ALIFE2025. If you have never been to an #ALIFE conference before, then I encourage you to check it out this year. There will be both online and in-person options! :D

Are you a reader of Artificial Life newsletter? Or is it the first time you've ever heard of it? Either way we have some questions for you! Take a minute to fill this survey and make your opinions known: docs.google.com/forms/d/1fop...

Palestine Action, a well-established direct action civil disobedience group which (mostly) stays within the law, and which does not pursue violence, has been designated a terrorist group in the same way as ISIS, Al Qaeda, etc. A clear attack on our rights. Truly disgraceful by the UK government.

oh no did the murderous occupying forces get their feewings hurt :(

Since Bob Vylan said "Death, death to the IDF" the IDF has killed 400 Palestinians. Which is why he said what he said.

Someone is not enjoying the heatwave.

I realised I never talked about a couple of things I wrote last year, so here we go. What does it mean to form a "social bond" with a robot? Existing approaches often miss the mark, relying heavily on subjective, post-interaction psychological measures which...isn't right IMO. 😄 #ALIFE #HRI

maaaaaaan what is it about airports that makes people forget how to be normal human beings?

On this topic, @annaciaunica.bsky.social did some really cool work on co-embodiment & co-homeostasis (of mother and baby) a few years ago and definitely worth checking out. pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33872985/

My PhD research and beyond has looked at how affective social interactions & "relationships" influence self-regulation & self-organisation of an agent, social "partners", and the wider social environment that they exist in. I did a bunch of modelling and have data that could keep me busy for years!

Turkish donnies are responsible for two of the greatest things on this planet: 1. Dope haircuts 2. Chicken shawarma.

Dr. Lisa Ouss (Belgium) opened with a groundbreaking talk: “Early infant development: is there anything new?” Highlighting the fetus as socially and cognitively active. There are several indirect but significant implications for #intersex agency & body autonomy. #NPSA #neuropsychoanalysis

I opted for a 2am flight home, figured that would be better than spending the daytime travelling. I somehow forgot that (a) i am a poor sleeper at the best of times and (b) i have never once successfully slept on a plane. So I'm going to waste all of tomorrow by being unable to do owt anyway 🙃

Forming lasting pair bonds changes how the neurons of mandarin voles respond to dopamine.

"You should expect to face views you might find shocking or offensive, and you should be aware that's part of the process of education." 100% in agreement with this. Freedom to express and discuss diverse views must be maintained at higher education institutions. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...