Open-Ended Development in Role Systems

This seminar outlines an Artificial Life approach to explore the phenomena of growth and development in ecological, economic, and social systems at an abstract level. “Development” is the emergence of novel types of system elements and their integration into the system through novel types of relations - a process which I will call “role proliferation.” This is in contrast to system growth, characterized by simple increases in the number of elements, without any increase in the variety of types of elements or relations between elements. Central to this ALife approach is the notion of a “role system,” which will formalize the idea of the role proliferation process. This seminar will briefly explain the key concepts (development, role systems, and open-ended evolution) along with some established metrics for measuring open-ended evolution, and describe a model for exploring development dynamics in artificial role systems.https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/systems_science_seminar_series/1117/thumbnail.jp