When driven by an external thermodynamic gradient, nonbiological physical systems can exhibit a wide range of behaviours usually associated with living systems. Consequently, Artificial Life researchers should be open to the possibility that there is no hard-and-fast distinction between the biological and the physical. This suggests a novel field of research: the application of biologists’ meth...

Surfaces and their interactions are at the heart of living systems and all moving objects. They have fascinated man from the ancient Egyptians, through Leonardo Da Vinci in the Renaissance period, to nanotechnologists of today. This paper elucidates the science of surfaces and their interactions, covering the importance of surfaces and how they influence us all in terms of energy, environment a...

Abstract. We study the problem of how a “living” system complex in structure can respond perfectly to local changes in the environment. Such a system is assumed to consist of a distributed “living” medium and a hierarchical “supplying” network that provides this medium with “nutritious” products. Because of the hierarchical organization each element of the supplying network has to behave in a s...

While biological metaphors have a long history of use in computer security, they have been more successful in describing malicious software than in helping create better defenses. Immune system mechanisms, diversity, and homeostasis have helped inspire the development of promising computer security technologies. To fulfill the promise of biologically-inspired security, however, more work is nee...

This paper examines the potential of the Living labs concept as change catalyst for rural and regional development. An action research approach is proposed as a basis for organising innovation in Living labs. The approach distinguishes between strategic and operational Living labs activities. We discuss how software development as spiral process and how architecture framework development can be...

A. Nikulina et al.

A conceptual architecture for ambient assisted living is introduced as a contribution to the development of an ecosystem of products and services supporting active ageing. In order to facilitate understanding and better interrelate concepts, a 3-layered model is adopted: Infrastructure layer, Care and assistance services layer, and AAL ecosystem layer. A holistic perspective of ambient assisted...

This paper deals with the possible benefits of Perceptual Learning in Artificial Intelligence. On the one hand, Perceptual Learning is more and more studied in neurobiology and is now considered as an essential part of any living system. In fact, Perceptual Learning and Cognitive Learning are both necessary for learning and often depends on each other. On the other hand, many works in Machine L...

Some research works have mentioned the similarity of autopoiesis with (M,R) systems proposed by Rosen, from the perspective of closedness of the systems. However, there are some difference between the aspects of closedness required for autopoiesis and (M,R) systems. This paper aims at clarifying these differences to investigate the possibility of algebraic description of living systems, based o...

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