How do different fields try to get at the nitty gritty of what living systems require in order to fit the definition of “alive”? How have researchers from the areas of artificial life and synthetic biology assumed certain ontologies of life, or, ways of being that life must adhere to, in their research programs? What is top down versus bottom up creation of life? What are protocells? What on earth are emergent properties? And how do these questions depend on if the world a closed or open-ended system? Tune into this episode to find out about some compelling musings on these questions.
Dr. Mark Bedau a professor of Philosophy at Reed College in Portland Oregon as well as the editor of the Journal of Artificial Life.
He is also the:
Co-Founder of the European Center for Living Technology (ECLT)
Partner in the EU-funded Programmable Artificial Cell Evolution (PACE) program
Co-organizer of the Eleventh International Conference on the Simulation and Synthesis of Living Systems (Artificial Life XI)
Visiting Professor, Ph.D. Program in Life Sciences: Foundations and Ethics, European School of Molecular Medicine
Rebecca Wilbanks is a PhD candidate in the program on Modern Thought and Literature at Stanford University. Originally trained as a biologist, she is now interested in the connections between science and literature, synthetic biology, origins of life research, evolutionary biology, systems theories, post-colonial studies, and 20th century literature.
