SOCIETAL IMPACT OF ARTIFICIAL LIFE

Report on the ISAL Special Session on ALife and Society,
ALife XV, Cancún, Mexico, 2016

Alexandra Penn*
University of Surrey

Keywords: ALife and society, participatory research, living technology, policy modeling, human complex adaptive systems

As part of the society-themed Artificial Life 2016 Conference, ISAL organized a special session on
artificial life and its societal impact. This was a deliberate attempt to bring in new voices, to challenge
ourselves as a community, and to start to build a movement within ALife to genuinely engage with
society. Our motivation was a strong conviction that not only does our community have a responsi-
bility to contribute to questioning societal trajectories and to shaping new approaches, but that we are
uniquely positioned to do so. As yet our collective response has been fragmented and relatively under-
explored. Our aim is to start the conversation, make connections, build a movement, and kick-start
initiatives to engage with the future of society critically and creatively and forge the agenda for the way
ahead. A diverse program of invited and contributed talks presented new perspectives on this broad
theme. Speakers aimed to act as provocateurs, suggesting new approaches, highlighting challenges and
opportunities, and asking key questions, sparking off group discussion, which continued throughout
the conference with online collection of ideas and follow-up discussions throughout the week. This
article gives an overview of the ideas and themes brought forward and where we might go from here.

1 Artificial, and Real, Life

The tone for the session was set with a forcible reality check from the invited speaker Luis Garcia
Barrios, who has many yearsʼ experience of transdisciplinary participatory research with smallholders
in the tropical mountains of Mexico. He asked us to consider what artificial life and complexity science
offer the median human being, who, he reminded us, is working class and poor. He focused particularly
on the rural poor, engaged in small-scale agriculture and hence intimately involved with the management
of the complexity of living systems, yet marginalized by technological and societal change—people who
are facing real, rather than artificial, suffering and death, in often brutal circumstances. With large-scale
global economic and societal change, many rural communities of small farmers have seen their status
diminish from stewardship of nature to a scrabbling, unstable existence begging at the edges of society.
Interacting continuously with complex agroecosystems and intimately concerned with their dynamics,
these farmers have an affinity for complexity-sensitive, ecosystemic approaches. However, although
they have the potential to provide valuable ecosystem services, they are often forced into downward
spirals of ecosystem degradation by the demands of the broader socioeconomic context. In parallel, the

* Centre for Research in Social Simulation (CRESS), Centre for Evaluation of Complexity Across the Nexus (CECAN), University of
Surrey, UK. E-mail: a.penn@surrey.ac.uk

Artificial Life 24: 80–84 (2018) doi:10.1162/ARTL_a_00249

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predominant visions of modern bio-smart farming (closed-loop hydroponic systems served by robots,
for example) are of simplified, disconnected agroecosystems, which, although potentially resource-
efficient, neither provide ecosystem services nor use human skill or labor. Luis discussed the alternative
provided by agroecology, in which agricultural ecosystems are designed, constructed, and managed with
the benefit of ecological science to provide both food and ecosystem services. Practitioners consider
agroecology not simply a science, but a practice and a social movement—one to which artificial life
could perhaps contribute.

Despite their inclination towards complexity-sensitive views and practice, there is still much that
farmers and agroecologists could learn and assimilate from complexity science and artificial life. Luis
and his group work directly with farmers, introducing them to fundamentals of complexity and eco-
logical dynamics, through games, models, and participation. This provides them with the tools and
knowledge to make better management decisions informed by up-to-date science, for their own
socioecological systems. The sharing, testing, and co-producing of complexity insights and tools
as they apply in the real world and impact peoplesʼ lives is, he suggests, an area in which the ALife
community could contribute substantially.

2 What Role for Artificial Life?

2.1 Models and Modeling Philosophy
At one step removed from the coalface of practice, other contributors suggested a diversity of
potential roles that ALife could play.

Seth Bullock discussed the potential role of ALifeʼs distinctive modeling approach within the
science-policy interface [2]. Simulation is now widely used in policy analysis, but the ideal model
is assumed to be one with (pseudo)empirical status, which can make detailed predictions or forecasts
about how the impact of a policy will unfold. However, many policy domains are both complex and
theoretically insecure : Well-established, broadly agreed-on theory does not yet exist for them. ALife-
style exploratory models, designed to generate and advance new theory, might be more suited to
such domains than misleadingly predictive models that rely on well-established theory. Given the
urgency of the need to address complex system problems, Bullock argues that artificial life can func-
tion as a “model discipline” providing an exemplar of how exploratory models can be used to pro-
duce insights into the possible ways that systems might behave rather than simply predicting how
they will behave. Exploratory models could be used to advance theory in policy-relevant domains,
but can also be profoundly illuminating in their own right. A model providing an accessible narrative of
how, for example, some plausible micro-level behavior might give rise to a counterintuitive higher-level
effect could broaden understanding of how public policy could be made and the effects it might have.
Developing and contributing to a science-policy interface, and indeed a policy process, that could make
good use of exploratory modeling is a challenge that the ALife community could readily take up.

Simon Powersʼ models of the evolution of socioeconomic institutions provided an exemplar of
this approach [4]. In modeling institutions as dynamic, evolving structures composed of and
constructed by individuals—each of whom would prefer to construct rules that further their own
self-interest—rather than as static, context-independent monoliths, we can provide a better under-
standing of how they really work. Models that acknowledge institutions as complex, evolving sys-
tems generated from the bottom up allow the exploration of potential nonlinear dynamics such as
discontinuous change and allow us to interrogate how individual behavior and institutional forms
might coevolve, potentially enhancing our ability to make effective policy. Although such simpli-
fied models are seldom used in policy arenas and could encounter strong criticism regarding their
“practicality,” they could potentially provide a crucial service in changing perceptions of what insti-
tutions and other social structures actually are or could be. Opening a window for policymakers to a
perception of the components of the social and political world as dynamic and coevolutionary,
capable of changing or being changed radically, could be powerfully influential.

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2.2 Engineering Living and Lifelike Technologies
Other speakers discussed our role and responsibilities as engineers, considering the societal implications of
the new, rapidly emerging technologies that we and others create. These include, amongst others, living
and lifelike technologies, digital technologies, machine learning, and AI: the so-called BINC (bio, info,
nano, cogno) technologies [5]. Enormous and potentially harmful change is arising from the way that these
technologies are currently affecting society, culture, politics, economics, and the environment. There is an
urgent requirement for new law, policy, and social norms to manage and adapt to these changes.

Steen Rasmussen presented numerous potential issues in the collaboratively produced BINC
Manifesto [5]. A series of postulates on the current technological transition covering how the digital
economy differs from the industrial, the citizen in cyberspace and as a biological entity, the erosion
of the middle class and democracy in developed economies, and global interdependence of countries
in the Anthropocene. Although these issues are becoming increasingly visible, particularly in the
interaction of digital technologies with our democratic processes, social norms, and economies,
his experience of policy engagement suggests that decision makers are as yet not open to fully
addressing these changes. Again, this is a call to action for our community to consider and commu-
nicate the potential impacts of our technologies—impacts that may be increasingly felt under the
pressures of increasing population, environmental degradation, and economic and political instability.
Exploring one such issue in detail, Dave Ackley discussed specific legal and social implications of one
postulated future for ALife technologies, the “digital microbiome” [1], in which our personal devices might
be host to myriad software-based artificial life creatures, potentially as vital to our normal functioning as gut
bacteria. Ackley suggests that, as we potentially devolve more and more of our autonomic monitoring and
processing to our devices, the boundary between the public and private network will become a point
requiring legal definition. He argues that in such a situation regularly carried devices should be considered
part of the self, rather than simply property, by both law and social norm. Such discussion highlights the
need for hard thinking on these emerging issues, which call into question fundamental assumptions on the
nature, rights, and responsibilities of the individual interacting in new technological and social contexts.

2.3 Society, Policy, and Economies as Complex Adaptive Systems
Contextualizing this discussion, Mark Bedau emphasized that the social, economic, and political con-
texts that new, living, complex adaptive systems (CAS) technologies will enter are also themselves
complex adaptive systems. They thus have some of the same properties, and approaches to policy-
making here must take account of the need to deal with these nested systems. Complex systems
have particular properties that influence the way decisions, policymaking, and management for them
should be properly approached. Bedau selects several key features of these “complex causal webs”:
They are composed of many nodes with nonlinear responses, with many local connections and
loops, and with many up- and downstream connections. Altogether these properties mean that com-
plex systems will display emergent properties and positive and negative feedbacks, and will be highly
sensitive to their context. Their behavior cannot be precisely predicted; such systems are their own
best model. The most effective ways to determine their future behaviors is via simulation, systematic
experimentation, and observation as they unfold over time. Bedau suggests that this implies certain
requirements for their effective management: “expecting the unexpected,” due to lack of predict-
ability; learning the nature of systemsʼ global behaviors from experience, and remaining flexible as
systems and contexts continually change; applying a plurality of approaches, methods, hypotheses,
and experiments; and hence producing a diversity of perspectives. These requirements apply as
much to how we should approach policymaking and management for the interaction of CAS tech-
nologies with society, as to management and design of CAS technologies themselves.

3 Reflections and the Way Ahead

Reflecting on the ALife and Society session, I believe that the diversity of perspectives and speakers
and the enthusiasm and participation of the audience have shown us that there is a clear appetite for

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this effort within the community—and, I believe, has clearly demonstrated that we are in a position
to contribute, through our tools, technologies, and philosophical approaches. We are at an apposite
moment. Huge societal issues driven by technological, social, and environmental change now
impinge on our daily lives and are common currency in the public domain, if not yet in mainstream
politics. These issues have been visible on the horizon and the subject of discussion and work in
complexity science and artificial life for several years. The problems have not changed, but only now
have many of them entered into broad public discourse, often with a sense of apocalyptic urgency.
The artificial life community has a great opportunity to contribute now, to offer our services, and to
make our thinking as widely available as possible.

These problems are urgent and vitally important, and we have a responsibility to contribute, but
also a great need to learn. My impression from some of the questions and discussion sessions was
that there may still be an underlying tendency to consider these problems technical challenges to
be solved or optimized. This is a dangerous fallacy. All the complex adaptive systems of societal
concern require normative choices. Optimization must be for someone or something, and in these
so-called “wicked problem” domains there are always tradeoffs, winners and losers, ethical judg-
ments, and democratic decisions to be made. We should see ourselves and our work as the servants
of society, not as its saviors. Although scientific expertise and technical contributions towards
understanding and manipulating complex adaptive systems are clearly a large part of the puzzle,
we must not make the mistake of underestimating the truly social, political, and practical nature
of these issues. New political, economic, and social institutions are also needed to manage this
emerging world, and the societal component of addressing these challenges requires participation
and expertise from many quarters. We must engage in dialogue with the social sciences and human-
ities and be open to and respect diverse approaches and expertise. We must work collaboratively
with stakeholders, from practitioners to communities, in real-world problem domains, merging
theory and praxis. Engaging with people is both pragmatic and a serious moral responsibility.

We must focus attention on how our particular style of modeling can and should be used, pro-
viding a clear alternative to the idea of the model as an empirically valid stand-in for the system, with
the model as an exploratory tool and probe of possible system behaviors. We must use models to
provide insights into which kinds of low-level dynamics can give rise to which kinds of unexpected
effect, emergent behavior or discontinuous, nonlinear change. Highlighting the need to take account
of the possibility of complex, adaptive behavior leads to a requirement to change the form of the
policy design, analysis, and evaluation processes. We must thus consider how theoretically insecure
models can best fit within real decision making, design, and management processes and make the
case for adaptive, flexible, and experimental decision making and policy frameworks that match the
requirements of complex adaptive systems. Indeed, simply using simple, exploratory models to show
decision makers what it could mean to consider a socioeconomic system a CAS and the radical
difference that this might make would be a powerful achievement. Using models to provide trans-
parent complexity narratives and bringing an understanding of the properties of complex adaptive
systems into the public realm is one of the most important things that we could do to change the
nature of the debate.

My final thought is that we should redraw the boundaries of what we consider to be artificial life
(or the focus of artificial life), reconsidering what sort of systems we look at. We discussed the
nature of living technologies, wet ALife, and synthetic biology as complex adaptive systems, but
also the systemic complexity of the social, economic, and policy contexts, which themselves consist
of many complex adaptive systems at multiple scales. I believe that we can usefully treat a great many
human and socioecological systems as (hybrid) living systems and that many existing biologically-based
technologies could be fruitfully considered artificial life in order to gain new insights and perspectives
[3]. In contrast to synthetic biology, for example, artificial life can provide a non-reductive view of
living technologies. Rather than representing the impoverished vision of the “bio-smart” future, epit-
omized by simplistic, highly controlled agroecosystems farmed by robots, I believe that artificial life
more naturally connects to the nuanced, dynamic, interactive complexity of agroecology. The nature
of ALife as a discipline concerned with the sprawling, evolving, self-creating, self-bounding, open,

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enactive, and embodied living system makes us the appropriate home for a new science, philosophy, and
practice of managing, interacting with, creating, and steering rich, subtle, and ambiguously bounded
complex adaptive living systems for society.

References
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Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.7551/978-0-262-33936-0-ch015.

2. Bullock, S. (2016). Alife as a model discipline for policy-relevant simulation modelling: Might “worse”

simulations fuel a better science-policy interface? In C. Gershenson, T. Froese, J. M. Siqueiros, W. Aguilar,
E. J. Izquierdo, & H. Sayama (Eds.), Proceedings of the Sixteenth International Conference on Artificial Life (pp. 28–29).
Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.7551/978-0-262-33936-0-ch010.

3. Penn, A. S. (2016). Artificial life and society: Philosophies and tools for experiencing, interacting with and
managing real world complex adaptive systems. In C. Gershenson, T. Froese, J. M. Siqueiros, W. Aguilar,
E. J. Izquierdo, & H. Sayama (Eds.), Proceedings of the Sixteenth International Conference on Artificial Life (pp. 26–27).
Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.7551/978-0-262-33936-0-ch009-bis.

4. Powers, S. (2016). The institutional approach for modeling the evolution of human societies. In C.

Gershenson, T. Froese, J. M. Siqueiros, W. Aguilar, E. J. Izquierdo, & H. Sayama (Eds.), Proceedings of the
Sixteenth International Conference on Artificial Life (pp. 30–37). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. doi: http://dx.doi.
org/10.7551/978-0-262-33936-0-ch011.

5. Rasmussen, S. (2016). The BINC Manifesto: Technology driven societal change, science policy &

stakeholder engagement. In C. Gershenson, T. Froese, J. M. Siqueiros, W. Aguilar, E. J. Izquierdo, & H.
Sayama (Eds.), Proceedings of the Sixteenth International Conference on Artificial Life (pp. 54–55). Cambridge, MA:
MIT Press. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.7551/978-0-262-33936-0-ch014.

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Artificial Life Volume 24, Number 1
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