Re: Dynamical Hierarchies (- Artificial Life)

[John M <***>]

,
Tim, the AL-Dyn Hierarchy angle (or vice versa) may be
interesting. I appreciate your statement:
> It appears to me that "dynamical hierarchies" is
> essentially an approach rooted in reductionism.<

I had the same notion and lately Stan Salthen who is
an advocate and savant in hierarchy theories sent me
some papers to show it differently. I yet have to read
them.
If I find relevant momenta for this list, I will
report them soon. 

As for the AL aspect:
Similarly to the AI, I find it a study of the model(s)
we so far constructed upon the 'so far' discovered
features of both 'life' and 'intelligence' and extract
the applicability of computers to simulate THOSE. 
When I mentioned this to prof. Russell Standish, the
dir. of the Au Inst for Artificial Life, he said that
it still is a valuable study-instrument and a way to
learn more. I agree. I just disagree with the
reductionistic stance that whatever AL (or AI) DOES
NOW represent is 'the real thing': life (itself) or
the intelligence (whatever these natural terms may
mean).

John M

--- Tim Gwinn <***> wrote:

> I found an earlier paper by Rasmussen et al entitled
> "Ansatz for Dynamical
> Hierarchies", in Artificial Life, 2001, vol 7, issue
> 4. This is downloadable
> from MITPress for free:
>
http://mitpress.mit.edu/catalog/item/default.asp?ttype=5&tid=1067
> 
truncated