The Centre for Philosophy of the Sciences, School of Philosophy, ANU presents

"Design Principles for Evolvability: Re-Use Across the Sciences".

 

Change in complex systems often involves the re-use of pre-existing materials. The acquisition of print-reading in humans, for example, involves the appropriation and modification of pre-existing brain structures for object and face recognition during development. Similarly, biological evolution is predominantly a matter of the modification and re-use of pre-existing genetic and developmental resources, rather than the de novo production of entirely new ones. Re-use is not limited to the biological world. It is at the core of many human-made engineering and design systems. The new iterations of computer software, for example, are rarely rebuilt from scratch. Rather, new updates and versions use the pre-existing programming code and design as a foundation. This two-day interdisciplinary workshop will bring together philosophers, cognitive scientists, biologists and computer scientists to discuss the possibility of a unified framework for understanding functional re-use in biological, neural, and technological systems.

 

 

PROGRAM

 

 

MONDAY 21st AUGUST 2017

 

9.30am -10am: Welcome, Coffee

 

10am - 12noon: Keynote Speaker, Prof. Michael Anderson, Rotman Institute of Philosophy and University of Western Ontario, Title: Reuse, modularity, and evolvability (joint work with Barb Finlay)

 

12noon - 1pm: Lunch

 

1 - 2pm: Brett Calcott (Theory & Method in the Biosciences Group, Sydney), Title: Plug and Play Evolution: How to Evolve a Gene Regulatory Toolkit

 

2 - 3pm: Maja Adamska (Research School of Biology, ANU), Title: Evolving animals: the hidden complexity of sponge genomes

 

3 - 3.30pm: Break

 

3.30 - 4.30pm: John Zerilli (School of Philosophy, ANU), Title: The language module reconsidered

 

4.30 - 5.30pm: Andy Barron (Department of Biological Sciences, MQ), Title: Reuse and the evolution of behavioural innovations in honey bees

 

Drinks

 

7.30pm Workshop Dinner - Copper Chimney (West Row)

 

 

 

TUESDAY 22nd AUGUST 2017

 

9.30 - 10.30am: Colin Klein (Department of Philosophy, MQ), Title: Re-use, Learning, and Optimisation: The Case of Cognitive Control

 

10.30 - 11am: Morning Tea

 

11 - 12 am: Rachael Brown (School of Philosophy, ANU), Title: The many kinds of reuse and their evolutionary implications

 

12noon - 1pm: Lunch

 

1 - 2pm: Bob Williamson (Data61 and Research School of Computer Science, ANU), Title: Technology: modularity and Evolution

 

2 - 3pm: Richard Menary (Department of Philosophy, MQ), Title: The Role of Neural Re-use in Cultural Canalisation

 

3 - 3.30pm: Close of public workshop

 

3.30 - 5pm: Closed roundtable discussion for speakers only

 

Workshop End

 

 

Dates: August 21st and 22nd, 2017

Location: University House, ANU

For more information please see: http://evolvability.weebly.com/

 

Attendance is free