Techno-(Neg)-Autopoiesis. Understanding-by-building Life, Death, and their Entanglement

Luisa Damiano, Rebecca Mannocci, Hagen Lehmann, Antonio Fleres, Andrea Roli, Pasquale Stano

Keywords: Mortal Agents, Autopoiesis, Understanding-by-building, Sustainability

Abstract: In the context of understanding-by-building research, we introduce techno-(neg)-autopoiesis as an original conceptual framework to explore the entanglement of life and death in artificial systems. This perspective extends ALIFE’s interest in life-as-it-could-be by explicitly treating mortality as a generative property. We address three levels: (a) design — principles for embedding life and death in synthetic agents; (b) ecology — the ecosystems in which these processes unfold and reorganize; and (c) epistemology — how modelling mortality informs our understanding of life. Drawing on the theory of autopoiesis, we argue that artificial mortal agents can both advance theoretical insight and foster technologies that integrate with biospheric and planetary self-regulation.

Submission Number: 2