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Summary
- An exploration is presented of the interplay between the situated
activity of embodied autonomous organisms and the social dynamics they
constitute in interaction, with special emphasis on evolutionary,
ecological and behavioral aspects. The thesis offers a series of
theoretical and methodological criticisms of recent investigations on
the biology of social behavior and animal communication. An alternative
theoretical framework, based on a systemic theory of biological
autonomy, is provided to meet these criticisms and the elaboration of
the corresponding theoretical arguments is supported by the construction
and analysis of mathematical and computational models.
- A game of action coordination is studied by a series of
game-theoretic, ecological and computational models which, by means of
systematic comparisons, permit the identification of the evolutionary
relevance of different factors like finite populations, ecological
and genetic constraints, spatial patterns, discreteness and
stochasticity. Only in an individual-based model is it found that
cooperative action coordination is evolutionarily stable. This is due to
the emergence of spatial clusters in the spatial distribution of players
which break many of the in-built symmetries of the game and act as
invariants of the dynamics constraining the path of viable evolution.
- An extension to this model explores other structuring effects by
adding the possibility of parental influences on phenotypic development.
The result is a further stabilization of cooperative coordination which
is explained by the presence of self-promoting networks of developmental
relationships which enslave the evolutionary dynamics.
- The behavioral aspects involved in the attainment of a coordinated
state between autonomous systems are studied in a simulated model of
embodied agents coupled through an acoustic medium. Agents must locate
and approach each other only by means of continuous acoustic signals.
The results show the emergence of synchronized rhythmic signalling
patterns that resemble turn-taking which is accompanied by coherent
patterns of movement. It is demonstrated that coordination results from
the achievement of structural congruence between the agents during
interaction.
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