01212nas a2200169   4500008004100000245003800041210003400079260003200113300001200145490000800157520076500165100002300930700001500953700001500968700002400983856003501007       2012                        eng d00aThe World as Evolving Information0 aWorld as Evolving Information  aBerlin HeidelbergbSpringer  a100-1150 vVII3 aThis paper discusses the benefits of describing the world as information, especially in the study of the evolution of life and cognition. Traditional studies encounter problems because it is difficult to describe life and cognition in terms of matter and energy, since their laws are valid only at the physical scale. However, if matter and energy, as well as life and cognition, are described in terms of information, evolution can be described consistently as information becoming more complex. The paper presents five tentative laws of information, valid at multiple scales, which are generalizations of Darwinian, cybernetic, thermodynamic, and complexity principles. These are further used to discuss the notions of life and cognition and their evolution.1 aGershenson, Carlos1 aMinai, Ali1 aBraha, Dan1 aBar-Yam}, Yaneer, {  uhttp://arxiv.org/abs/0704.030401537nas a2200181   4500008004100000245008900041210006900130260003200199300001200231490000600243520096500249100002301214700002301237700001501260700001501275700002401290856004101314       2011                        eng d00aProtocol Requirements for Self-Organizing Artifacts: Towards an Ambient Intelligence0 aProtocol Requirements for SelfOrganizing Artifacts Towards an Am  aBerlin HeidelbergbSpringer  a136-1430 vV3 aWe discuss which properties common-use artifacts should have to collaborate without human intervention. We conceive how devices, such as mobile phones, PDAs, and home appliances, could be seamlessly integrated to provide an "ambient intelligence" that responds to the users desires without requiring explicit programming or commands. While the hardware and software technology to build such systems already exists, yet there is no protocol to direct and give meaning to their interactions. We propose the first steps in the development of such a protocol, which would need to be adaptive, extensible, and open to the community, while promoting self-organization. We argue that devices, interacting through "game-like" moves, can learn to agree about how to communicate, with whom to cooperate, and how to delegate and coordinate specialized tasks. Like this, they may evolve distributed cognition or collective intelligence able to tackle any complex of tasks.1 aGershenson, Carlos1 aHeylighen, Francis1 aMinai, Ali1 aBraha, Dan1 aBar-Yam}, Yaneer, {  uhttp://arxiv.org/abs/nlin.AO/0404004