This website hosts the activities and results of various research projects at the IAS-Research Centre for Life, Mind, and Society, that address a common theme: how should we think autonomous agencies across living, cognitive and sociotechnical domains?
“OUTAGENCIES: Varieties of autonomous agency across living, humanimal and technical systems” is a research project led by Xabier E. Barandiaran with Arantza Etxeberria, Jon Umerez, Kepa Ruiz-Mirazo, Leonardo Bich and Juanba Bengoetxea as members of the research team and a network of 12 research collaborators including PhD students, postdoc researchers and international researchers. The concept of “agency” has become central across various scientific and philosophical disciplines, shifting from reactive to active paradigms. In biology, it focuses on agents’ roles in evolution and environmental construction. Evolutionary theory now sees biological entities as active participants in their development, and cognitive sciences emphasize agency in discussions of intentionality and social interaction. Artificial Intelligence research also explores autonomous digital agents. The “OUTAGENCIES” project takes a transdisciplinary approach to understanding agency as a material phenomenon, analyzing its various manifestations through four work packages: living systems, human and animal agency, artificial agents, and integrating findings to explore the unity of agency. [Click here to know more!]
“Outonomy: fleshing out autonomy beyond the individual” was a research project led by Leonardo Bich and Xabier E. Barandiaran with Kepa Ruiz-Mirazo, Jon Umerez and Arantza Etxeberria as members of the research team and a network of 24 research collaborators including PhD students, postdoc researchers and international researchers. The central hypothesis was that understanding autonomy in the context of contemporary scientific problems and social challenges requires including integrative, relational, collective and environmental processes that go beyond the individual and yet directly affect and constitute the self-governing capacities it can display. [Click here to know more!]
Latest News
- PhD Studentship opportunitySUMMARY: Opportunity to join us at the IAS-Research Center for Life, Mind, and Society [https://ias-research.net] at the University of the Basque Country (San Sebastián) for a PhD studentship within the “Outagencies: Varieties of autonomous agency across living, humanimal, and technical systems” project [https://outonomy.net/project-description/]: an interdisciplinary exploration of agency across philosophy, biology, AI, and social sciences.… Continue reading PhD Studentship opportunity
- How to acknowledge this projectAny activity, but most importantly PUBLICATIONS, of this OUTAGENCIES, project must include the following acknowledgement: Grant PID2023-147251NB-I00 for project “OUTAGENCIES: Varieties of autonomous agency across living, humanimal and technical system” (PI Xabier Barandiaran) funded by MCIU/AEI/10.13039/501100011033.
- New project OUTAGENCIESWe are glad to announce that the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation has positively evaluated a new grant for our project “OUTAGENCIES: Varieties of autonomous agency across living, humanimal and technical systems” led by Xabier E. Barandiaran. You can know more about this project here.
- Gaia and PhilosophyInternational Symposium1-3 December, Donostia – San SebastiánBasque Country University (UPV/EHU)Organised by IAS-Research – Outonomy project →Registration form Program Updated 25/11/22 Thursday 1 December 16-18h IAS-Research TalkBruce Clarke: “Planetary intelligence: a Gaian critique” follow online: https://meet.jit.si/IAS-ResearchSeminarsUPV/EHU Biblioteka Carlos Santamaría, Room 4Pl. de Elhuyar, 2, Donostia – San Sebastián Friday 2 December 10h00 – 10h45 Bruce Clarke… Continue reading Gaia and Philosophy
- Program announcementWe are happy to finally share the program for the workshop! Check it out here.