BICS 2008 – Brain Inspired Cognitive Systems 1 Reference ID A BIOLOGICALLY-INSPIRED EXPERIMENT ON THE EMERGENCE OF SYMBOL-BASED COMMUNICATION Angelo Loula Department of Exact Sciences, State University of Feira de Santana, Brazil Department of Computer Engineering and Industrial Automation, FEEC, State University of Campinas, Brazil angelocl@ecomp.uefs.br Ricardo Gudwin Department of Computer Engineering and Industrial Automation, FEEC, State University of Campinas, Brazil gudwin@dca.fee.unicamp.br Sidarta Ribeiro International Institute of Neuroscience of Natal Edmond and Lily Safra (IINN-ELS), Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil sidartaribeiro@gmail.com João Queiroz Graduate Studies Program on History, Philosophy, and Science Teaching, Federal University of Bahia/State University of Feira de Santana, Brazil queirozj@ ecomp.uefs.br (corresponding author) ABSTRACT We describe a computational experiment for the investigation of the emergence of self-organized symbol-based communication involving distributed interactions between artificial creatures. In our methodology, constraints from Peircean pragmatic philosophy of sign and empirical and neuroethological evidences are applied in the set-up, design and synthesis of our creatures, environment and processes. We claim that the construction of synthetic experiments from empirical and theoretical constraints permits to better understand the natural phenomena under study. KEYWORDS Neuroethology, communication, semiosis, symbol process, self-organization, emergence, computer simulation. INTRODUCTION Computational models, simulations, and creatures of all kinds are implemented in many ontologies, by means of ‘synthetic strategies’ (as opposed to analytical ones) (cf. Braitenberg, 1984). They are based on different tools, being heavily influenced by meta-principles (formal theoretical constraints) and biological motivations (empirical constraints) in the design of the environment and the morphological definitions of sensors, effectors, cognitive architecture and processes of the conceived creatures. This theoretical basis influences modeling on different degrees depending on how it constrains the model being built and what decisions it leaves to the experimenter. Constraints entail a reduction in the degrees of freedom that we can assume while building the experimental set-up, by ‘setting values to experimental parameters’ following definitions and motivations from more reliable sources than naïve or arbitrary decisions. If theoretical foundations and constraints are used to develop computational experiments, these experiments may also provide contributions back to the theories and studies they were based upon. Simulations test hypotheses, the internal consistency of their theoretical background, and offer the opportunity to implement experiments that would be more/too costly or even impossible otherwise. Computational approaches have been used to model and simulate meaning processes (semiosis) from many different perspectives, including Evolutionary Robotics, Artificial Life, Synthetic Ethology, and Computational Semiotics (for some examples, see section IV). ‘Meaning’ is certainly a great challenge to computer scientists, and it is related to two classical problems regarding the construction of artificial systems: symbol-grounding problem and frame problem. According to Deb Roy [Roy 2005a], ‘developing a computationally precise and tractable theory of language use which simultaneously addresses both referential and functional meaning is a grand challenge for the cognitive sciences’. An established approach describes that meaning process should be contextually grounded and acquired during local interactions among artificial distributed agents. Here we present an experiment for the investigation of the emergence of self-organized symbol-based communication involving distributed interactions between artificial creatures. The set-up, design and synthesis of our creatures, along with the digital ecosystem, are theoretically based on the Peircean pragmatic philosophy of sign and empirically informed by neuroethological evidence. We view the emergence of communication as a self-organizing process in a complex system of sign users interacting locally and mutually affecting each other, leading to an ordered state. Our methodology simulates the emergence of symbolic predator-warning communication among artificial creatures in a virtual world of predatory events. In order to build the digital ecosystem, and