Anticipation and Anticipatory Systems: Humans Meet Artificial Intelligence
How should anticipation and anticipatory systems be conceived in order for human decisions to be respectful of pluralism in ecosystems and noosystems? What is the difference between prediction and anticipation in technosocial systems? Is there a common anticipatory feature in biological structures, cultural structures, and technological ones?
Ancient divinatory practices have been replaced by AI-enhanced predictive planning and anthrobotic decision-making. Inferential prediction might prove effective for some technological systems, but in open ecosystems and complex noosystems, we could benefit from a general anticipatory paradigm that would integrate a form of care about the future — forms of life, forms of desire, and forms of hope.
Anticipation Studies is a growing field of research still in need of unification. Anticipation is a rich concept pointing to a cluster of cognitive/emotional/cultural phenomena, in a wide range of contexts and situations. It is a promising paradigm in order to foster cross-disciplinarity and a cross-fertilization of ideas among researchers. In particular, anticipation Studies could shed a new light in current debates about the ethics and sustainability of anthrobotic systems. This conference will kickstart a research cluster studying and connecting the various aspects of anticipation and deepening our knowledge about the relationship between ecosystems, noosystems and technosystems.
Can there be a holistic science of anticipation? Will anticipation be the paradigm that will reinvent cybernetics from a more holistic perspective? We want to consider and understand anticipation at the core of living beings, individual or collective. This international single-track symposium is a step towards the exploration of the missing link that might connect disparate anticipatory behaviors and systems.