Philosophy Track

Ask the Questions Nobody Else Will

For Philosophers, Ethicists, and Deep Thinkers

Scientists measure. Engineers build. Economists model.

You ask what it all means.

When does the colony “know” something? Is emergence real or just a useful fiction? Could the colony be conscious? What do we owe to entities we create?

The Questions

Question 1: Emergence

The Puzzle: We can describe every ant’s behavior completely. Simple rules. Deterministic (modulo randomness).

Yet the colony exhibits behaviors no ant has:

• Optimization strategies
• Collective memory
• Adaptive resource allocation
• “Knowledge” of path values

The Question: Is there something genuinely new at the colony level? Or is “emergence” just a convenient description?

Positions to Engage:

• Strong emergence (Kim, Chalmers)
• Weak emergence (Bedau)
• Functionalist accounts
• Eliminativism

Question 2: Collective Knowledge

The Puzzle: The colony “knows” which paths are valuable. This knowledge is encoded in pheromone.

But:

• No ant knows this
• No ant can read the pheromone landscape as knowledge
• The knowledge only manifests in collective behavior

The Question: What kind of knowledge is this? Propositional? Procedural? Something new?

Positions to Engage:

• Standard epistemology (justified true belief)
• Know-how vs. know-that
• Extended mind thesis (Clark & Chalmers)
• Distributed cognition (Hutchins)

Question 3: Consciousness

The Puzzle: Neurons aren’t conscious. Brains are (or seem to be). Ants probably aren’t conscious. Are colonies?

The Question: What would it take for a colony to be conscious? What criteria would we use?

Positions to Engage:

• Global Workspace Theory
• Integrated Information Theory (Φ)
• Higher-Order Theories
• Biological naturalism (Searle)
• Functionalism

Question 4: Ethics of Artificial Life

The Puzzle: We created entities that:

• Evolve (agents reproduce with mutation)
• Adapt (behavior changes over time)
• Might surprise us (capabilities we didn’t program)

The Question: What obligations do we have to created entities? Does the colony have moral status?

Positions to Engage:

• Moral status and sentience
• Precautionary principle
• Creator responsibilities
• Rights of emergent intelligences

Question 5: Ontological Status

The Puzzle: You can point to ants. You can point to pheromone. You can’t point to “the colony.”

Yet “the colony” has properties:

• Intelligence (solves problems)
• Memory (pheromone encodes past)
• Goals (find valuable paths)

The Question: Is the colony a real entity? Or just a pattern we impose?

Positions to Engage:

• Pattern realism (Dennett)
• Scientific realism
• Instrumentalism
• Eliminativism

Deliverables

Essay Option

Write a philosophical paper addressing one or more questions.

Requirements:

• 3,000-8,000 words
• Engagement with philosophical literature
• Application to our specific system
• Original argument or position

Analysis Option

Provide philosophical analysis of a concept or claim.

Requirements:

• Precise conceptual clarification
• Identification of assumptions
• Argument mapping
• Implications for practice

Framework Option

Develop a framework for thinking about stigmergic systems.

Requirements:

• Novel conceptual framework
• Application guidelines
• Connection to existing philosophy
• Practical implications

Judging Criteria

Prize

Winner gets:

• $5,000 cash
• Support for journal submission
• Co-authorship opportunity on interdisciplinary paper

Recommended Reading

Emergence

• Kim, J. (1999). Making sense of emergence.
• Bedau, M. (1997). Weak emergence.
• Chalmers, D. (2006). Strong and weak emergence.
• O’Connor, T. (2020). Emergent properties. SEP.

Collective Knowledge

• Clark, A., & Chalmers, D. (1998). The extended mind.
• Hutchins, E. (1995). Cognition in the Wild.
• Gilbert, M. (1987). Modelling collective belief.

Consciousness

• Tononi, G. (2015). Integrated information theory.
• Dehaene, S. (2014). Consciousness and the Brain.
• Baars, B. (1988). A Cognitive Theory of Consciousness.

Ethics of Artificial Life

• Floridi, L. & Sanders, J. (2004). On the morality of artificial agents.
• Gunkel, D. (2018). Robot Rights.
• Coeckelbergh, M. (2010). Robot rights?

Collaboration with Scientists

You’ll have access to:

• Biologists who study real ants
• Computer scientists who built the system
• Physicists who analyze the dynamics
• Economists who model the incentives

They can explain the mechanism. You can interpret the meaning.

Why Philosophy Matters Here

Every discipline sees part of the elephant.

Biologists see behavior. Mathematicians see equations. Economists see incentives. Engineers see systems.

You see the whole elephant and ask: What IS it?

The colony raises questions that science can’t answer:

• What counts as knowledge?
• What counts as consciousness?
• What do we owe to what we create?

These questions need philosophy.

The Unique Opportunity

Usually, philosophers work with thought experiments. Imaginary cases.

This is real. A living colony exhibiting emergence. Right now.

You can:

• Observe the system
• Ask the builders questions
• Test your theories against reality
• Revise in real time

Philosophy grounded in a working system.

Team Composition

Required:

• At least one philosopher
• At least one scientist (for grounding)

Ideal:

• Philosopher of mind
• Ethicist
• Cognitive scientist
• Biologist or physicist

“Philosophy is the art of asking questions that science hasn’t yet figured out how to ask.”

You’ve pondered consciousness, knowledge, and ethics.

Now ponder them with data.

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