Embodied Intelligence: Multidisciplinary Perspectives on Natural, Artificial, and Hybrid Systems

An exploration of embodied intelligence that moves beyond the traditional focus on brains and code to the role of embodiment across various disciplines.

Intelligence research is undergoing a radical transformation, moving beyond the traditional focus on brains and code to increasingly recognize the role of embodiment, as well as our understanding of goal-directed behavior across different scales and substrates. In this edited collection, experts across fields including philosophy, phenomenology, neuroscience, cognitive psychology, robotics, AI, bio-inspired design, biology, and bioengineering initiate transdisciplinary dialogues and facilitate the sharing of insights on embodiment, enabling a new understanding of embodied intelligence and how intelligence manifests across diverse substrates.

By embracing a broad definition of embodied intelligence, the contributors transcend the traditional divide between the biological and the artificial, recognizing the potential for intelligence to emerge in unexpected forms. This perspective challenges us to reconsider our assumptions about the nature of intelligence and to appreciate the remarkable diversity of intelligent behavior in the world around us. This broadened concept holds immense promise to profoundly reshape our understanding of ourselves, the technologies we create, and the very nature of intelligence itself.

Contributors: Arsen Abdulali, Dor Abrahamson, Mahault Albarracin, Francesco Bianchini, Josh Bongard, Lola Cañamero, Andy Clark, Axel Constant, Gordana Dodig-Crnkovic, Dobromir Dotov, Martin H. Fischer, Karl Friston, Jennifer M. B. Fugate, Shaun Gallagher, Conor Heins, Laura B. Hensel, Matej Hoffmann, Ryman Hashem, David Howard, Josie Hughes, Fumiya Iida, Alex B. Kiefer, Michael Levin, Sheila L. Macrine, Stacy Marsella, Alex Miklashevsky, Zachary A. Pardos, Thomas Parr, Shubhan Parag Patni, Giovanni Pezzulo, Tobias Thejll-Madsen, Marcelo Worsley, Nutchanon Yongsatianchot, and Carlotta Isabella Zona.

Sheila Landers Macrine is Professor of STEM Education at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth.  

Jennifer M.B. Fugate is Associate Professor of Psychology at Kansas City University.

Arsen Abdulali is a research associate in the Department of Engineering at the University of Cambridge.

Josie Hughes is Assistant Professor at EPFL.