Embodiment

Abstract

Embodiment may help to reduce the computational burden on a system, by transferring some of that burden to the complex embodying environment. Embodiment can be viewed as a property not just of situated material systems, but of any suitably complex system engaged in a complex intertwined feedback relationship with its suitably complex environment. Various features and requirements of embodiment are examined in the context of natural and of artificial immune systems. This leads to a set of suggested design principles for engineering embodied systems and their environments.