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.
full chapter : PDF 356K | unified bibliography , pp399-446 : PDF 375K
@incollection(SS-Embody, author = "Susan Stepney", title = "Embodiment", chapter = 12, pages = "265--288", crossref = "InSiImm" ) @book(InSiImm, editor = "Darren Flower and Jonathan Timmis", title = "In Silico Immunology", booktitle = "In Silico Immunology", publisher = "Springer", year = 2007 )