Seth Bullock
School of Computer Science, University of Bristol; Director of AI for Collective Intelligence Research Hub
Tue
,
Apr 21, 2026
12:00 pm
EST
Apr 21, 2026
12:00 pm
In-person
Devon House
107
Portsoken Street
London, E1 8PH, UK
London, E1 8PH, UK
The Roux Institute
Room
107
100 Fore Street
Portland, ME 04101
Portland, ME 04101
Network Science Institute
2nd floor
2nd floor
Network Science Institute
11th floor
11th floor
177 Huntington Ave
Boston, MA 02115
Boston, MA 02115
Network Science Institute
2nd floor
2nd floor
Talk recording
Collective behaviour is typically limited by the constraints imposed by physical space: elements of a system can only interact directly if their trajectories coincide at some point. However, the ubiquity of spatial embedding means that its influence can tend to be overlooked, and when opportunities to overcome the "tyranny of distance" arise (e.g., through advances in high-speed travel or telecoms technologies) they may be regarded as entirely positive. In this talk we explore the influence of spatial embedding on a range of different collective systems and argue that the influence of spatial embedding should be regarded as an enabling constraint to be leveraged in the design of collective systems.
About the speaker
Seth Bullock is a professor in the Computer Science department at the University of Bristol. His research interests span artificial intelligence, artificial life, evolutionary biology and cognitive science and he has worked on applying computational modelling approaches to a diverse set of topics ranging from archaeology to zoology with a particular focus on understanding collective behaviour in natural and artificial systems. He has twice been elected to the board of the International Society for Artificial Life, has undertaken consultancy for the UK government on complexity in ICT and financial systems, and is a fellow of the European Centre for Living Technology. He is currently Director of the UKRI National Research Hub in AI for Collective Intelligence.
Share this page:
