Dr. Clément Vidal

Clément Vidal, Ph.D. is a researcher at the Free University of Brussels (VUB, Brussels, Belgium) and a member of the Evolution, Complexity and Cognition group. He is affiliated with the Center Leo Apostel and the Department of Philosophy.
 
In the last few decades, science and cosmology provided us great insights about our place in the universe. However, the scientific worldview strives to be value-free; we thus need to extend it to give a meaning to our lives. A broader philosophical worldview answering our existential questions is such an extension. This worldview provides people a meaning of life, in harmony with cosmic evolution.
 
The main focus of Clément’s research is the origin of the Universe and its far-future. He is thus interested in the philosophy of evolutionary cosmology and its wide-ranging implications. He specifically explores the developmental aspect of our Universe. To this end, he cofounded a research community with John Smart exploring the idea of an Evolutionary Developmental (Evo Devo) Universe. He uses the worldview concept as a framework for integrating insights from different disciplines.
 
In his current research, he aims to:

• Understand, foresee and facilitate the evolution towards ever-stronger interconnection between humans, software, and machines. This emergence of a globally distributed intelligence is best conceptualized as a Global Brain, and can be argued to be a major evolutionary transition we are witnessing.
• To study and assess the possible existence of advanced extraterrestrial life in candidate binary systems. This is conducted within the nascent field of high energy astrobiology.

His areas of interest include:

• High Energy Astrobiology
• The Future of the Internet
• Complexity Sciences
• Philosophy of Cosmology
• Philosophical Methodologies
• Speculative Philosophy and worldview construction
• Evolutionary Developmental Biology
• Science-and-religion Dialogue
• Artificial Life
• Artificial Cosmogenesis
• Management and Theory of Action (praxeology).
• Open Commentary on Academic Publications
• Philosophy of Logic and Mathematics

Vidal’s book, The Beginning and the End: The Meaning of Life in a Cosmological Perspective, explores our future in a cosmological context. In particular, it offers hypotheses regarding how life, the universe, and evolution itself could survive on the largest time scales. It has been featured in the Huffington Post and H+ Magazine.
 
His papers include Cosmological Immortality: How to Eliminate Aging on a Universal Scale, Distributing Cognition:from Local Brains to the Global Brain, Starivore Extraterrestrials? Interacting Binary Stars as Macroscopic Metabolic Systems, Artificial Cosmogenesis: A New Kind of Cosmology, Black Holes: Attractors for Intelligence?, Metaphilosophical Criteria for Worldview Comparison, Computational and Biological Analogies for Understanding Fine-Tuned Parameters In Physics, and Fine-Tuning, Quantum Mechanics and Cosmological Artificial Selection. Read the full list of his publications!
 
Clément earned his Bachelor’s in Philosophy at the University Paris I Panthéon-Sorbonne in 2002. He earned his Master’s in Philosophy at the University Paris I Panthéon-Sorbonne in 2003. He earned his Master’s in Logic at the University Paris I Panthéon-Sorbonne in 2004. He earned his Master’s in Cognitive Sciences at EHESS/ENS/Paris5/Paris6 in 2005. He earned his teaching diploma at Université Libre de Bruxelles in 2009. He earned his Ph.D. in Philosophy at Vrije Universiteit Brussel in 2013.
 
Read his LinkedIn profile.