ProfessorJeremy Pitt
Professor of Intelligent and Self-Organising Systems
Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering - Faculty of Engineering
- Professor of Intelligent and Self-Organising SystemsDepartment of Electrical and Electronic Engineering - Faculty of Engineering
- 020 7594 6318 (Work)
- 1010, Electrical Engineering, South Kensington Campus, United Kingdom
BIO
I am Professor of Intelligent and Self-Organising Systems as a member of the Intelligent Systems and Networks Group in the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering at Imperial College London. I have been a researcher and educator in Artificial Intelligence and Human-Computer Interaction for over 30 years. I have published nearly 300 scientific articles, been awarded over 30 national and EU grants, and been invited to give numerous keynotes, plenary lectures or seminars at international conferences, workshops and academic institutions. Beause of the inter-disciplinary work computer science and political science, and my work on the social implications of technology as Editor in Chief (2018-2023) of IEEE Technology and Society Magazine, I have made two presentations in Strasbourg to the Council of Europe's sub-commitee on Democracy and Technology.
My research programme focuses on self-governance and self-determination of social arrangements for collective action, public interest and the common good. In particular, it uses computational logic and multi-agent system simulation to address three primary challenges:
— how to specify computational models of social processes to address engineering problems (tractable technical challenges) in cyber-physical systems (e.g. ad hoc networks, sensor networks, cloud computing);
— how to apply these computational models to address wicked problems (intractable social challenges) in socio-technical systems (e.g. community energy systems, e-Health, deliberative assemblies);
— understanding and evaluating the implications for the Digital Society, when these computational models are injected back into the societies and communities that inspired them in the first place.
These computational models have been inspired by extensive inter-disciplinary work with researchers in philosophy, psychology and political science. An essential overview of this work is provided in the book:
— Jeremy Pitt: Self-Organising Multi-Agent Systems: Algorithmic Foundations of Cyber-Anarcho-Socialism. World Scientific Press, 2021.
My current work addresses an architecture for re-empowerment, noting that problems of democratic back-sliding and post-scarcity autarchy have brought about an asymmetric distribution of power in the Digital Society, especially in the context of the private ownership of the means of free expression, social coordination and Artificial Intelligence technologies.
Historically, there has been extensive inter-disciplinary collaboration that has produced six main areas of scientific and technological contribution.
In computational sustainability, work on formalising Ostrom’s institutional design principles for *sustainable* resource management, see:
— Jeremy Pitt, Julia Schaumeier, Alexander Artikis: Axiomatization of Socio-Economic Principles for Self-Organizing Institutions: Concepts, Experiments and Challenges. ACM Trans. Auton. Adapt. Syst. 7(4): 39:1-39:39, 2012.
In computational justice, work on formalising Rescher’s theory of distributive justice for *fair* resource management, and other qualifiers of justice, see:
— Jeremy Pitt, Dídac Busquets, Sam Macbeth: Distributive Justice for Self-Organised Common-Pool Resource Management. ACM Trans. Auton. Adapt. Syst. 9(3): 14:1-14:39, 2014.
— Jeremy Pitt: Interactional Justice and Self-Governance of Open Self-Organising Systems. IEEE Int. Conf. Self-Adapting and Self-Organising Systems (SASO), pp31-40, 2017.
In algorithmic self-governance, work on formalising Josiah Ober’s studies of classical Greek democracy and theory of basic democracy for *legitimate* resource management, see:
— David Burth Kurka, Jeremy Pitt, Josiah Ober: Knowledge Management for Self-Organised Resource Allocation. ACM Trans. Auton. Adapt. Syst. 14(1): 1:1-1:41, 2019.
— Jeremy Pitt, John Dryzek, Josiah Ober: Algorithmic Reflexive Governance for Socio-Techno-Ecological Systems. IEEE Technol. Soc. Mag. 39(2): 52-59, 2020.
— Jeremy Pitt, Josiah Ober: Democracy by Design: Basic Democracy and the Self-Organisation of Collective Governance. IEEE Int. Conf. Self-Adapting and Self-Organising Systems (SASO), 20-29, 2018.
In artificial social construction, work on various economic theories of how to represent and reason with socially-constructed conceptual resources (e.g. trust, reputation, expertise) to go beyond transactional economies and create economies of esteem, gift, etc., see:
— Patricio E. Petruzzi, Jeremy Pitt, Dídac Busquets: Electronic Social Capital for Self-Organising Multi-Agent Systems. ACM Trans. Auton. Adapt. Syst. 12(3): 13:1-13:25, 2017.
— Jeremy Pitt, John Henry Clippinger, Carsten Sørensen: Values, Axial Currencies, and Computational Axiology: Digital Currencies Can Do More than Buy Stuff. IEEE Technol. Soc. Mag. 37(3): 56-63, 2018.
In computational social influence, work on formalising Andrzej Nowak et al’s Regulatory Theory of Social Influence (RTSI) for *effective* distributed information processing, see:
— Asimina Mertzani, Jeremy Pitt, Andrzej Nowak, Tomasz Michalak: Expertise, Social Influence, and Knowledge Aggregation in Distributed Information Processing. Artif. Life 29(1): 37-65, 2023.
— Asimina Mertzani, Josiah Ober, Jeremy Pitt: Θ-Learning: An Algorithm for the Self-Organisation of Collective Self-Governance. IEEE ACSOS: 97-106, 2023.
In platform design and operationalisation, a meta-platform for collective action and social coordination, see:
— Jeremy Pitt, Agnieszka Rychwalska, Magdalena Roszczynska-Kurasinska, Andrzej Nowak: Democratizing Platforms for Social Coordination. IEEE Technol. Soc. Mag. 38(1): 43-50 (2019)
— Steph Pitt, Marlína van Meelis Lacey, Ed Scaife, Jeremy Pitt: No App is an Island: Collective Action and Sustainable Development Goal-Sensitive Design. Int. J. Interact. Multim. Artif. Intell. 6(5): 24-33, 2021.
A series of editorials on the social impact and societal implications of technology have been written as Editor-in-Chief of IEEE Technology and Society Magazine, including for example those in 2023:
— Jeremy Pitt, Toxic Technology, IEEE Technology and Society Magazine, vol. 42, no. 1, pp. 6-11, March 2023.
— Jeremy Pitt, Futural Appropriation, IEEE Technology and Society Magazine, vol. 42, no. 2, pp. 6-12, June 2023.
— Jeremy Pitt: ChatSh*t and Other Conversations (That We Should Be Having, But Mostly Are Not). IEEE Technol. Soc. Mag. 42(3): 7-13, 2023.
— Jeremy Pitt: The End of Exploring. IEEE Technol. Soc. Mag. 42(4): 7-13, 2023.
My research programme focuses on self-governance and self-determination of social arrangements for collective action, public interest and the common good. In particular, it uses computational logic and multi-agent system simulation to address three primary challenges:
— how to specify computational models of social processes to address engineering problems (tractable technical challenges) in cyber-physical systems (e.g. ad hoc networks, sensor networks, cloud computing);
— how to apply these computational models to address wicked problems (intractable social challenges) in socio-technical systems (e.g. community energy systems, e-Health, deliberative assemblies);
— understanding and evaluating the implications for the Digital Society, when these computational models are injected back into the societies and communities that inspired them in the first place.
These computational models have been inspired by extensive inter-disciplinary work with researchers in philosophy, psychology and political science. An essential overview of this work is provided in the book:
— Jeremy Pitt: Self-Organising Multi-Agent Systems: Algorithmic Foundations of Cyber-Anarcho-Socialism. World Scientific Press, 2021.
My current work addresses an architecture for re-empowerment, noting that problems of democratic back-sliding and post-scarcity autarchy have brought about an asymmetric distribution of power in the Digital Society, especially in the context of the private ownership of the means of free expression, social coordination and Artificial Intelligence technologies.
Historically, there has been extensive inter-disciplinary collaboration that has produced six main areas of scientific and technological contribution.
In computational sustainability, work on formalising Ostrom’s institutional design principles for *sustainable* resource management, see:
— Jeremy Pitt, Julia Schaumeier, Alexander Artikis: Axiomatization of Socio-Economic Principles for Self-Organizing Institutions: Concepts, Experiments and Challenges. ACM Trans. Auton. Adapt. Syst. 7(4): 39:1-39:39, 2012.
In computational justice, work on formalising Rescher’s theory of distributive justice for *fair* resource management, and other qualifiers of justice, see:
— Jeremy Pitt, Dídac Busquets, Sam Macbeth: Distributive Justice for Self-Organised Common-Pool Resource Management. ACM Trans. Auton. Adapt. Syst. 9(3): 14:1-14:39, 2014.
— Jeremy Pitt: Interactional Justice and Self-Governance of Open Self-Organising Systems. IEEE Int. Conf. Self-Adapting and Self-Organising Systems (SASO), pp31-40, 2017.
In algorithmic self-governance, work on formalising Josiah Ober’s studies of classical Greek democracy and theory of basic democracy for *legitimate* resource management, see:
— David Burth Kurka, Jeremy Pitt, Josiah Ober: Knowledge Management for Self-Organised Resource Allocation. ACM Trans. Auton. Adapt. Syst. 14(1): 1:1-1:41, 2019.
— Jeremy Pitt, John Dryzek, Josiah Ober: Algorithmic Reflexive Governance for Socio-Techno-Ecological Systems. IEEE Technol. Soc. Mag. 39(2): 52-59, 2020.
— Jeremy Pitt, Josiah Ober: Democracy by Design: Basic Democracy and the Self-Organisation of Collective Governance. IEEE Int. Conf. Self-Adapting and Self-Organising Systems (SASO), 20-29, 2018.
In artificial social construction, work on various economic theories of how to represent and reason with socially-constructed conceptual resources (e.g. trust, reputation, expertise) to go beyond transactional economies and create economies of esteem, gift, etc., see:
— Patricio E. Petruzzi, Jeremy Pitt, Dídac Busquets: Electronic Social Capital for Self-Organising Multi-Agent Systems. ACM Trans. Auton. Adapt. Syst. 12(3): 13:1-13:25, 2017.
— Jeremy Pitt, John Henry Clippinger, Carsten Sørensen: Values, Axial Currencies, and Computational Axiology: Digital Currencies Can Do More than Buy Stuff. IEEE Technol. Soc. Mag. 37(3): 56-63, 2018.
In computational social influence, work on formalising Andrzej Nowak et al’s Regulatory Theory of Social Influence (RTSI) for *effective* distributed information processing, see:
— Asimina Mertzani, Jeremy Pitt, Andrzej Nowak, Tomasz Michalak: Expertise, Social Influence, and Knowledge Aggregation in Distributed Information Processing. Artif. Life 29(1): 37-65, 2023.
— Asimina Mertzani, Josiah Ober, Jeremy Pitt: Θ-Learning: An Algorithm for the Self-Organisation of Collective Self-Governance. IEEE ACSOS: 97-106, 2023.
In platform design and operationalisation, a meta-platform for collective action and social coordination, see:
— Jeremy Pitt, Agnieszka Rychwalska, Magdalena Roszczynska-Kurasinska, Andrzej Nowak: Democratizing Platforms for Social Coordination. IEEE Technol. Soc. Mag. 38(1): 43-50 (2019)
— Steph Pitt, Marlína van Meelis Lacey, Ed Scaife, Jeremy Pitt: No App is an Island: Collective Action and Sustainable Development Goal-Sensitive Design. Int. J. Interact. Multim. Artif. Intell. 6(5): 24-33, 2021.
A series of editorials on the social impact and societal implications of technology have been written as Editor-in-Chief of IEEE Technology and Society Magazine, including for example those in 2023:
— Jeremy Pitt, Toxic Technology, IEEE Technology and Society Magazine, vol. 42, no. 1, pp. 6-11, March 2023.
— Jeremy Pitt, Futural Appropriation, IEEE Technology and Society Magazine, vol. 42, no. 2, pp. 6-12, June 2023.
— Jeremy Pitt: ChatSh*t and Other Conversations (That We Should Be Having, But Mostly Are Not). IEEE Technol. Soc. Mag. 42(3): 7-13, 2023.
— Jeremy Pitt: The End of Exploring. IEEE Technol. Soc. Mag. 42(4): 7-13, 2023.
FACULTY
- Faculty of Engineering
POSITION NAME
- Professor of Intelligent and Self-Organising Syste