Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!wuarchive!uunet!mcsun!ukc!strath-cs!ex-dcs!jro From: jro@dcs.exeter.ac.uk (Jonathan Rowe) Newsgroups: comp.ai Subject: Re: Is there a news group for Artificial Life? Message-ID: <3125@izar.dcs.exeter.ac.uk> Date: 29 Apr 91 08:24:10 GMT References: Sender: news@dcs.exeter.ac.uk Distribution: comp.ai Organization: Computer Science Dept. - University of Exeter. UK Lines: 48 Nntp-Posting-Host: elnath In article butler@marine.nasl.t.u-tokyo.ac.jp (Jim Butler) writes: > >I've heard the term "Artificial Life" quite often lately, but >am not quite sure of the meaning. Would some kind soul offer >a definition. Thanks. > A quotation: Artificial Life is the study of man-made systems that exhibit behaviors characteristic of natural living systems. It complements the traditional biological sciences concerned with the analysis of living organisms by attempting to synthesize life-like behaviors within computers and other artificial media. By extending the empirical foundation upon which biology is based beyond the carbon-chain life that has evolved on Earth, Artificial Life can contribute to theoretical biology by locating life-as-we-know-it within the larger picture of life-as-it-could-be. Christopher Langton, 1989. See the book "Artificial Life", proceedings of 2nd workshop on Artificial Life ed. C. Langton (I think proceedings of 3rd workshop have also been published). The principles of alife systems are: 1) no global control 2) system composed of many small interacting units, each following their own rules 3) behaviour characteristics of the system as a whole emerge from the interactions of the low-level units Alife ideas are applicable outside biology. They are useful when flexibility, non-determinism, non-linearity etc are investigated. There is a mailing list run by the Artificial Life Research Group at Indiana University. I hope they won't kill me for releasing the address: alife-request@iuvax.cs.indiana.edu Jon Rowe.