Artificial Life III
Book Summary
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Artificial Life is the study of man-made systems that exhibit behaviors characteristic of natural living systems, such as self-organization, reproduction, development, and even evolution. It complements the traditional biological sciences concerned with the analysis of living organisms by attempting to synthesize and study life-like behaviors within computers or other "alternative" media. By extending the empirical foundation upon which biology rests beyond the carbon-chain-based life that has evolved on Earth, Artificial Life can contribute to the theoretical biology by locating "life-as-we-know-it" within the larger context of "life-as-it-could-be," in any of its possible physical incarnations.
This book contains a collection of papers presented at the Third Artifical Life Workshop, held in santa Fe, New Mexico, in June of 1992. The workshop drew approximately 500 researchers, representing a full spectrum of scientific, academic, and engineering disciplines. The work reported in these proceedings ranges from computational studies of the emergence of complex food webs in evolving ecologies to philosophical arguments for and against the possibility of creating "living" robots. The diversity and quality of the work reported herein reflects the wide and deep impact that the field for Artificial Life has had on the scientific community since the founding workshop was held at Los Alamos in 1987. As is evident from this collection of papers, Artificial Life has firmly established itself as a vital and viable area of scientific research, and much of its initial promise is beginning to be realized.