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Artificial life embodies a recent and important conceptual step in modem science: asserting that the core of intelligence and cognitive abilities is the same as the capacity for living. The recent surge of interest in artificial life has pushed a whole range of engineering traditions, such as control theory and robotics, beyond classical notions of goal and planning into biologically inspired notions of viability and adaptation, situatedness and operational closure.

These proceedings serve two important functions: they address bottom-up theories of artificial intelligence and explore what can be learned from simple models such as insects about the cognitive processes and characteristic autonomy of living organisms, while also engaging researchers and philosophers in an exciting examination of the epistemological basis of this new trend.

Francisco J. Varela is Director of Research at CNRS in Paris, France. Paul Bourgine is Professor of Artificial Intelligence at CEMAGREF, Antony, France.

Topics include: Artificial Animals. Genetic Algorithms. AutonomousSystems. Emergent Behaviors. Artificial Ecologies. Immunologic Algorithms.Self-Adapting Systems. Emergent Structures. Emotion And Motivation. NeuralNetworks. Coevolution. Fitness Landscapes Contributors include: H.Bersini. Domenico Parisi. Rodney A. Brooks. Christopher G. Langton. S. Kauffman.J.-L. Denenbourg. Pattie Maes. John Holland. T. Smithers. H. Swefel. H. Muhlenbein. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

timid steps towards artificial life
While the subtitle says Artificial Life, the contents are actually only a timid step in that direction. The book came out in 1992 and even now in 2008/9, we are still far from any "true" artificial life. Instead, the book's papers are on more limited topics. Like related to neural networks implementing vision. Or on genetic algorithms and programming.

A bunch of papers are in robotics. Describing experiments using electromechanical devices with various control algorithms, for tasks like walking.

One paper is off on a different tangent. It looks at dynamics of artificial markets, where there are multiple software agents doing buys and sells. A possible ecology of agents and their behaviour is mooted. ... Read more

Product Description
This volume is the direct result of a conference in which a number of leading researchers from the fields of artificial intelligence and biology gathered to examine whether there was any ground to assume that a new AI paradigm was forming itself and what the essential ingredients of this new paradigm were. A great deal of scepsis is justified when researchers, particularly in the cognitive sciences, talk about a new paradigm. Shifts in paradigm mean not only new ideas but also shifts in what constitutes good problems, what counts as a result, the experimental practice to validate results, and the technological tools needed to do research. Due to the complexity of the subject matter, paradigms abound in the cognitive sciences -- connectionism being the most prominent newcomer in the mid-1980s.

This workshop group was brought together in order to clarify the common ground, see what had been achieved so far, and examine in which way the research could move further. This volume is a reflection of this important meeting. It contains contributions which were distributed before the workshop but then substantially broadened and revised to reflect the workshop discussions and more recent technical work. Written in polemic form, sometimes criticizing the work done thus far within the new paradigm, this collection includes research program descriptions, technical contributions, and position papers.
Amazon.com Review
A core collection of essays onthe new biologically andbehaviorally informed approach to artificialintelligence pioneered most visibly by Rodney Brooks. Also of greatrelevance to research on autonomous online agents. Highly recommended. ... Read more

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Explains how to use Microsoft's easy-to-use graphical programming software, along with the reader's imagination, to create a menagerie of animated organisms and synthetic environments. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Excellent (but dated) introduction to programming & concepts
One of the best introductory books for C++ programming in Windows as well as coverage of Artifical Life concepts.Light hearted, but not a dummies book.Only problem is the book dated as far as Visual C++ goes.The bookwas written for version 1 of MS C++. ... Read more

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This work provides an overview of the theoretical, as well as the practical, aspects involved in the study and implementation of many-agent simulation models. The model presented here is based on the idea that programs exhibit behaviours entirely described by their internal mechanisms, namely the program instructions. By relating an individual to a program, it is possible to achieve an artificial world inhabited by interacting processes. It is possible, then, to achieve simulation by transposing the population of a real system to this artificial counterpart in which particular hypotheses can be explored by repeating experiments the same way as in a real laboratory, but more easily. Each member of a population is then represented as an agent whose behaviour is programmed with all the required details. Many-agent simulations therefore primarily help to model situations in which individuals have complex and different behaviours, while taking into account both quantitative (numerical parameters) and qualitative (individual behaviours) properties of the system. ... Read more

Product Description
This publication includes the contributions to the 8th German Workshop on Artificial Life (GWAL-8). The GWAL-8 took place from 30 July to 1 August 2008 in Leipzig, Germany. Since its inception in the 1980s, Artificial Life is an interdisciplinary field of science focused on abstracting the essential features and dynamics of living systems in order to create artificial, life-like systems. The GWAL meetings intend to provide the opportunity for biologists, physicists, information and computer scientists, chemists, mathematicians and philosophers interested in this field to present and discuss their new results. Topics covered in this edition include: behavior and cognition as a complex adaptive system; robotics experiments; noise-driven stem-cell and progenitor population dynamics; micro-controller environments; bacterial meta-populations; discrete stochastic processes; cyclic co-evolutionary dynamics; and sub-system formation in a multi-agent system.

IOS Press is an international science, technical and medical publisher of high-quality books for academics, scientists, and professionals in all fields.

Some of the areas we publish in:

-Biomedicine
-Oncology
-Artificial intelligence
-Databases and information systems
-Maritime engineering
-Nanotechnology
-Geoengineering
-All aspects of physics
-E-governance
-E-commerce
-The knowledge economy
-Urban studies
-Arms control
-Understanding and responding to terrorism
-Medical informatics
-Computer Sciences ... Read more

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This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 7th European Conference on Artificial Life, ECAL 2003, held in Dortmund, Germany in September 2003. The 96 revised full papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected from more than 140 submissions. The papers are organized in topical sections on artificial chemistries, self-organization, and self-replication; artificial societies; cellular and neural systems; evolution and development; evolutionary and adaptive dynamics; languages and communication; methodologies and applications; and robotics and autonomous agents. ... Read more

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Artificial Life is an interdisciplinary effort to investigate the fundamental properties of living systems through the simulation and synthesis of life-like processes. The young field brings a powerful set of tools to the study of how high-level behavior can arise in systems governed by simple rules of interaction. Some of the fundamental questions include:

What are the principles of evolution, learning, and growth that can be understood well enough to simulate as an information process?
Can robots be built faster and more cheaply by mimicking biology than by the product design process used for automobiles and airplanes?
How can we unify theories from dynamical systems, game theory, evolution, computing, geophysics, and cognition?

The field has contributed fundamentally to our understanding of life itself through computer models, and has led to novel solutions to complex real-world problems across high technology and human society. This elite biennial meeting has grown from a small workshop in Santa Fe to a major international conference. This ninth volume of the proceedings of the international A-life conference reflects the growing quality and impact of this interdisciplinary scientific community. ... Read more

Product Description
The term "artificial life" describes research into synthetic systems that possess some of the essential properties of life. This truly interdisciplinary field includes biologists, computer scientists, physicists, chemists, geneticists, and others. Artificial life may be viewed as an attempt to understand high-level behavior from low-level rules--for example, how the simple interactions between ants and their environment lead to complex trail-following behavior. An understanding of such relationships in particular systems can suggest novel solutions to complex real-world problems such as disease prevention, stock-market prediction, and data mining on the Internet.Since their inception in 1987, the Artificial Life meetings have grown from small workshops to truly international conferences, reflecting the field's increasing appeal to researchers in all areas of science. ... Read more

Product Description
Artificial Life is an interdisciplinary effort to investigate the fundamental properties of living systems through the simulation and synthesis of life-like processes in artificial media. The field brings a powerful set of tools to the study of how high-level behavior can arise in systems governed by simple rules of interaction.

This tenth volume marks two decades of research in this interdisciplinary scientific community, a period marked by vast advances in the life sciences. The field has contributed fundamentally to our understanding of life itself through computer models, and has led to novel solutions to complex real-world problems—from disease prevention to stock market prediction—across high technology and human society. The proceedings of the biennial A-life conference—which has grown over the years from a small workshop in Santa Fe to a major international meeting—reflect the increasing importance of the work to all areas of contemporary science. ... Read more

Product Description
Artificial Life is a still growing interdisciplinary research field integrating a variety of different theoretical foundations, methodological positions, applications and disciplines. The main focus of this science is to abstract and to synthesize the essential features and dynamics of living systems in order to create artificial, life-like systems. On a regular basis and from 1995 on the German Workshop on Artificial Life is organized. Like previous workshops the 6th German Workshop on Artificial Life in 2004 provided the opportunity for scientists from a broad spectrum of research areas to get in touch with their colleagues from different disciplines, to learn from one another about questions of mutual interest and to have a forum for scientists who would like to get into contact with the Artificial Life community. Contributions to the GWAL 2004 result from research efforts from (and may be of interest to) biology, physics, information and computer science, chemistry, mathematics, psychology, sociology, philosophy, robotics, socionics and much more.

IOS Press is an international science, technical and medical publisher of high-quality books for academics, scientists, and professionals in all fields.

Some of the areas we publish in:

-Biomedicine
-Oncology
-Artificial intelligence
-Databases and information systems
-Maritime engineering
-Nanotechnology
-Geoengineering
-All aspects of physics
-E-governance
-E-commerce
-The knowledge economy
-Urban studies
-Arms control
-Understanding and responding to terrorism
-Medical informatics
-Computer Sciences ... Read more

Product Description
The Italian community in Artificial Life and Evolutionary computation has grown remarkably in recent years, and this book is the first broad collection of its major interests and achievements (including contributions from foreign countries). The contributions in "Artificial Life" as well as in "Evolutionary Computation" allow one to see the deep connections between the two fields. The topics addressed are extremely relevant for present day research in Artificial Life and in Evolutionary Computation, which include important contributions from very well-known researchers. The volume provides a very broad picture of the Italian activities in this field. ... Read more

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This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 8th European Conference on Artificial Life, ECAL 2005, held in Canterbury, UK in September 2005.

The 74 revised full papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected from more than 150 submissions. The papers are organized in topical sections on conceptual articles, morphogenesis and development, robotics and autonomous agents, evolutionary computation and theory, cellular automata, models of biological systems and their applications, ant colony and swarm systems, evolution of communication, simulation of social interactions, self-replication, artificial chemistry, and posters.

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A hands-on, whirlwind tour of artificial life introduces the average PC user to this expanding new technology and provides the tools to experiment on-screen. Original. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

I haven't read it yet, but...
if you're thinking about buying the book, you should know that it comes with a 5 1/4" disk. You won't be able to run the programs unless you have a reeeeeally old computer. I was disappointed. ... Read more

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This text provides algorithms and complete working programs for modelling a variety of artificial life forms and self-organizing systems on the PC. The author also ponders the future of artificial life, including its social implications and its significance for post-biological evolution. ... Read more

Product Description
The term "artificial life" describes research into synthetic systems that possess some of the essential properties of life. This interdisciplinary field includes biologists, computer scientists, physicists, chemists, geneticists, and others. Artificial life may be viewed as an attempt to understand high-level behavior from low-level rules--for example, how the simple interactions between ants and their environment lead to complex trail-following behavior. An understanding of such relationships in particular systems can suggest novel solutions to complex real-world problems such as disease prevention, stock-market prediction, and data mining on the Internet.Since their inception in 1987, the Artificial Life meetings have grown from small workshops to truly international conferences, reflecting the field's increasing appeal to researchers in all areas of science. ... Read more

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This volume contains 71 revised refereed papers, including seven invited surveys, presented during the Third European Conference on Artificial Life, ECAL '95, held in Granada, Spain in June 1995. Originally AL was concerned with applying biologically inspired solutions to technology and with examining computational expertise in order to reproduce and understand life processes. Despite its short history, AL now is becoming a mature scientific field. The volume reports the state of the art in this exciting area of research; there are sections on foundations and epistemology, origins of life and evolution, adaptive and cognitive systems, artificial worlds, robotics and emulation of animal behavior, societies and collective behavior, biocomputing, and applications and common tools. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Robotics
There are 8 sections, and 70 papers.
1. Foundations and Epistemology
2. Origins of Life and Evolution
3. Adaptive and Cognitive Systems
4. Artificial Worlds
5. Robotics and Emulation of Animal Behavior
6. Aoxiwriwa ns Xollwxricw Vwhcioe
7. Biocomputing
8. Applications and Common Tools.
I did not know all of them.
I checked "Evaluation of Learning Performance of Situated Embodied Agents." by Maja J Mataric in Robotics sections.

... Read more

Product Description
This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 6th European Conference on Artificial Life, ECAL 2001, held in Prague, Czech Republic, in September 2001.
The 54 revised papers and 25 posters presented together with five invited papers were carefully reviewed and selected from numerous submissions. The book reflects the state of the art in ALife. It is divided into topical sections on agents in environments; artificial chemistry; cellular and neural systems; collaborative systems; evolution; robotics; vision, visualization, language, and communication; and miscellaneous. ... Read more

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The first truly hands-on study of artificial life and its potential for synthesization by computer. Explores several definitions of life, and applies these widely divergent scientific viewpoints to such emerging fields as artificial intelligence, robotics, theoretical biology, cellular automata, and neural networks. Takes a provocative look at the future of artificial life and its implications for 21st century society. A 3.5" disk is included! ... Read more

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This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 9th European Conference on Artificial Life, ECAL 2007, held in Lisbon, Portugal, September 10-14, 2007.

The 125 revised full papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected. The papers are organized in topical sections on conceptual articles, morphogenesis and development, robotics and autonomous agents, evolutionary computation and theory, cellular automata, models of biological systems and their applications, ant colony and swarm systems, evolution of communication, simulation of social interactions, self-replication, artificial chemistry, and posters.