Are Romance Novels Really Alive? A Discussion of the Supple Adaptation View of Life

  • Authors:

  • Paul Domjan

  • Affiliations:

  • -

  • Venue:
  • ECAL '99 Proceedings of the 5th European Conference on Advances in Artificial Life
  • Year:
  • 1999

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Abstract

I will be discussing the plausibility of Mark Bedau's supple adaptation view of life. After presenting the essential aspects of the view, I introduce a hypothetical system of romance novels and romance novel authors, which captures those aspects of a system which are necessary for life under Bedau's view. Using this romance novel system as a starting point, I discuss other intuitively non-living systems, like economies and scientific literature, which would be considered alive by Bedau's standards. Finally, I present one objection to Bedau's view and suggest how his view might change in order to become more widely accepted.