Mind children: the future of robot and human intelligence
Mind children: the future of robot and human intelligence
Communications of the ACM
Analog VLSI and neural systems
Analog VLSI and neural systems
The internet worm program: an analysis
ACM SIGCOMM Computer Communication Review
The coreworld: emergence and evolution of cooperative structures in a computational chemistry
CNLS '89 Proceedings of the ninth annual international conference of the Center for Nonlinear Studies on Self-organizing, Collective, and Cooperative Phenomena in Natural and Artificial Computing Networks on Emergent computation
Introduction to the theory of neural computation
Introduction to the theory of neural computation
Neural network architectures: an introduction
Neural network architectures: an introduction
Adaptation in natural and artificial systems
Adaptation in natural and artificial systems
Artificial life: the quest for a new creation
Artificial life: the quest for a new creation
Genetic programming: on the programming of computers by means of natural selection
Genetic programming: on the programming of computers by means of natural selection
Evolution, complexity, entropy and artificial reality
Proceedings of the NATO advanced research workshop and EGS topical workshop on Chaotic advection, tracer dynamics and turbulent dispersion
Introduction to artificial life
Introduction to artificial life
Complexity
Genetic Algorithms in Search, Optimization and Machine Learning
Genetic Algorithms in Search, Optimization and Machine Learning
A simulation of evolved autotrophic reproduction
Proceedings of the 9th annual conference companion on Genetic and evolutionary computation
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Our concepts of biology, evolution, and complexity are constrained by having observed only a single instance of life, life on Earth. A truly comparative biology is needed to extend these concepts. Because we cannot observe life on other planets, we are left with the alternative of creating artificial life forms on Earth. I will discuss the approach of inoculating evolution by natural selection into the medium of the digital computer. This is not a physical/chemical medium, it is a logical/informational medium. Thus these new instances of evolution are not subject to the same physical laws as organic evolution (e.g., the laws of thermodynamics), and therefore exist in what amounts to another universe, governed by the "physical laws" of the logic of the computer. This exercise gives us a broader perspective on what evolution is and what it does.An evolutionary approach to synthetic biology consists of inoculating the process of evolution by natural selection into an artificial medium. Evolution is then allowed to find the natural forms of living organisms in the artificial medium. These are not models of life, but independent instances of life. This essay is intended to communicate a way of thinking about synthetic biology that leads to a particular approach: to understand and respect the natural form of the artificial medium, to facilitate the process of evolution in generating forms that are adapted to the medium, and to let evolution find forms and processes that naturally exploit the possibilities inherent in the medium. Examples are cited of synthetic biology embedded in the computational medium, where in addition to being an exercise in experimental comparative evolutionary biology, it is also a possible means of harnessing the evolutionary process for the production of complex computer software.