Artificial life scientists are taking inanimate materials such as computer software and robots and making them behave just like living organisms. In the process
they are discovering much about what drives evolution and just what it means to say that something is alive.
Virtual Organisms traces the origins of this field from the days when it was practiced by a few maverick scientists to the present day and the current boom in
ALife research. Now ALife is beggining to help us understand not only what it means to be alive but also what it means to be human.
The book begins with a survey of current ideas about
the origins of life and the engines of evolution. It takes
the insights of this work and shows how ALife researchers are taking them up and moving them on.
It traces the main themes in ALife research, focuses on
key researchers and details seminal experiments.
Virtual Organisms shows how the convergence of technology with biology has big implications. Artificial Life today is evolving even beyond its designers control.
