The Garden in the Machine

The Emerging Science of Artificial Life
Erscheinungsjahr 1996
ISBN: 978-0-691-02903-0
Verlag: Princeton University Press

Buch, Englisch, 214 Seiten, Paperback, Format (B × H): 127 mm x 203 mm, Gewicht: 270 g

Reihe: Princeton Science Library

What is life? Is it just the biologically familiar--birds, trees, snails, people--or is it an infinitely complex set of patterns that a computer could simulate? What role does intelligence play in separating the organic from the inorganic, the living from the inert? Does life evolve along a predestined path, or does it suddenly emerge from what appeared lifeless and programmatic?In this easily accessible and wide-ranging survey, Claus Emmeche outlines many of the challenges and controversies involved in the dynamic and curious science of artificial life. Emmeche describes the work being done by an international network of biologists, computer scientists, and physicists who are using computers to study life as it could be, or as it might evolve under conditions different from those on earth.Many artificial-life researchers believe that they can create new life in the computer by simulating the processes observed in traditional, biological life-forms. The flight of a flock of birds, for example, can be reproduced faithfully and in all its complexity by a relatively simple computer program that is designed to generate electronic "boids." Are these "boids" then alive? The central problem, Emmeche notes, lies in defining the salient differences between biological life and computer simulations of its processes. And yet, if we can breathe life into a computer, what might this mean for our other assumptions about what it means to be alive?The Garden in the Machine touches on every aspect of this complex and rapidly developing discipline, including its connections to artificial intelligence, chaos theory, computational theory, and studies of emergence. Drawing on the most current work in the field, this book is a major overview of artificial life. Professionals and nonscientists alike will find it an invaluable guide to concepts and technologies that may forever change our definition of life.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Emmeche, Claus

Weitere Mitwirkende

Sampson, Steven

Fachgebiete

• Naturwissenschaften Biowissenschaften Biowissenschaften Terrestrische Ökologie
• Mathematik | Informatik EDV | Informatik Informatik Künstliche Intelligenz
• Naturwissenschaften Biowissenschaften Biowissenschaften Ökologie
• Geowissenschaften Geologie Umweltgeologie, Geoökologie
• Mathematik | Informatik Mathematik Geometrie Dynamische Systeme
• Mathematik | Informatik EDV | Informatik Professionelle Anwendung Computersimulation & Modelle, 3-D Graphik
• Naturwissenschaften Physik Angewandte Physik Soziophysik, Wirtschaftsphysik
• Geowissenschaften Geologie Paläoökologie
• Mathematik | Informatik EDV | Informatik Informatik Mathematik für Informatiker
• Naturwissenschaften Biowissenschaften Biowissenschaften Meeres- und Süßwasserökologie
• Naturwissenschaften Biowissenschaften Biowissenschaften Naturschutzbiologie, Biodiversität

Inhaltsverzeichnis

PrefaceAcknowledgementsCh. 1The Game of Life3Ch. 2What Is Life?23Ch. 3The Logic of Self-Reproduction47Ch. 4Artificial Growth and Evolution71Ch. 5The Ecology of Computation110Ch. 6The Biology of the Impossible134Ch. 7Simulating Life: Postmodern Science156Notes167Index189