A01=Claus Emmeche
Abiogenesis
Algorithm
Analogy
Artificial chemistry
Artificial life
Artificial neural network
Author_Claus Emmeche
Automaton
Bacteria
Benny Lautrup
Biochemist
Biochemistry
Biologist
Biology
Calculation
Category=PBWS
Category=PSAF
Category=UGK
Category=UYA
Category=UYQ
Cell (biology)
Cellular automaton
Chaos theory
Computation
Computer
Computer scientist
Computer simulation
Conway's Game of Life
Darwinism
Ecology
Embryo
Emergence
Epigenetics
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eq_computing
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eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
eq_science
Evolution
Gene
Genotype
Instance (computer science)
Jesper Hoffmeyer
L-system
Life
Living systems
Machine code
Mathematical and theoretical biology
Mathematics
Metabolism
Molecular biology
Molecule
Morphogenesis
Multicellular organism
Mutation
Natural philosophy
Natural science
Natural selection
Niels
Niels Bohr
Niles Eldredge
Nucleic acid
Organism
Phenotype
Physicist
Physiology
Protein
Reproduction
Requirement
Research program
Santa Fe Institute
Science
Self-organization
Sensor
Simulation
Stephen Jay Gould
Theory
Thought
Turing machine
Universal Turing machine
Vitalism
Product details
- ISBN 9780691029030
- Weight: 227g
- Dimensions: 127 x 203mm
- Publication Date: 19 Sep 1996
- Publisher: Princeton University Press
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Paperback
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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.
Claus Emmeche, a Danish theoretical biologist, is a Research Fellow at the Center of Cognitive Science, University of Roskilde. He is also Guest Scientist and a reader at the Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen, and is the author of several books on biology.
