Books

Short works

Books : reviews

Mark A. Bedau, John S. McCaskill, Norman H. Packard, Steen Rasmussen, eds.
Artificial Life VII: proceedings of the seventh international conference on artificial life, Portland OR.
MIT Press. 2000

(read but not reviewed)

The papers are gathered under the following headings: • Origin of Life, Self-Organization, and Self-Replication • Development and Differentiation • Evolutionary and Adaptive Dynamics • Robots and Autonomous Agents • Communication, Cooperation, and Collective Behavior • Methodological and Technological Applications • The Broader Context

Contents

Hector Fabio Restrepo, Daniel Mange, Moshe Sipper. A Self-Replicating Universal Turing Machine: From von Neumann's Dream to New Embryonic Circuits. 2000
Alan Dorin. Creating a Physically-based, Virtual-Metabolism with Solid Cellular Automata. 2000
Hiroki Sayama. Self-Replicating Worms That Increase Structural Complexity through Gene Transmission. 2000
Uwe Tangen. Self-Organisation in Micro-Configurable Hardware. 2000
Hugues Bersini. Reaction Mechanisms in the OO Chemistry. 2000
Pietro Speroni di Fenizio. A Less Abstract Artificial Chemistry. 2000
Yasuhiro Suzuki, Hiroshi Tanaka. Chemical Evolution among Artificial Proto-cells. 2000
Harald Huning. A Search for Multiple Autocatalytic Sets in Artificial Chemistries based on Boolean Networks. 2000
Ezequiel A. Di Paolo. Searching for Rhythms in Asynchronous Random Boolean Networks. 2000
S. Kazadi, D. Lee, R. Modi, J. Sy, W. Lue. Levels of Compartmentalization in Alife. 2000
Keith Downing. Exploring Gaia Theory: Artificial Life on a Planetary Scale. 2000
Chikara Furusawa, Kunihiko Kaneko. Complex Organization in Multicellularity as a Necessity in Evolution. 2000
Kunihiko Kaneko, Tetsuya Yomo. Sympatric Speciation from Interaction-induced Phenotype Differentiation. 2000
Hiroaki Takagi, Kunihiko Kaneko. Evolution of Genetic Code through Isologous Diversification of Cellular States. 2000
Thomas S. Ray, Joseph F. Hart. Evolution of Differentiation in Multithreaded Digital Organisms. 2000
Cefn Hoile, Richard Tateson. Design by Morphogenesis. 2000
Alistair G. Rust, Rod Adams, Hamid Bolouri. Evolutionary Neural Topiary: Growing and Sculpting Artificial Neurons to Order. 2000
David G. Green, David Newth, Michael G. Kirley. Connectivity and Catastrophe---Towards a General Theory of Evolution. 2000
Rob Shipman, Mark Shackleton, Marc Ebner, Richard A. Watson. Neutral Search Spaces for Artificial Evolution: A Lesson from Life. 2000
Richard A. Watson, Torsten Reil, Jordan B. Pollack. Mutualism, Parasitism, and Evolutionary Adaptation. 2000
Michael L. Best. Coevolving Mutualists Guide Simulated Evolution. 2000
Eizo Akiyama, Kunihiko Kaneko. Evolution of Cooperation in Social Dilemma---Dynamical Systems Game Approach. 2000
Takaya Arita, Reiji Suzuki. Interactions between Learning and Evolution: The Outstanding Strategy Generated by the Baldwin Effect. 2000
Hideaki Suzuki. Evolvability Analysis: Distribution of Hyperblobs in a Variable-Length Protein Genotype Space. 2000
Daniel Wagenaar, Christoph Adami. Influence of Chance, History and Adaptation on Evolution in Digitalia. 2000
Stevan Jay Anastasoff. Ecology and Extinction---Macroevolutionary Extinction Dynamics in a Simulated Ecosystem. 2000
Shinichiro Yoshii, Eiichi Miyamoto, Yukinori Kakazu. Quantification of Microscopic Events in the Process of Long-Term Evolutionary Dynamics. 2000
Russell K. Standish. An Ecolab Perspective on the Bedau Evolutionary Statistics. 2000
Patricio Lerena. Mate Choice: Simple or Complex?. 2000
Paul Domjan. A Discussion of the Use of Artificial Life Models to Evaluate Gould's Hypothesis about Progress in Evolution. 2000
Tatsuo Unemi. Should Seeds Fly or Not?. 2000
Bernard D. Reger, Karen M. Fleming, Vittorio Sanguineti, Simon Alford, Ferdinando A. Mussa-Ivaldi. Connecting Brains to Robots: The Development of a Hybrid System for the Study of Learning in Neural Tissues. 2000
Stevan Jay Anastasoff. A ' Fitness Landscaping' Comparison of Evolved Robot Control Systems. 2000
Hod Lipson, Jordan B. Pollack. Evolving Physical Creatures. 2000
Edgar E. Vallejo, Ferdando Ramos. Evolving Insect Locomotion Using Non-uniform Cellular Automata. 2000
Maciej Komosinski, Adam Rotaru-Varga. From Directed to Open-Ended Evolution in a Complex Simulation Model. 2000
Masayasu Atsumi. Artificial Neural Development for Pulsed Neural Network Design---Generating Place Recognition Circuits of Animats. 2000
Yuichi Sato, Takashi Nagai, Hiroshi Yokoi, Takafumi Mizuno, Yukinori Kakazu. Emergent SMA-Net Robot Control by Coupled Oscillator System. 2000
Norman L. Johnson. Developmental Insights into Evolving Systems: Roles of Diversity, Non-Selection, Self-Organization, Symbiosis. 2000
Josh C. Bongard. Reducing Collective Behavioural Complexity through Heterogeneity. 2000
Shin I. Nishimura. Studying Attention Dynamics of a Predator in a Prey-Predator System. 2000
Felix Flentge, Daniel Polani, Thomas Uthmann. On the Emergence of Possession Norms in Agent Societies. 2000
James A. R. Marshall, Jonathan E. Rowe. Investigating the Mechanisms Underlying Cooperation in Viscous Population Multi-Agent Systems. 2000
Lars Kroll Kristensen. Aintz: A Study of Emergent Properties in a Model of Ant Foraging. 2000
Yoshiki Yamaguchi, Tsutomu Maruyama, Tsutomu Hoshino. A Co-evolution Model of Scores and Strategies in IPD Games: Toward the Understanding of the Emergence of the Social Morals. 2000
Norberto Eiji Nawa, Katsunori Shimohara, Osamu Katai. On the Effect of "Stock Alerts" in an Agent-Based Model of a Financial Market. 2000
Frederic Kaplan. Semiotic Schemata: Selection Units for Linguistic Cultural Evolution. 2000
Luc Steels, Pierre-Yves Oudeyer. The Cultural Evolution of Syntactic Constraints in Phonology. 2000
Carlo C. Maley, Stephanie Forrest. Modeling the Role of Neutral and Selective Mutations in Cancer. 2000
Anthony Liekens. From Individuals to Populations, Approaches to the Study of Biological Emergent Phenomena. 2000
Janos Albert. Towards a Comprehensive Alife-model of the Evolution of the Nervous System and Adaptive Behavior. 2000
M. A. Gibney, N. R. Jennings, N. J. Vriend. Market-Based Call Routing in Telecommunications Networks Using Adaptive Pricing and Real Bidding. 2000
Gina M. B. Oliveira, Pedro P. B. de Oliveira, Nizam Omar. Evolving Solutions of the Density Classification Task in 1D Cellular Automata, Guided by Parameters That Estimate Their Dynamic Behaviour. 2000
V. J. Blue, J. L. Adler. Cellular Automata Model of Emergent Collective Bi-Directional Pedestrian Dynamics. 2000
James Macgill. Using Flocks to Drive a Geographical Analysis Engine. 2000
Una-May O'Reilly, Ian Ross, Peter Testa. Emergent Design: Artificial Life for Architecture Design. 2000
Barry McMullin. John von Neumann and the Evolutionary Growth of Complexity: Looking Backwards, Looking Forwards. 2000
Seth Bullock. What Can We Learn from the First Evolutionary Simulation Model?. 2000
David H. Ackley. Real Artificial Life: Where We May Be. 2000
Ezequiel A. Di Paolo, Jason Noble, Seth Bullock. Simulation Models as Opaque Thought Experiments. 2000
Alvaro Moreno. Artificial Life as a Bridge between Science and Philosophy. 2000
J. McKenzie Alexander. Artificial Justice. 2000
Edmund M. A. Ronald, Moshe Sipper. Engineering, Emergent Engineering, and Artificial Life: Unsurprise, Unsurprising Surprise, and Surprising Surprise. 2000
Gary R. Greenfield. Art and Artificial Life---A Coevolutionary Approach. 2000
Eleonora Bilotta, Pietro Pantano, Valerio Talarico. Synthetic Harmonies: An Approach to Musical Semiosis by Means of Cellular Automata. 2000
Christa Sommerer, Laurent Mignonneau. Modeling Emergence of Complexity: The Application of Complex System and Origin of Life Theory to Interactive Art on the Internet. 2000
Arantza Etxeberria. Artificial Evolution: Creativity and the Possible. 2000

Steen Rasmussen, Mark A. Bedau, Liaohai Chen, David W. Deamer, David C. Krakauer, Norman H. Packard, Peter F. Stadler.
Protocells: bridging nonliving and living matter.
MIT Press. 2009

Protocells offers a comprehensive resource on current attempts to create simple forms of life from scratch in the laboratory. These minimal versions of cells are entities with lifelike properties created from nonliving materials; the book provides in-depth investigations of processes at the interface between nonliving and living matter. Chapters by experts in the field put this state-of-the-art research in the context of theory, laboratory work, and computer simulations on the components and properties of protocells. The book also provides perspectives on research in related areas and such broader societal issues as commercial applications and ethical considerations.

The book covers all major scientific approaches to creating minimal life, both in the laboratory and in simulation. It emphasizes the bottom-up view of physicists, chemists, and material scientists but also includes the molecular biologists top-down approach and the origin-of-ljfe perspective. Ihe capacity to engineer living technology could have a enormous socio-economic impact and could bring both good and ill. Protocells promises to be the essential reference for research on bottom-up assembly of life and living technology for years to come.