Artificial life

Simulation of a Braitenberg vehicle, programmed shortly, an artificial life simulator.

Artificial life is a field of research whose object of study is the investigation of life and artificial systems that exhibit properties similar to living beings, through simulation models. Scientist Christopher Langton first used the term in the late 1980s when the "First International Conference on the Synthesis and Simulation of Living Systems" (also known as Artificial Life I) at Los Alamos National Laboratory in 1987. There are three main types of artificial life, named according to their focus: soft, with a software focus; hard, with a focus on hardware; and wet, with a focus on biochemistry.

The artificial life area is a meeting point for people from other more traditional fields such as linguistics, physics, mathematics, philosophy, psychology, computer science, biology, anthropology and sociology where it would be unusual for approaches to be discussed. theoretical and computational. As an area, it has a controversial history; John Maynard Smith criticized some work on artificial life in 1995 as "science without facts," and has generally not received much attention from biologists. However, the recent publication of articles on artificial life in widely distributed journals such as Science and Nature are evidence that artificial life techniques are becoming more widely accepted. by scientists, at least as a method of studying evolution.

Philosophy

The philosophy behind artificial life modeling differs significantly from traditional modeling, as it not only studies life as we know it, but also encompasses what life might be like.

A traditional model of a biological system would focus on capturing the most important parameters. In contrast, the approach that artificial life modeling takes, in general terms, would seek to decipher the simplest and most generic principle underlying it and implement it in a simulation. Subsequently, the simulation would offer the possibility of analyzing new and different life-like systems.

Applications.

The applications of artificial life can be found in any of these cases:

• Adaptive complex systems, which have led to a new generation of expert systems, which are able to learn and evolve.
• Cell automatons, which mimic cellular organism functions in complex programs, applying their biological knowledge to practical organizational principles in computing systems.
• Self-employed agents, who are increasingly used in search applications.
• In the knowledge of adaptive behaviors, for the development of adaptive robots.

In some fields of application of artificial life, two types of simulations are proposed, based on the real world, which help decision-making. These are:

• The first of them focuses on the "highest level" aspects of each problem, using formulas and rules, or historical facts, that help make decisions. An example of this can be the parabolic shot formulas, as these can be understood as simulation models.
• The second pays attention to the "lower-level" aspects through formulas or rules. One of the advantages of this type of simulation is that its features are easier, as they are usually easier to detect low-level aspects than those of high-level.

Software-based artificial life

Techniques used

Cellular automata. neural networks.

Popular Simulators

The following is a list of popular simulators used in the field of software artificial life.

See also.

• Autopoiesis - The systematic concept of life proposed by Humberto Maturana and Francisco Varela.
• Core War - Programming video game very related to artificial life theories.
• Game of life - The practical example par excellence of artificial life because it is an algorithm carried to a multitude of systems that shows an ecosystem throughout different generations.
• Unresolved problems of biology - The origin of life is an unknown to whose resolution can contribute this area of science.
• System dynamics.
• Complex system.
• Dynamic system.
• Artificial economy.
• Artificial Brain.
• Ant algorithm.
• Synthetic Life
• Strong artificial intelligence

Notes and references.

Bibliography.

• Fernández Ostolaza, Julio; Moreno Bergareche, Álvaro (1992). Artificial Life. Madrid: EUDEMA. ISBN 84-7754-111-6.
• Gómez-Cruz, Nelson Alfonso (2013). Artificial Life: Science and Engineering Complex Systems. Bogotá: Universidad del Rosario. ISBN 978-958-738-370-6.
• Lahoz-Beltrá, Rafael (2004). Bioinformatics. Simulation, Artificial Life and Artificial Intelligence. Madrid: Santos Day. ISBN 84-7978-645-0.
• Santos Reyes, José (2007). Artificial Life: Computational Performances. Universidad da Coruña, Publication Service. ISBN 978-84-9749-184-6.

External links.

• VIDA Δ Certamen Arte y Vida Artificial - The Telefónica Foundation's International Art and Technology Competition awards works of electronic art made with artificial life technologies.
• What is life? An epistemological problem - On philosophical issues linked to the concept "life" in relation to the field and development of "artificial life"
• (A-Life) Research on Evolution and Artificial Life How to make software that can adapt and make the best use of environments as complex as ours?.