A Life Artificial Life

Overview Created for Models

of Learning and Instruction taught by Dr. Cafolla

Group Members: David Manset and Jaclyn Clark

What Is A Life? Artificial Life: “is a field of

study and an associated art form which examine systems related to life, its processes, and its evolution through simulations using computer models, robotics, and biochemistry.”

Spectrum of Artificial Life

Definition “Artificial Life is the name given to a new discipline that studies

‘natural’ life by attempting to recreate biological phenomena from scratch within computers and other ‘artificial’ media. A life complements the traditional analytic approach of traditional biology with a synthetic approach in which, rather than studying biological phenomena by taking apart living organisms to see how they work, one attempts to put together systems that behave like living organisms.- Chris G. Langton

Artificial Life has initiated unprecedented alterations to society and science with aspects of living organisms that cannot be categorized as quite human.

Developers seek to… create real, carbon-based

living organisms and behaviors such as: Growth Adaptation Reproduction or Self

replication Socialization Learning Death

But artificial life still seeks to: survive without the

input complicated proteins, or other large molecules, or life sustaining elements

evolve and adapt over time through a natural selection process

Three types

Wet functioning biological organisms

SoftSoftware:

Word Processors, Operating Systems

HardHardware: Physical aspects of a computer –

CPU, Storage unit

Wet: Biochemistry This area is an attempt to

stimulate origin of life with self-replicating and self-producing efforts.

In Vitro method is when and experiment is given in a controlled environment outside of a living organism

Example Chemical Substrates:

molecules to which an enzyme acts

Real Examples

Computer Technology Games

* Second Life* The Sims

* Emergent BehaviourALife Ecosystem

Simulations• Program-based: Tierra,

Avida

Module-based individual parts added to alter animal or characterTechnosphere

Parameter-based: characters start with pre-defined behaviors and different aspects begin to mutate:

Second Life-One Example of Artificial Life

Second Life® is a 3-D virtual world created by its Residents. Since opening to the public in 2003, it has grown explosively and today is inhabited by millions of Residents from around the globe.” (from http://secondlife.com/whatis/)

Early Contributors of Artificial LifeMany scientists, mathematicians, professors, researchers, and intellectuals contributed to development of artificial life forms before computers even existed. Adjacent are a few men and their significant contributions.

John McCarthy coined Artificial Intelligence "the science and engineering of making intelligent machines.” Craig Reynolds In 1987 created familiar flocking behavior in groups of computer-designed "boids" like birds

Used these rules for behvaior separation: steer correctly to prevent

crowding alignment: steer in direction of other

flockmates cohesion: steer to move toward the

approximate position of local flockmates Provided a forerunner to computer animation

Contributors

Alan M. Turing Artificial Intelligence Pioneer Wrote “The Chemical Basis of

Morphogenesis” in 1951 Machine intelligence:

technology could be installed with intelligence the same way routine tasks were programmed

More Contributors

John Von Neumann Termed “automaton" as any

machine which behaved logically by joining environmental information with the machine’s own programming

Claimed machines would self-replicating

Machines would be logical and not necessarily requiring physical bodies

Practical Uses Social Networking

Provides links to connect people with similar interests

Interacting with gamers at the same skill level

Education Allow study of living creatures vs.

technology created life Use of computer for analytical thinking Many games replicate the movement

pattern of organism groups in an interactive way for students

Simulators provide first hand experience over description of a process

Art 3 dimensional life like and enhanced images Fantasy and highly detailed images created

and saved in computer storage (RAM)

Resources http://www.aaai.org/AITopics/pm

wiki/pmwiki.php/AITopics/ArtificialLife

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/sciencenow/3214/01-collins.html

http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/abs/10.1162/1064546041255566

http://www.experiencefestival.com/a/Artificial_life_-_History_and_contributions/id/4783056

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_artificial_life

http://www.siggraph.org/education/materials/HyperGraph/animation/art_life/images/fish1c.jpg

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artificial_intelligence