Artificial Life Models in Software

Artificial Life Models in Software presents software tools, environments and realities dealing with creation, imitation and analysis of artefactual, virtual and living forms, written by those who personally design and produce software, hardware and art installations in artificial life, simulated complex systems and virtual worlds. This timely volume offers a nearly exhaustive overview and original analysis of major non-profit artificial life software packages. The carefully selected topics include: · simulation of real and imaginary life forms and their evolution · self-organization · emergent behaviours · swarm intelligence · evolutionary robotics · agent-based simulations · adaptive, complex and biologically inspired ecosystems · creative computer art There has long been a need within the academic and research community for an informal introduction and guidance to modern software tools for modelling and simulation of life-like phenomena – Artificial Life Models in Software fills this gap and provides invaluable information to both professional and amateur readers, offering detailed reviews of contemporary software for artificial life.

This book presents software tools, environments and realities dealing with creation, imitation and analysis of artefactual, virtual, and living forms, written by those who personally design and produce software, hardware, and art installations in artificial life, simulated complex systems, and virtual worlds.

This timely volume offers a nearly exhaustive overview and original analysis of major non-profit artificial life software packages. Topics include:

• 
  
• simulation of real and imaginary life forms and their evolution
• 
  
• self-organization
• 
  
• emergent behaviours
• 
  
• swarm intelligence
• 
  
• evolutionary robotics
• 
  
• agent-based simulations
• 
  
• adaptive, complex and biologically inspired ecosystems
• 
  
• creative computer art

There has long been a need within the academic and research community for an informal introduction and guidance to modern software tools for modeling and simulation of life-like phenomena – this book fills this gap and offers detailed reviews of contemporary software for artificial life for both professionals and amateurs.

Arti?cial life is an interdisciplinary ?eld of science, hosting experts from c- puter science, biology, physics, chemistry, and mathematics, as well as phi- sophers and artists. It focuses on studying the phenomena of life on all levels of complexity and organization — molecular, cellular, organismic, and p- ulation. These studies not only employ conventional computers (using both software and hardware), but also take place in wetware, using techniques of biochemical laboratory. Arti?cial life research is not limited to life forms - isting on the Earth. It rather attempts to study the general principles of life which are common to all instances of life, both already recognized and yet unknown. This book is dedicated to the software medium, the most popular and widely employed in the arti?cial life research. The software medium o?ers almost unlimited abilities for experiments, which are cheap, easily arranged, and modi?ed. Additionally, such experiments canbe repeated under the same conditions, and large amounts of data (unavailable in biological studies) can be collectedfor analysis.To beginexperimentation,a modelof lifeis required. Such models are built in software for all organizational levels of life. Most of the models described in this book are very general and therefore allow for a wide range of experiments. Avida: Evolution Experiments with Self-Replicating Computer Programs....Pages 3-35 Framsticks: A Platform for Modeling, Simulating, and Evolving 3D Creatures....Pages 37-66 Nerve Garden: Germinating Biological Metaphors in Net-based Virtual Worlds....Pages 67-80 GenePool: Exploring the Interaction Between Natural Selection and Sexual Selection....Pages 81-96 Sodarace: Adventures in Artificial Life....Pages 97-111 Escaping the Accidents of History: An Overview of Artificial Life Modeling with Repast....Pages 115-141 EINSTein: A Multiagent-based Model of Combat....Pages 143-185 StarLogo: A Programmable Complex Systems Modeling Environment for Students and Teachers....Pages 187-209 On the Evolution of Sonic Ecosystems....Pages 211-230 Exploring Cellular Automata with MCell....Pages 233-261 Discrete Dynamics Lab: Tools for Investigating Cellular Automata and Discrete Dynamical Networks....Pages 263-297 Simulated Breeding — A Framework of Breeding Artifacts on the Computer....Pages 301-322 Enriching Aesthetics with Artificial Life....Pages 323-335 "Artificial Life Models in Software presents software tools, environments and realities dealing with creation, imitation and analysis of artefactual, virtual and living forms, written by those who personally design and produce software, hardware and art installations in artificial life, simulated complex systems and virtual worlds." "There has long been a need within the academic and research community for an informal introduction and guidance to modern software tools for modelling and simulation of life-like phenomena - Artificial Life Models in Software fills this gap and provides invaluable information to both professional and amateur readers, offering detailed reviews of contemporary software for artificial life."--Jacket