cgl@beta.UUCP (C G Langton) (05/09/87)
I would like to solicit contributions for a workshop on:
ARTIFICIAL LIFE
An Interdisciplinary Workshop
on the Synthesis and Simulation
of Living Systems
organized by
Chris Langton
Center for Nonlinear Studies
Los Alamos National Laboratory
Los Alamos, New Mexico 87545
September 21-25 1987
Artificial life is the study of artificial systems that exhibit
behavior characteristic of natural living systems. This includes
computer simulations, biological and chemical experiments, and purely
theoretical endeavors. Processes occurring on molecular, cellular, neural,
social, and evolutionary scales are subject to investigation. The ultimate
goal is to extract the logical form of living systems.
Microelectronic technology and genetic engineering will soon give us
the capability to create new life forms "in-silico" as well as in-vitro.
This capacity will present humanity with some of the most far-reaching
technical, theoretical, and ethical challenges it has ever confronted.
The time seems appropriate for a gathering of those involved in
attempts to simulate or synthesize aspects of living systems. This
workshop will provide a forum to address the fundamental problems
inherent in such an enterprise.
The goals of this first workshop on artificial life are:
To bring the field of artificial life into focus.
To present current work in artificial life, and to provide
an historical perspective.
To open a channel of communication between researchers from
disciplines whose work is relevant to artificial life.
To produce a list of fundamental questions that the field
should address.
To identify ways in which work on artificial life can
contribute to theoretical biology.
To organize the literature in the field by compiling an
annotated bibliography.
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I have posted a more complete announcement to "news.announce.conferences",
which contains further information about the workshop and includes a
registration form to fill out and return. In the interest of brevity, I
have not included the full posting here. If you are interested in attending
or contributing to a workshop on computer - and other - models of life, its
constituent processes, or the processes that living systems support, please
see the more complete posting in "news.announce.conferences".
One of the primary activities at the workshop will be an "artificial 4H show"
with prizes for the most life-like models or simulations submitted. You need
not attend the workshop to submit an entry to the "4H-show". So, if you have
some simulation of a living system, an origin of life model, an evolving
population of "bugs", a model of social dynamics, a self-replicating Meccano
set, or something else you have been working on - whether as your primary
line of research or as a project that you've been doing on the side - dust
it off, polish it up, and send it (or a brief description) to the address
listed below. I am hoping for a workshop with a large number of hands-on
demonstrations and exhibits, combined with a few selected talks and panel
discussions, so that we can really exchange ideas on a personal level in a
computater-rich environment, allowing us to test new ideas or model parameters
on the spot. I want to avoid the typical format of bumper-to-bumper talks with
little time for discussion in between. I will provide a number of Sun
workstations running 4.2 BSD UNIX, Apple Macintoshes, IBM PC's, and a CAM-6
cellular automaton machine. If your system requires other equipment, let me
know the details and I will try to obtain it.
More information will be available as the workshop evolves.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Chris Langton email: cgl@lanl.gov
Center for Nonlinear Studies phone: 505-665-0049 (office)
Los Alamos National Laboratory 505-667-1444 (messages)
Los Alamos, New Mexico
87545cgl@lanl.gov (C G Langton) (12/22/89)
FINAL ANNOUNCEMENT !!!!
ARTIFICIAL LIFE
---------------
A workshop on the synthesis of
living and evolving artifacts.
February 5-9, 1990
Santa Fe, New Mexico
Sponsored by
------------
The Center for Nonlinear Studies, LANL
and
The Santa Fe Institute
Self-Organizers
---------------
Doyne Farmer
Chris Langton
Steen Rasmussen
Charles Taylor
Artificial Life has only recently emerged as a coherent field of
scientific research. Its primary methodological approach is to study
life and evolution by attempting to actually create living and/or
evolving processes within computers, beakers, or other ``artificial''
media. Its primary goal is to abstract the ``logical form'' of life
from its material basis - and to construct a truly general theory of
living systems, one which will be capable of treating life wherever it
is found in the universe and whatever it is made of. ``Artificial'' Life
can contribute to the study of ``real'' life by helping to locate
life-as-we-know-it within the larger context of life-as-it-could-be,
in any of its possible incarnations.
This will be the second workshop on the topic of Artificial Life. The
workshop will include invited and contributed talks, demonstrations,
and discussions on the many scientific, technical, philosophical, and
moral issues surrounding the increasing attempts to synthesize life
artificially. We will also have an artificial ``4H show'' with prizes
for the best artificial life-forms.
Specific investigations in the field of Artificial Life include attempts
to synthesize, simulate, or otherwise recreate the following:
- the emergence of autocatalytic sets within soups of artificial polymers;
- the evolution of strings of code using Genetic Algorithms;
- self-reproducing bit-strings, clay-crystals, RNA molecules, or LEGO-robots;
- the emergence of cooperativity, colonial organization, multi-cellularity,
and hierarchical organization;
- the embryological processes of growth, development, and differentiation;
- the emergence of social behavior in populations of artificial insects;
- the emulation of population and ecosystem dynamics;
- the implementation of artificial environments, logical universes,
or ``virtual realities'' sufficiently rich to support the open-ended
evolution of embedded ``organisms'';
- cultural evolution, including the origin and evolution of socio-
cultural institutions, and the evolution of natural language in its
role as a vehicle for cultural inheritance;
- the dynamics of self-propagating information structures such as
biological and computer viruses;
Many of the investigations mentioned above will be reported on or
discussed at the workshop.
We expect that there will also be plenty of debate on the question of
whether or not symbolic processes within computers can be considered
``alive'' in principle, or whether they could be capable of participating
in anything like truly open-ended evolution. These debates will probably
parallel to a large extent the debates in the AI community on whether
processes within computers can considered to be ``intelligent'' or
``conscious.''
We are also encouraging presentations and/or debates on the moral and
social consequences of achieving the capability to create living things.
The mastery of the technology of life will easily overshadow any of our
previous technological accomplishments - even our mastery of the technology
of death - in terms of the burden of responsibility which it places on our
shoulders. As was the case for the mastery of atomic fission and fusion,
the potential abuses are directly proportional to the potential benefits.
Once again, we are in a position where our technical understanding of nature
is far in advance of our understanding of the potential consequences
of mastering or deploying the technology. This is not an enterprise to
be undertaken lightly, or to be pursued in the cause of such shortsighted
goals as fleeting military advantage.
The increasing spread and sophistication of computer viruses is evidence
both of the imminence of this new era in the history of life, and of the
complexity of the problems and issues that will be facing all of us in
the not-too-distant future.
We welcome your presence and contribution on any aspect of Artificial
Life that you consider worth presenting or discussing with others
who are interested in such issues. Whether you are a scientist, an
engineer, a philosopher, an artist, or just a concerned citizen, we
feel that ALL points of view need to be aired at this early stage in
the evolution of Artificial Life.
For further information and/or registration materials, contact:
Andi Sutherland
The Santa Fe Institute
1120 Canyon Rd.
Santa Fe, New Mexico
87501
505-984-8800
andi@sfi.santafe.edu
The deadline for contributions is Dec. 31, 1989. Registrations for
the workshop will be accepted right up to the date of the workshop.
Some limited financial assistance will be available for the truly
needy.
The proceedings of the first Artificial Life Workshop, held at
the Center for Nonlinear Studies, Los Alamos, New Mexico in 1987,
are available from Addison Wesley: "Artificial Life: The proceedings
of an interdisciplinary workshop on the synthesis and simulation
of living systems", edited by Christopher G. Langton, Volume #6
in Addison Wesley's `Santa Fe Institute Studies in the Sciences
of Complexity' series. They can be ordered toll free by calling
800-447-2226. The order codes are:
Hardback (about $40) ISBN 0-201-09346-4
Paperback (about $20) ISBN 0-201-09356-1