cgl@LANL.GOV (C G Langton) (05/09/87)
About a year ago, I posted a query about work being done on the computer
simulation of life. From the replies to that query and from what I have
been able to dig up in the literature, it has become apparent that there
is an imminent explosion of research in the simulation and synthesis of
life, both in computers and in the laboratory. Therefore, I am organizing
the following workshop:
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.
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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
87545