arshad@lfcs.edinburgh.ac.uk (Arshad Mahmood) (08/24/89)
I was recently told by a friend of a new book entitled "Artificial Life", it was based on the proceedings of a conference somewhere in USA. Does anybody know the detials, and can they reccomend it or rubbish it ? Thanks
hiebeler@turing.cs.rpi.edu (Dave Hiebeler) (08/25/89)
In article <Aug.23.17.22.40.1989.21363@athos.rutgers.edu> arshad@lfcs.edinburgh.ac.uk (Arshad Mahmood) writes: > I was recently told by a friend of a new book entitled "Artificial Life", it > was based on the proceedings of a conference somewhere in USA. > > Does anybody know the detials, and can they reccomend it or rubbish it ? Here's the info on the book: Artificial Life: The Proceedings of an Interdisciplinary Workshop on the Synthesis and Simulation of Living Systems Held September, 1987 in Los Alamos, New Mexico Christopher G. Langton, editor Addison-Wesley Publishing Company, 1989 ISBN: 0-201-09346-4 0-201-09356-1 (pbk.) The book is a collection of articles by various people, on different approaches to the subject. It includes an excellent introductory article by Chris Langton, which discusses some of the history which led up ot ALife, and some of the better-known models, such as self-reproduction in cellular automata, and Lindenmayer systems; his article also clarifies the philosophy of the science very well. I think the proceedings are interesting and worthwhile. The paperback is not very expensive, either. I picked mine up at a college bookstore for under $19, not bad for a 650-page proceedings. The proceedings was given a very good review in the July 15 "New Scientist". I didn't attend the first workshop, but I am working for the summer at the Center for Nonlinear Studies at Los Alamos, with Chris. Mostly I've been working on cellular automata, but my wife and I are getting into the field of ALife, and will be working on various related things during the fall. A second Artificial Life workshop is going to be held February 5-9, 1990 in Santa Fe, NM. An announcement was posted a couple of weeks ago to news.announce.conferences, sci.bio, sci.physics, and various other newsgroups. If you are interested but can't find the article at your site, send me an e-mail note and I can forward a copy to you. -- Dave Hiebeler hiebeler@cardinal.lanl.gov Center for Nonlinear Studies hiebeler@cs.rpi.edu MS B258 "xue zai shao" -- Huang Ying Ying Los Alamos National Laboratory / Los Alamos, NM 87545