Artificial Life Models in Software

Features

• Cover Type: Hard Cover with 344 pages
• Published by: Springer
• Edition: 1st Edition July 22, 2005
• Written in: English
• ISBN 10 Number: 1852339454
• ISBN 13 Number: 978-1852339456
• Book Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.3 x 0.8 inches
• Weighs: 1.4 pounds

Product Review


From the reviews:

"Artificial Life Models in software is a unique book that showcases a variety of freely available software for artificial life simulations. … It will be valuable for many related to artificial life, especially as an introductory reading for students … . It will also be a nice informative reference for professional researchers and educators. … I would like to recommend Artificial life models in software to whoever is interested in artificial life … ." (Hiroki Sayama, Artificial Life, Issue 13, 2007)

Product Description


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.

Reader Reviews
Remember Conway's Game of Life? Surely you must, if you are interested in this book. The Game has been around since the 70s. The editors have cultivated recent research papers that demonstrate how far the field has advanced. Reinforced by some pretty colour plates that depict artificial entities [dare we call them living?] in some surroundings. These include the modelling of bee flights through a garden, and simulated trajectories of a group of bacteria. Nor is the Game of Life ignored. One plate shows it in three dimensions. The Game is played in 2 dimensions, with time as the third dimension. An obvious choice that gives interesting trajectories of the cells. The narrative adds to the illustrations. By describing a variety of computer simulations [worlds?]. Where the experimenter can tweak many parameters, and watch her world unfold. Some worlds are impressively rich in complexity of observed behaviours. The only drawback in the book is its skimpy index. A mere two pages. It should have been more detailed.