Description
Book SynopsisWhat is life? Is it just the biologically familiar - birds, trees, snails, people - or is it an infinitely complex set of patterns that a computer could simulate? This book outlines many of the challenges and controversies involved in the dynamic and curious science of artificial life.
Trade Review"Emmeche's account goes beyond describing (with appropriate awe) the accomplishments of computer biology to raise the crucial question of whether the new metaphor of the machine can be extended ... to the whole of nature."--Times Literary Supplement "A serious, sensible introduction to an exciting new field. It is not every day that one can see science fiction clash with natural philosophy in such a civilized fashion."--Karl Sigmund, Science "Can life be synthesized? Emmeche suggests in his fascinating book an approach to this question by means of computer simulation of living processes ... [and] tackles the posed questions with great insight."--Borje Ekstig, The Quarterly Review of Biology
Table of ContentsPrefaceAcknowledgementsCh. 1The Game of Life3Ch. 2What Is Life?23Ch. 3The Logic of Self-Reproduction47Ch. 4Artificial Growth and Evolution71Ch. 5The Ecology of Computation110Ch. 6The Biology of the Impossible134Ch. 7Simulating Life: Postmodern Science156Notes167Index189
