What is Artificial Life, or A-Life?
The study of life and living systems has historically been dominated by the study of organic (carbon-based) organisms as they are found on one isolated planet in a vast universe of possibilities. This study is largely contained within the field of biology, which applies a top-down approach-essentially taking apart existing living systems to discover the essential elements. Because the number and variety of living systems available for study is strictly limited, biology has some inherent weaknesses.
The biological approach can be compared to an attempt to learn the principles of painting by studying the works found in a single museum or created by a single artist. While such an approach will surely yield many valuable insights, it is unlikely that we can learn all that there is to know about the subject of painting in this manner. In the same way that a deeper understanding of painting can be gained by attempting to create your own works, those within the discipline of A-Life seek to better understand life and living systems through the simulation and synthesis of natural living systems. "[R]ather than studying biological phenomena by taking apart living organisms to see how they work, one attempts to put together systems that behave like living organisms." (zooland.alife.org)
Examples:
* Watch artificial life principles applied to NPC character behavior in a video game.
* See an insect walk using these principles.
The field of Artificial Life is, by nature, interdisciplinary, encompassing as it does the disparate fields of computer science, biology, physics, mathematics and many others.
Some definitions of A-Life:
Artificial life... is the study of life through the use of human-made analogs of living systems. (
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artificial_Life)