Creating Artificial Life

Based on actual, ongoing research into artificial life, the projects in this work include actual programs in BASIC, C and Pascal that can be used to duplicate artificial life forms on the PC. Rietman covers the mathematical techniques used by scientists for simulating a variety of complex, dynamic systems: biochemical genetic codes, amino acids and proteins, computer viruses, self-organizing systems, autonomous robots, mathematical bioforms, artificial ecology, and more. In addition to explaining the principles and practices of computer modelling and providing accompanying source code, Rietman reviews several commercial software package for the computer modeller. Finally, he takes a look at the future of artificial life and its implications for 21st-century society.