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14 - Artificial life

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 July 2014

By
Mark A. Bedau
Edited by
Keith Frankish  and
William M. Ramsey
Mark A. Bedau
Affiliation:
Reed College
Keith Frankish
Affiliation:
The Open University, Milton Keynes
William M. Ramsey
Affiliation:
University of Nevada, Las Vegas
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Summary

Artificial life is one type of interdisciplinary study of life and life-like processes. (Artificial life is also referred to as “ALife,” “A-Life,” “alife,” and the like.) Artificial life has two distinctive properties. First, it studies life in any form in which it can exist, so it focuses on life’s essential features rather than its contingent features. Second, it studies life by artificially synthesizing and simulating new forms of life and life’s fundamental processes. Studying life by synthesizing and simulating it enables us to experiment with different forms of life in an especially flexible manner. This makes it possible to give sharp experimental answers to many general questions about the nature of life.

Artificial life research is mainly a scientific activity, but it also raises and illuminates certain philosophical questions. The first part of this chapter explains what artificial life is and how it is connected with artificial intelligence, and briefly describes some of its representative scientific achievements. The second part discusses some associated philosophical issues involving emergence, creative evolution, the nature of life, the connection between life and mind, and the social and ethical implications of creating life from scratch.

Keywords

scientific achievementsself-organizationsoftware systemsphilosophical issuesartificial intelligenceartificial life
Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge Handbook of Artificial Intelligence , pp. 296 - 315
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2014

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References

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  • Artificial life
  • Edited by Keith Frankish, The Open University, Milton Keynes, William M. Ramsey, University of Nevada, Las Vegas
  • Book: The Cambridge Handbook of Artificial Intelligence
  • Online publication: 05 July 2014
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139046855.019
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  • Artificial life
  • Edited by Keith Frankish, The Open University, Milton Keynes, William M. Ramsey, University of Nevada, Las Vegas
  • Book: The Cambridge Handbook of Artificial Intelligence
  • Online publication: 05 July 2014
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139046855.019
Available formats
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Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Artificial life
  • Edited by Keith Frankish, The Open University, Milton Keynes, William M. Ramsey, University of Nevada, Las Vegas
  • Book: The Cambridge Handbook of Artificial Intelligence
  • Online publication: 05 July 2014
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139046855.019
Available formats
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