Polyworld
Polyworld is a cross-platform (Linux, Mac OS X) program written by Larry Yaeger to evolve Artificial Intelligence through natural selection and evolutionary algorithms. It uses the Qt graphics toolkit
Living technology
Living technology is the field of technology that derives its functionality and usefulness from the properties that make natural organisms alive (see life). It may be seen as a technological subfield
Self-replicating spacecraft
The concept of Self-replicating spacecraft, as envisioned by mathematician John von Neumann, has been described by futurists including physicist Michio Kaku and discussed across a wide breadth of hard
Von Neumann universal constructor
John von Neumann's universal constructor is a self-replicating machine in a cellular automaton (CA) environment. It was designed in the 1940s, without the use of a computer. The fundamental details of
Self-replicating machine
A self-replicating machine is a type of autonomous robot that is capable of reproducing itself autonomously using raw materials found in the environment, thus exhibiting self-replication in a way anal
Artificial chemistry
An artificial chemistry is a chemical-like system that usually consists of objects, called molecules, that interact according to rules resembling chemical reaction rules. Artificial chemistries are cr
Creatures 2
Creatures 2 is the second game in the Creatures artificial life game series made by , and the sequel to 1996 game Creatures. It features three species: the cute, dependent Norns, the cantankerous Gren
Astrochicken
Astrochicken is the name given to a thought experiment expounded by theoretical physicist Freeman Dyson. An Astrochicken is a small, one-kilogram spacecraft, a self-replicating automaton that could ex
Turmite
In computer science, a turmite is a Turing machine which has an orientation in addition to a current state and a "tape" that consists of an infinite two-dimensional grid of cells. The terms ant and va
Weasel program
The weasel program or Dawkins' weasel is a thought experiment and a variety of computer simulations illustrating it. Their aim is to demonstrate that the process that drives evolutionary systems—rando
Mycoplasma laboratorium
Mycoplasma laboratorium or Synthia refers to a synthetic strain of bacterium. The project to build the new bacterium has evolved since its inception. Initially the goal was to identify a minimal set o
Framsticks
Framsticks is a 3D freeware Artificial Life simulator. Organisms consisting of physical structures ("bodies") and control structures ("brains") evolve over time against a user's predefined fitness lan
Xenobot
Xenobots, named after the African clawed frog (Xenopus laevis), are synthetic lifeforms that are designed by computers to perform some desired function and built by combining together different biolog
Boids
Boids is an artificial life program, developed by Craig Reynolds in 1986, which simulates the flocking behaviour of birds. His paper on this topic was published in 1987 in the proceedings of the ACM S
Artificial life framework
Artificial Life is a free and open sourced Java framework created to simulate Life. It is a multi-agents framework where each agent runs its own Thread. The agents are split into two different categor
Langton's ant
Langton's ant is a two-dimensional universal Turing machine with a very simple set of rules but complex emergent behavior. It was invented by Chris Langton in 1986 and runs on a square lattice of blac
Creatures (video game series)
Creatures is an artificial life video game series, created in the mid-1990s by English computer scientist Steve Grand whilst working for the Cambridge video games developer Millennium Interactive. Gam
Gene Pool (software)
Gene Pool is an artificial life simulation created by Jeffrey Ventrella in 1997. It features physics-based 2D proto-swimming creatures (swimbots) that compete for mates and food.
Codd's cellular automaton
Codd's cellular automaton is a cellular automaton (CA) devised by the British computer scientist Edgar F. Codd in 1968. It was designed to recreate the computation- and construction-universality of vo
Santa Claus machine
A Santa Claus machine, named after the folkloric Santa Claus, is a hypothetical machine that is capable of creating any required object or structure out of any given material. It is most often referen
Langton's loops
Langton's loops are a particular "species" of artificial life in a cellular automaton created in 1984 by Christopher Langton. They consist of a loop of cells containing genetic information, which flow
Evolving digital ecological network
Evolving digital ecological networks are webs of interacting, self-replicating, and evolving computer programs (i.e., digital organisms) that experience the same major ecological interactions as biolo
Code of the Lifemaker
Code of the Lifemaker is a 1983 novel by British science fiction author James P. Hogan. NASA's report Advanced Automation for Space Missions was the direct inspiration for this novel detailing first c
Tierra (computer simulation)
Tierra is a computer simulation developed by ecologist Thomas S. Ray in the early 1990s in which computer programs compete for time (central processing unit (CPU) time) and space (access to main memor
MASON (Java)
MASON is a multi-agent simulation environment developed in Java.
Artificial Life (journal)
Artificial Life is a peer-reviewed scientific journal that covers the study of man-made systems that exhibit the behavioral characteristics of natural living systems. Its articles cover system synthes
Artificial life
Artificial life (often abbreviated ALife or A-Life) is a field of study wherein researchers examine systems related to natural life, its processes, and its evolution, through the use of simulations wi
Digital organism
A digital organism is a self-replicating computer program that mutates and evolves. Digital organisms are used as a tool to study the dynamics of Darwinian evolution, and to test or verify specific hy
Creatures 3
Creatures 3 is the third game in the Creatures a-life game series made by . In this installment, the Shee have left Albia in a spaceship, the Shee Ark, to search for a more spherical world. The Ark wa
OpenWorm
OpenWorm is an international open science project for the purpose of simulating the roundworm Caenorhabditis elegans at the cellular level. Although the long-term goal is to model all 959 cells of the
Byl's loop
The Byl's loop is an artificial lifeform similar in concept to Langton's loop. It is a two-dimensional, 5-neighbor cellular automaton with 6 states per cell, and was developed in 1989 by John Byl, fro
Avida
Avida is an artificial life software platform to study the evolutionary biology of self-replicating and evolving computer programs (digital organisms). Avida is under active development by Charles Ofr
Agent-based model
An agent-based model (ABM) is a computational model for simulating the actions and interactions of autonomous agents (both individual or collective entities such as organizations or groups) in order t
Synthetic mycoides
Synthetic mycoides refers to an artificial life form created by Craig Venter at the J Craig Venter Institute in May 2010. A synthetic genome was transferred into an empty cell to form the bacterium, w
Gray goo
Gray goo (also spelled as grey goo) is a hypothetical global catastrophic scenario involving molecular nanotechnology in which out-of-control self-replicating machines consume all biomass on Earth whi
Autocatalytic set
An autocatalytic set is a collection of entities, each of which can be created catalytically by other entities within the set, such that as a whole, the set is able to catalyze its own production. In
Sugarscape
Sugarscape is a model for artificially intelligent agent-based social simulation following some or all rules presented by Joshua M. Epstein & Robert Axtell in their book Growing Artificial Societies.
Artificial creation
Artificial creation is a field of research that studies the primary synthesis of complex lifelike structures from primordial lifeless origins. The field bears some similarity to artificial life, but u
History of artificial life
The idea of human artifacts being given life has fascinated humankind for at least 3000 years. As seen in tales ranging from Pygmalion to Frankenstein, humanity has long been intrigued by the concept
Animat
Animat are artificial animals and is a contraction of animal and materials. The term includes physical robots and virtual simulations. The animat model includes features of a simple animal capable of
Darwin among the Machines
"Darwin among the Machines" is an article published in The Press newspaper on 13 June 1863 in Christchurch, New Zealand, which references the work of Charles Darwin in the title. Written by Samuel But