Date: Sun, 05 Jul 92 19:58:36 IST
From: Emanuel <F68413@vm.biu.ac.il>
Subject: Contribution-1
To: alsyll@lotka.Stanford.EDU
AL Syllabus: Brainstorming Session June/18/1992
-----------------------------------------------
The following are the items noted down at the meeting of the
"Artificial Life Syllabus Group", which took place in the
park of the Plaza of Santa-Fe, on June/18/1992.
I composed them as a note, both in order to have a neater
list than the pages we photo copied at Santa-Fe, and for the
benefit of the "new-comers".
------------------------------------------------------------
Introduction * History, Philosophy, Moral questions
| Emergence
| Biology - Darwin, Lamark
----------------*-------------------------------------------
Tools | Genetic Algorithms, Genetic programming
| Formal Grammar
| Cellular Automata
| Artificial Neural Networks
----------------*-------------------------------------------
Phenomena | Origin of Life, Self Replication
| Metabolism
| Morphogensis
| Evolution, Learning/Cognition
| Complexity
| Social Interaction
----------------*-------------------------------------------
Models | Simple Models (such as in Computer
and | Recreations of the Scientific American)
Simulators | Predator-Prey
| Viruses, Core War, BUGS
| L-systems
| TIERRA
| Vehicles
| CA-lab
| SIM/LIFE
----------------*-------------------------------------------
Robotics | Robot systems
| Nano technology
| Subsumption Architecture
----------------*-------------------------------------------
Humans | Human Beings "A system approach"
and | Are we individuals or populations
Organizations | Intelligence
| Modelling of higher level organism with
| anticipatory behavior (foresight,
| expectations, etc... )
| Basic Framework currently used in
| economics & Game Theory
-----------------------------------------------------------
We have to amend this list. Then to select the proper
subject in each category, the relevant topics in each
category, and the best articles/books/chapters for each
topic.
Regards, Emanuel
*--------------------------------------------------------------------*
* Emanuel Gruengard, Departement of Mathematics and Computer
Science *
* Bar-Ilan University, Bar-Ilan Campus, 52900 Ramat-Gan, Israel
*
*--------------------------------------------------------------------*
Date: Sun, 05 Jul 92 20:04:19 IST
From: Emanuel <F68413@vm.biu.ac.il>
Subject: Contribution-2
To: alsyll@lotka.Stanford.EDU
Outlines of a Seminar in Artificial Life
---------------------------------------
Emanuel Gruengard
During the academic year 1990-1991 I have conducted a
one semester seminar in Artificial life, for graduate
students at the Department of Mathematics and Computer
Science of the Bar-Ilan University in Israel.
Nine registered students participated in the seminar, as
well as a varying number of additional non-registered
students (0 to 5), who drifted in and out of various
lectures.
Each of the student had two assignments, that he/she had to
accomplish during the one and a half, to one and three
quarters hour sessions that were allotted to him/her. The
first one was a presentation and a discussion of a selected
chapter from Artificial Life I (there was no Artificial Life
II at that time). The second one, was a either
running a demo of a small program, that had a relevance to
the presented article, and which he/she had to code, or an
additional discussion of a close topic. In most
cases, the material was drawn from articles that appeared in
the Computer Recreations section of the Scientific American
magazine.
We had eleven meeting as in addition to the students'
presentations, there was an introductory session, in which I
presented the subject of AL, its place in the developing new
trends in computer science, its relevant to Neural Networks,
(which was the AI seminar of the previous year, and the
class lecture of the following year), and selected
philosophical and ethical problems that are an integral part
of the subject. This lecture was based mainly on Langton:
"Artificial Life" from AL-I.
I have also had a quest speaker. Dr. Yuval Davidor from the
Weizmann Institute of Science, lectured about Genetic
Algorithms, and distributed a reprint of his article: "An
Intuitive Introduction to Genetic Algorithms as Adaptive
Optimization Procedures".
The nine (double) assignments were:
(All articles, unless specified otherwise, were from
Artificial Life I)
(SA-CR stands for: Scientific American/Computer Recreations.
All of these articles can also be found in the two books
published by Dewdney: "The Armchair Universe" and "The Magic
Machine")
1. Tamary & Hartman: "Cellular Automata, Reaction-Diffusion
Systems, and the Origin of Life"
+
Buckingham: "Some Facts of Life", BYTE, December 1978
2. Taylor, Jefferson, Turner & Goldman: "RAM: Artificial Life
for the Exploration of Complex Biological Systems"
+
Dewdney: "Sharks and Fish wage an Ecological War on the
Toroidal Planet Wa-Tor", SA-CR, December 1984
3. Wilson: "The Genetic Algorithm and Simulated Evolution"
Dawkins: "The Evolution of Evolvability"
+
Dewdney: "Exploring the Field of Genetic Algorithms in a
Primordial Computer Sea full of Flibs", SA-CR, November
1985
4. Lugowski: "Computational Metabolism: Towards Biological
Geometries for Computing"
+
Dewdney: "Braitenberg Memories for Probing Behavior Roam
a Dark Plain marked by Lights",SA-CR, March 1987
5. Lindenmayer & Prusinkiewicz: "Developmental Models of
Multicellular Organisms: A Computer Graphics Perspective"
Saupe: "A unified approach to Fractal Curves and Plants",
in Peitgen & Saupe's "The Science of Fractal Images"
+
Dewdney: "Simulated Evolution: Wherein Bugs learn to hunt
Bacteria"
6. Hogweg: "MIRROR beyond MIRROR, Puddles of LIFE"
+
Dewdney: "Diverse Personalities search for Social
Equilibrium at a Computer Party"
7. Moravec: "Human Culture: A Genetic Takeover Underway"
+
Dewdney: "A Circuitous Odyssey from Robotropolis to the
Electronic Gates of Silicon Valley", SA-CR, July 1985
8. Schneiker: "Nano Technology with Feynman Machines:
Scanning Tunneling Engineering and Artificial Life"
+
Dewdney: "Nanotechnology: Wherein Molecular Computers
Control tiny Circulatory Submarines", SA-CR, January 1988
9. Goel & Thompson: "Movable Finite Automata (MFA): A New
Tool for Computer Modeling of Living Systems"
+
Dewdney: "The Game of Life acquires Successors in three
Dimensions", SA-CR, February 1987
The students were also referred to complimentary books, for
further enhancements of relevant topics:
Dennett - Brainstorms
Fjermedal - The Tomorrow Makers
Pagles - The Dreams of Reason
Minsky - The Society of Mind
Penrose - The Emperor's new Mind
Graubard - The Artificial Intelliegnce Debate
Searle - Minds, Brains and Science
Schrodinger - What is Life?
Poundstone - The Recursive Universe
Berlekamp, Conway & Guy - Winning Ways for your Mathematical
Plays
Wolfram - Theory and Applications of Cellular Automata
Braitenberg - Vehicles
Dawkins - The Blind Watchmaker
Prusinkiewicz & Lindenmayer - The Algorithmic Beauty of
Plants
Dryefus - What Computers Can't Do
Hofstadler & Dennett - The Mind's I
Borges - Selected Short Stories in various anthologies
Churchland - Neurophilosophy
In a future note, I will provide, an annotated bibliography
of the books mentioned above and additional ones, from which
material could be selected for similar seminars.
Now that we have "Artificial Life -II", and Valera's:
"Toward a practice of an autonomous system (European
Artificial Life - I)", we have a more comprehensive
selection from which we could offer a better balanced
seminar.
Regards, Emanuel
*--------------------------------------------------------------------*
* Emanuel Gruengard, Departement of Mathematics and Computer Science *
* Bar-Ilan University, Bar-Ilan Campus, 52900 Ramat-Gan, Israel *
* E-mail: F68413@BARILVM.BITNET Fax: +972-3-344-622 *
*--------------------------------------------------------------------*
Date: Fri, 11 Sep 92 11:25:38 IST
From: Emanuel <F68413%BARILVM.BITNET@forsythe.Stanford.EDU>
Subject: ALIFE Biblography
To: alsyll@lotka.Stanford.EDU
Artificial Life: A partial Bibliography
---------------------------------------
Emanuel Gruengard, Bar-Ilan University
=>>> Please amend, correct & expand the list <<<=
Introduction and Popular
------------------------
1: Steven Levy: Artificial Life - The Quest for a New Creation, Pantheon
Books, NY, 1992
[A popular presentation on ALIFE, its objectives, history and the
people involved]
2: Grant Fjermedal: The Tomorrow Makers, A Brave New world of
Living-Brain Machines, Tempus, Redmond, 1986
[A popular exposition about the search for immortality and the
searchers]
3: Heinz Pagels: The Dreams of Reason, The Computer and the Rise of the
Sciences of Complexity, Simon & Schuster, New York, 1988
[Popular exposition of AI, Chaos Theory and Mind/Body problem]
4: Marvin Minsky: The Society of Mind, Simon & Schuster, New York, 1986
[Explaining by "splinters" of articles, how the brain works by
employing minute functional units that combines to an entity.
The Bottom - Up approach. Quantity turns into Quality]
5: Douglas Hofstadter & Daniel Dennett: The Mind's I, Fantasies
and Reflections on Self and Soul, Bantam, Toronto, 1982
[Articles, stories and dialogues about the Mind/Body problem]
Techniques
----------
1: Stephen Wolfram: Theory and Applications of Cellular Automata,
World Scientific, Singapore, 1986
[An anthology of articles dealing with Cellular Automata]y
2: Elwyn Berlekamp, John Conway & Richard Guy: Winning Ways for
your mathematical plays, Volume 2: Games in Particular, Academic
Press, London, 1982.
[An extensive discussion on the Game of LIFE. Includes the
proof on the universality computing power of LIFE]
3: William Poundstone: The Recursive Universe, Oxford University
Press, Oxford, 1987 (Paperback)
[A popular treatment of the game of LIFE]
4: John Holland:Adaptation in Natural and Artificial Systems, University
of Michigan Press, 1975 (Reissue, MIT Press 1992)
[The classical book by the father of GA about the subject]
5: David Goldberg: Genetic Algorithms in Search, Optimization, and
Machine Learning, Addison-Wesley, Reading, 1989
[A text book on the theory, operation and application of GA]
6: Lawerence Davis: Handbook on Genetic Algorithms, Van Nostrand
Reinhold, 1991
[Tutorial and case studies, another text book]
7: John Koza: Genetic Programming, MIT Press, Cambridge, (due in
November 1992)
[On the programming of computers by means of natural selection
and genetics]
Evolution/Biology
-----------------
1: Richard Dawkins: The Blind Watchmaker, W.E. Norton, New York, 1987
[An enthusiastic defense of the Darwin's evolution Theory.
Includes a description of his Biomorf Program.]
2: Richard Dawkins: The Selfish Gene, Oxford University Press, 1978
[Who is the one to compete? the Species or the Gene? Dawkins
believes in the second alternative]
3: A. G. Cairns-Smith: Seven Clues to the Origin of Life, Cambridge
University Press (Canto), 1990
[How life may have arisen on earth, and how it started from
Clay]
4: Erwin Schrodinger: What is Life?, Cambridge University Press
(Canto), 1992
[A physicist's exploration of the question which lies
at the heart of biology]
5: Przemyslaw Prusinkiewicz & Aristid Lindenmayer: The Algorithmic
Beauty of Plants, Springer-Verlag, New York, 1990
[Description of L-Systems, coupled with astounding pictures]
Creation
--------
1: Hans Moravec: Mind Children, The Future of Robot and Human
Intelligence, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts,
1988
[A book by one of the proponents of the feasibility to create
living robots that might inherit the Homo Sapiens]
2: John Pollack: How to Build A Person - A Prolegomenon, MIT Press,
Cambridge, 1989
[A Theory of rationality and its partial implementation in
OSCAR, a computer system whose descendants will literally be
persons]
3: Valentino Braitenberg - Vehicles: Experiments in Synthetic
Psychology, MIT Press 1984
[A how a simple neural network can generate complex patterns
of "behavior"]
Physics/Information
-------------------
1: Tom Stoner: Information and the Internal Structure of the Universe,
Springer-Verlag, London, 1990
[Examines the idea that information may be as much a part of
the physical universe as matter and energy]
Conferences/Compendium
----------------------
1: Christopher Langton: Artificial Life, The Proceedings on the 1987
Workshop in Los Almos, NM, Addison-Wesley, Redwood City California,
1989
[The proceedings of the first conference on Alife]
2: Christopher Langton, Charles Taylor, Doyne Farmer, Steen Rasmussen:
Artificial Life II, The Proceedings on the second (1990) Workshop in
Santa Fe Almos, NM, Addison-Wesley, Redwood City California, 1992
[The proceedings of the second conference on Alife]
3: Christopher Langton: Artificial Life II, Video Proceedings,
Addison-Wesley, Redwood City ,California, 1992
[Interesting video presentations: Historical, Science, Clips]
4: Varela: Towards a practice of autonomous systems, MIT press 1992
[The proceedings of the first European AL conference]
Fantasy/Speculative
-------------------
1: Leo Lionni: Parallel Botany, Knoff, New York, 1977
[A witty book on a vast, ramified, peculiar and imaginary
kingdom of Botany]
2: Dougal Dixon: After Man - a Zoology of the Future, St. martin
Press, New York, 1981
[50 millions years in the future. Man has long been extinct, and
new animals have taken over the earth's surface...]
Critics and Ethics
------------------
1: Alan Turing: Computing Machinery and Intelligence, Mind, Vol. LIX,
No. 236(1950)
[Turing's classical article proposing his test.]
2: John Searle : Mind, Brains and Science, Harvard University Press,
Cambridge, Massachusettes, 1984
[Searle published his "Chinese Test" many time, in various
publications. This booklet is his BBC lectures]
3: Roger Penrose: The Emperor's New Mind, Oxford University Press, New
York, 1989 (Paperback by Vintage Press, London, 1990)
[A critic on the basic assumptions and objectives of the strong
claim of AI and ALIFE]
4: Hubert Dryefus: What Computers Can't Do, A Critique of Artificial
Reason, Harper & Row, New York, 1972
[A critic on the notion that Human intelligence and Machine
intelligence can even be compared]
5: Joseph Weizenbaum: Computer Power and Human Reason, W. H. Freeman &
Co., San Francisco, 1976
[Is it moral to engage in AI (and AL)?]
6: Stephen Graubard: The Artificial Intelligence Debate, False Starts,
Real Foundations, MIT Press, Cambridge,
Massachusetts, 1988
[An excellent collection of articles dealing with the
techniques, implementation, philosophy, ethics, hope and
disappointments of AI]
Computer Programs
-----------------
1: Thomas Ray - Tierra.
[Life and death in a digital world. Survival of the fittest
electronic organisms illustrate Darwinian principles - MS/DOS
and UNIX systems]
2: Richard Dawkins: Blind Watchmaker
[Darwinian selection thru electronic mutation. Original program
for the Apple Macintosh. A simpler version for the IBM-PC,
called Biomurffs by D. J. Murphy, exist for the PC]
3: Bert Tyler & friends: Fractint
[A comprehensive Fractal system that includes L-system as one
of its components. For the PC]
5: Maxis Co.: SIM LIFE
[Building your own ecosystem. Experiment with extinction,
mutation, disease, ... Macintosh & PC versions during 1992]
6: Maxis Co.: El-Fish
[A highly graphical environmental electronic lab, for the
PC. Due toward the end of 1992]
7: Autodesk: CA Lab
[Two CA simulators for the PC]
8: Axcelis Inc.: Evolver
[Genetic Algorithm system]
9: Larry Yager: Polyworld
[Ecological simulator. Unix systems]
10: David Hesierman: Projects in Machine Intelligence for your Home
Computer, Tab Books, Blue Ridge Summit, 1982
[A book with BASIC listings]
11: Several graphics simulators of Darwinian evolution, based on A. K.
Dewdney: "Simulated Evolution: wherein bugs learn to hunt bacteria"
Scientific American, May 1989.
* Bugs [Autodesk]
* Bugland [Autodesk]
* Simulated Evolution [Life science Associates]
Fiction / Science Fiction
--------------------------
There are so many books dealing with the creation of life, either
biological or robotics, the techniques, the ethics and the
outcomes, that it would be meaningless to list them all, or to dare
to select the "best".
Nevertheless, some are listed below.
* The legend about Pygmalion and Galatea
* Gershon Winkler - The Golem of Prague, The Judaica Press, New York,
1980
* Mary Shelly: Frankenstein
* Carlo Collodi: Pinocchio
* E. T. A. Hoffmann: Erzahlungen (i.e The Sandman, which served as the
basis for Offenbach's Opera : Les Contes D'Hoffmann, in
which appears Olympia - a mechanical doll.)
* Olaf Stapleoon: Last and First Men
* Carl Capeck: R.V.R
* Luis Borges: Many short stories (e.g. Funes the Memorious, The
Circular Ruins, The Immortals, ...)
* Issac assimov: The robot stories (e.g. I robot)
* Clifford Simack: City
* Ridley Scott(director): Blade Runner (movie)
Regards, Emanuel
*--------------------------------------------------------------------*
* Emanuel Gruengard, Departement of Mathematics and Computer Science *
* Bar-Ilan University, Bar-Ilan Campus, 52900 Ramat-Gan, Israel *
* E-mail: F68413@BARILVM.BITNET Fax: +972-3-344-622 *
*--------------------------------------------------------------------*
Date: Sat, 20 Feb 93 22:08:14 IST
From: "Emanuel Gruengard" <F68413@vm.biu.ac.il>
Subject: Seminar 2
To: alsyll@lotka.Stanford.EDU
Outlines of Seminar # 2 in Artificial Life
------------------------------------------
In a previous note (5 July 1992) I outlined the seminar I
conducted during 1990-1991, at Bar-Ilan University in Israel.
During the first semester of this academic year (1992-1993)
I have conducted the second Seminar for graduate students.
The seminar was conducted along much the same line, and
you
will be able to find its structure in the previous note. The
major difference was that this time we used "Artificial Life
II". Therefore the key topics were concerned with Genetic
Algorithms, rather then Cellular Automata, which was the
dominating topic of Artificial Life I", and the first
seminar.
I assume that a more balanced approach is needed, and any
subsequent seminar (or course) will try to balance more
thoroughly the topics.
After my Introduction lecture about AL, the assignments
were:
1. John Holland - Genetic Algorithm, Scientific American,
July 1992.
Daniel Hillis - Co-Evolving Improve Simulated Evolution
as an Optimization Procedure (Al-II)
2. Richard Belew, ... - Evolving Networks: Using the
Genetic Algorithm with Connectionist Learning
** (Student 1 & 2 had also to code (together) a computer
program based on Dewdney's article in Scientific
American, November 1985: "Exploring the field of genetic
algorithms in a primordial computer sea full of flibs")
3. David Jefferson, ... - Evolution as a Theme in Artificial
Life: The Genesys/Tracker System (AL-II)
4. Robert Collins, ... - Ant Farm: Towards Simulated
Evolution
** (Student 3 & 4 had also to code (together) a computer
program based on Dewdney's article in Scientific
American, December 1984: "Sharks and fish wage an
ecological war on the toroidal planet Wa-Tor")
5. Mark Bedau, ... - Measurement of Evolutionary Activity,
Teleology, and Life (AL-II)
6. John Koza - Genetic Evolution and Co-Evolution of
Computer Programs (AL-II)
** (Student 5 & 6 had also to code (together) a computer
program based on Dewdney's article in Scientific
American, September 1987: "Diverse personalities search
for social equilibrium at a computer party")
7. Thomas Ray - An Approach to the Synthesis of Life
(Tierra)
** (Student 7 had also to code a computer program based on
Bill Mason "Silicon Retina - The Software" in Algorithms,
issue 2.4, October 1991 and, Mahowald, ... - The Silicon
Retina, Scientific American, May 1991)
8. Carlo Maley - The Computational Completeness of Ray's
Tierran Assembly Language (Distributed at AL-III)
** (Student 8 had also to code a computer program based on
Dewdney's article in Scientific America, May 1989:
"Simulated Evolution: wherein bugs learn to hunt
bacteria")
*** (Students 7 & 8 had also to demonstrate, to the rest of
the students the Tierra program)
9. Steen Rasmussen, ... - Dynamics of Programmable Matter
(AL-II)
** (Student 9 had also to code a computer program based on
Dewdney's article "A computer grid illustrates social
networks and epidemics" in Algorithms, issue 2.3, May
1991
10. David Ackley, ... - Interaction between Learning &
Evolution (AL-II)
** (Student 10 had also to code a computer program based on
Dewdney's article "Bringing tur-mites to life" in
Algorithms, issue 1.7, November 1990
**** In addition the students were invited to my house where I
showed them the "Artificial Life II - Video Proceedings"
Bibliography: Additions
-----------------------
In my note from 11 September 1992, I supplied quite an
extensive bibliography relating to AL.
I feel that the following books should also be included:
Philip N. Johnson-Laird: The Computer and the Mind, An
Introduction to Cognitive Science, Harvard University Press,
Cambridge, 1988
Keith Campbell: Body and Mind, MacMillan Press, London
1970
Daniel C. Dennet: Brainstorms - Philosophical Essays on Mind
and Psychology, The MIT Press, 1991
Arthur C. Clarke: Childhood's End
Regards, Emanuel
*--------------------------------------------------------------------*
* Emanuel Gruengard, Departement of Mathematics and Computer
Science *
* Bar-Ilan University, Bar-Ilan Campus, 52900 Ramat-Gan, Israel
*
* E-mail: F68413@BARILVM.BITNET Fax: +972-3-344-622
*
*--------------------------------------------------------------------*