Toward a Practice of Autonomous Systems: Proceedings of the First European Conference on Artificial Life

by Francisco J. Varela (Editor), Paul Bourgine (Editor)

Artificial life embodies a recent and important conceptual step in modem science: asserting that the core of intelligence and cognitive abilities is the same as the capacity for living. The recent surge of interest in artificial life has pushed a whole range of engineering traditions, such as control theory and robotics, beyond classical notions of goal and planning into biologically inspired notions of viability and adaptation, situatedness and operational closure. These proceedings serve two important functions: they address bottom-up theories of artificial intelligence and explore what can be learned from simple models such as insects about the cognitive processes and characteristic autonomy of living organisms, while also engaging researchers and philosophers in an exciting examination of the epistemological basis of this new trend.Topics
Artificial Animals - Genetic Algorithms - Autonomous Systems - Emergent Behaviors - Artificial Ecologies - Immunologic Algorithms - Self-Adapting Systems - Emergent Structures - Emotion And Motivation - Neural Networks - Coevolution - Fitness Landscapes

Contributors
H. Bersini, Domenico Parisi, Rodney A. Brooks, Christopher G. Langton, S. Kauffman, J.-L. Denenbourg, Pattie Maes, John Holland, T. Smithersm H. Swefel, H. Muhlenbein

Paperback

First published April 2, 1992

About the author

Francisco Varela was a biologist, philosopher, and neuroscientist who, together with his teacher Humberto Maturana, is best known for introducing the concept of *autopoiesis to biology*, for bringing phenomenology and first-person approaches to biology and neuroscience, and for co-founding the Mind and Life Institute to promote dialog between science and Buddhism.