The field of artificial life has recently emerged through the interaction of research in biology, physics, parallel computing, artificial intelligence, and complex adaptive systems. The goal is to understand, through synthetic experiments, the organizational principles underlying the dynamics (usually the nonlinear dynamics) of living systems. This book brings together contributions to the Fourth Artificial Life Workshop, held at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the summer of 1994.

Topics include:

• Self-organization and emergent functionality.
• Definitions of life.
• Origin of life.
• Self-reproduction.
• Computer viruses.
• Synthesis of "the living state."
• Evolution and population genetics.
• Coevolution and ecological dynamics.
• Growth, development, and differentiation.
• Organization and behavior of social and colonial organisms.
• Animal behavior.
• Global and local ecosystems and their intersections.
• Autonomous agents (mobile robots and software agents).
• Collective intelligence ("swarm" intelligence).
• Theoretical biology.
• Philosophical issues in A-life (from ontology to ethics).
• Formalisms and tools for A-life research.
• Guidelines and safeguards for the practice of A-life.