Artificial Life – A report from the frontier where computers meet biology

The first, and still the definitive (IMHO, and also that of the NY Times ) history of a new science – a-life, the creation of the behaviors of biology inside the computer and in the actions of robots. The technology of artificial life was first conceived by John von Neumann, who also had plenty to do with the nuclear effort, the technology of artificial death–and now a lot of a-life work is being done at Los Alamos. The book introduces the a-life scientists – a fascinating bunch – explains what they’re up to, and explores some of the moral issues behind the work

Order Artificial Life now. Also available in Germany, Korea, Portugal, and Japan. Other books include Insanely Great, The Unicorn’s Secret, Hackers or Crypto.

There is an artificial life web site, with pointers to other interesting a-life places.