CLASS OF INTEREST TO STUDENTS WHO WORK IN ROBOTICS

PORTLAND STATE UNIVERSITY Winter 2000

Systems Science Ph.D. Program MW. 2:00-3:50

Professor Martin Zwick& SB2, room 104

725-4987 zwick@sysc.pdx.edu

see http://www.sysc.pdx.edu/alife.html

A R T I F I C I A L L I F E

(SySc 557/657 but listed in Winter schedule as 510/610)

"Artificial Life" (ALife) is a name given to theoretical, mathematical, and computationally "empirical" studies of phenomena commonly associated with "life," such as replication, metabolism, morphogenesis, learning, adaptation, and evolution. It focuses on the materiality-independent, i.e., abstract, bases of such phenomena. As such, it overlaps extensively with "theoretical biology" and, less extensively, with certain areas of physics and chemistry and the social sciences. It also raises important philosophical questions. It is part of a larger research program into "complex adaptive systems," one stream of contemporary systems theory.

In its intersection with computer science, ALife is the newest example of "the sciences of the artificial" (Herbert Simon). ALife is to life what AI is to intelligence. Christopher Langton writes that "Artificial Life ... complements the traditional biological sciences ... by attempting to synthesize life-like behaviors within computers and other artificial media." The purpose is 2-fold: to understand these phenomena better and to develop new computational technologies.

The course will sample the research literature in this field, and will be organized in a seminar format. Topics emphasized are: (1) cellular automata (& other discrete dynamical models), (2) ecological & evolutionary simulations, and (3) genetic algorithm optimization and adaptation. Other topics include: artificial chemistry (metabolism & origins of life) and philosophical issues.

TEXTS:

1. Christopher Langton, Charles Taylor, J. Doyne Farmer, Steen Rasmussen, ed., Artificial Life II, Santa Fe Institute Studies in the Sciences of Complexity. Addison-Wesley, New York, 1992. (0-201-52571-2 Paperback)

2. Christoph Adami, Richard K. Belew, Hiroaki Kitano, Charles Taylor, ed., Artificial Life VI, Proceedings of the Sixth International Conference on Artificial Life, MIT Press, Cambridge, 1998. (ISBN 0-262-51099-5 Paperback)

3. Xeroxed articles (to be distributed)

PREREQUISITES: Graduate status or consent of instructor

COURSE WORK: term paper or project; class participation.

&Guest participation of Professor Mark Bedau, Dept. of Philosophy, Reed College, & Adjunct Professor of Systems Science, PSU