Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
Chapter 15
Artificial Life
Artificial life is the study of simulation or model systems created using
computers and precision mechanisms, which exhibit the behavior characteristics
of natural living systems. The behavior characteristics of natural living systems
are represented not only by the basic properties including self-organizing,
self-repairing, and self-replicating, but also by the principles of property
formation including chaos dynamics, environment adaptation, and evolution.
15.1 Introduction
In the real world, there exist all kinds of complicated systems, such as human
body system, nervous system, immune system, psychological system, cognitive
system, etc. It is generally considered that the origins of complexity are
non-linearity, instability, and uncertainty.
The “prevalence” in daily life is the following phenomenon: Each member of
a group wears a dress in accord with his (or her) individuality. But one day when
a dress type shows its superiority, it will influence the dressing inclination of the
whole group. And then the inclination of the whole group changes the state of
each member, which conversely has an influence on the whole group. In this way,
the microscopic behavior determines the macroscopic order, and the macroscopic
order also influences the microscopic behavior. Similarly, the information
processing in the nervous system can also be regarded as the functioning process
between the macrocosm and the microcosm. The nerve cell and the neural
network take role of the member and the society respectively. When receiving
new information from the outside, the brain generates new information structure
by itself, through absorbing the new information as well as utilizing existing
information. Every nerve cell influences the neural network, and the neural
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