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From: simonb@extro.ucc.su.OZ.AU (No way! Way!)
Subject: Re: a theoretical biology for alife...
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References: <A.J.Hirst-280395145129@uu-igor-mac.open.ac.uk> <3l9erl$632@gap.cco.caltech.edu> <simonb.796527169@extro> <3ldah9$p2d@gap.cco.caltech.edu>
Date: Sat, 1 Apr 1995 11:18:16 GMT
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brown@altair.krl.caltech.edu (C. Titus Brown) writes:

[munch++]

>In my AL-centric viewpoint, though, I think that much of this move towards
>bottom-up approaches has been fostered by recent achievements of the AL/AI
>community.

The AL/AI community has indeed produced some interesting simulations. Kudos
to you all! But I would submit that the AL research programme has made little
impact on biology. Perhaps this is because AL researchers took what we
already know about how organisms are constructed, and how they evolve, and
implemented that knowledge in their simulations. AL has succeeded to the 
extent that artificial organisms behave in a similar way to real organisms.
But have there been any new hypotheses that have come out of the AL
simulation models that can be tested to see if they hold true for "wet" life?
That is what is needed for biologists to sit up and take notice. I suspect
that the AL approach may have something to offer (hence my interest), but
I also suspect that if it is going to shed light on biology, biologists
will have to  be involved, and not leave it to computer scientists.


>Given that references, if you're interested in AL investigations into
>populations statistics, I have two references for you; one, a paper
>by our group at Caltech, was the subject of an earlier of my postings
>today; the other is a paper by Stephanie Forrest and Terry Jones, entitled
>"Modeling Complex Adaptive Systems with Echo".

Thanks. I am aware of Echo through John Holland's book. Here are a couple
of other refs for the FAQ. Both are short review articles.

Judson, O. P.  (1994).  The rise of the individual-based model in ecology.  
   Trends Ecol. Evol. 9, 9-14.

Kawata, M., and Toquenaga, Y.  (1994).  From artificial individuals to 
   global patterns.  Trends Ecol. Evol. 9, 417-421.

cheers,

Simon.


-- 
Simon Blomberg                                   simonb@extro.ucc.su.OZ.AU
School of Biol. Sciences, A08
University of Sydney                               Just another road kill
NSW   2006  Australia                        on the information superhighway.
