 
                        Artificial Life Digest, Number 8
 
                           Thursday, March 22nd 1990
 
Issue's Topics:
 
                             re: internet virus (no)
        what is life & what will foster the evolution of inorganic forms?
                                  Dortmund Workshop
----------------------------------------------------------------------
 
Date: Thu, 22 Mar 90 09:35:30 EST
From: "David M. Chess" <CHESS@ibm.com>
Subject: re: internet virus (no)

According to the Internet CERT (Computer Emergency Response Team),
there's no virus or worm or other spreading-program known to be
active on the net; just some system-cracker more-or-less manually
exploiting known security holes.               DC

------------------------------
 
Date: Thu, 22 Mar 90 10:59:38 -0500
From: fritz_dg%ncsd.dnet@gte.com
Subject: what is life & what will foster the evolution of inorganic forms?

	One of the problems with allowing to develop (not building)
AL forms in environments outside of computer memory is the translation
difficulty of _organizing_code_ into physical entity.  Organic life forms are
little chemical factories drawing relatively low-level resources from their
immediate environment.  This would be difficult to generate in physical AL.

	Perhaps a compartmentalized solution would help:  a compartment where
organizing code can produce objects capable of building; a compartment where
these objects interact in a highly (altho not entirely) predictable environment
to assemble a living (no quotes) entity; and a compartment where the maturing 
entity interacts with other life forms and has the majority of its fitness
tested.

	Question:  if a computer were a good initial place to hold the
underlying code, where during development should the leap into the physical
world be made, and how?  Could it be = computer, "factory", street?  Then,
when is it AL and when is it a Buick?

	I have yet to see a definition of life of any sort that satisfied me.
The one expounded in Sesame Street is at least cute.  The usual definitions
in biology texts (the study of life!) are undoubtedly wrong.  IWSSLS-1 did
more to dramatize the question than answer it.  Is there any move afoot to
develop an effective definition, given the image breaking challenge of
the alifers?


David G. Fritz			FRITZ_DG%NCSD@GTE.COM
formal edu:  biol./evol.theory
work:  artificial intelligence
currently at: GTE Nat'l. Ctr. Systems Directorate,Rockville,MD;(301)738-8932  
------------------------------
 
Date:         Thu, 22 Mar 90 14:32:27 CST
From: Dave Goldberg <DGOLDBER@ua1vm.ua.edu>
Subject:      Dortmund Workshop

                         FIRST ANNOUNCEMENT
                                and
                           CALL FOR PAPERS

                       International Workshop
                Parallel Problem Solving from Nature
                               (PPSN)

                         October 1 - 3, 1990
                University of Dortmund, Germany F.R.

Scope

With the appearance of massively parallel computers increased
attention has been paid to algorithms which rely upon analogies to
natural processes. The workshop scope includes but is not limited
to the following topics:

 - Darwinian methods such as Evolution Strategies
   and Genetic Algorithms
 - Boltzmann methods such as Simulated Annealing
 - Classifier systems and Neural Networks insofar as
   problem solving predominates
 - Transfer of other natural metaphors
   to artificial problem solving

The objectives of this workshop are

 - to bring together scientists and practitioners working on
   and with such strategies.

 - to gather theoretical results about as well as experimental
   comparisons between these algorithms.

 - to discuss various implementations on different parallel
   computer architectures (e.g. SIMD, MIMD, LAN).

 - to look for current and future applications in science,
   technology, and administration.

 - to summarize the state of the art in this field which up to
   now has been scattered so widely among disciplines as well
   as geographically.

Submission of papers, Proceedings

Prospective authors are invited to submit 4 copies of an extended
abstract of two pages to the conference chair before June 1, 1990.
All contributions will be reviewed by the programme committee and
up to about 30 papers will be selected for presentation. Authors
will get notice about acceptance or rejection of their papers by
July 15, 1990.

Full papers will be due on September 1, 1990. They will be delivered
to all participants at the conference as a prepublication volume.
Final papers for the proceedings of the workshop should be finished
immediately after the workshop. Details about the format of the
camera-ready final papers will be distributed later.

Language

The official language for papers and presentations is English.

Conference Chair:
H. Muehlenbein                     and  H.-P. Schwefel
Gesellschaft fuer Mathematik            University of Dortmund
und Datenverarbeitung (GMD) -Z1-        Dept. of Computer Science
P. O. Box 12 40, Schloss Birlinghoven   P. O. Box 50 05 00
D-5205 St. Augustin 1                   D-4600 Dortmund 50
F. R. Germany                           F. R. Germany
Tel. +49-2241-142405                    Tel. +49-231-755-4590
Fax  +49-2241-142889                    Fax  +49-231-755-2047
bitnet grzia0@dbngmd21                  bitnet uin005@ddohrz11

Programme Committee:

(chair)   D.E. Goldberg      Univ. of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, USA
(chair)     R. Maenner       Univ. of Heidelberg,          FRG
                             Institute of Physics
                             Philosophenweg 12
                             D-6900 Heidelberg 1
                             Tel. +49-6221-569363
                             Fax  +49-6221-475733
                             bitnet maen@dhdmpi50

        E.M.L. Aarts         Philips Res.Lab. Eindhoven,   NL
            P. Bock          Univ. of Washington DC,       USA
            V. Cerny         Univ. of Bratislava,          CSSR
            Y. Davidor       Weizmann Inst. Rehovot,       Israel
            G. Dueck         IBM Heidelberg,               FRG
          J.J. Grefenstette  Naval Res.Lab. Washington DC, USA
        A.W.J. Kolen         Univ. of Limburg, Maastricht, NL
            B. Manderick     Univ. of Brussels,            Belgium
            H. Roeck         Univ. of Bielefeld,           FRG
            H. Schwaertzel   Siemens AG Munich,            FRG
            B. Soucek        Univ. of Zagreb,              YU
         H.-M. Voigt         Academy of Sciences Berlin,   GDR

Organization
Committee:      J. Becker, H. Bracklo, H.-P. Schwefel,
                E. Speckenmeyer, A. Ultsch

Sponsors:       Parsytec GmbH and Paracom GmbH,
                IBM Deutschland GmbH, Siemens AG

Deadlines:      Abstracts (2 pages)            June        1, 1990
                Notification of acceptance     July       15, 1990
                Full papers (for preprints)    September   1, 1990
                Workshop                       October   1-3, 1990
                Final papers                   November    1, 1990

Reply Form

International Workhop
Parallel Problem Solving from Nature (PPSN)
Dortmund, October 1-3, 1990

c/o Prof. Dr. H.-P. Schwefel
Dept. of Computer Science          Tel. +49-2 31/7 55/45 90
P. O. Box 50 05 00                 Fax  +49-2 31/7 55/20 47
D-4600 Dortmund 50                 bitnet uin005@ddohrz11
F. R. Germany

Title     First Name     Middle Initials     Last Name

.................................................................

Institution .....................................................

Address .........................................................

.................................................................

.................................................................

(  ) Please send further information
(  ) I intend to attend the workhop
(  ) I intend to submit an abstract:

Title of paper to be presented

.................................................................

.................................................................

Category:  (  ) theory    (  ) implementation    (  ) application

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=---=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
=                      Artificial Life Distribution List                  =
=                                                                         =
=      All submissions for distribution to: alife@iuvax.cs.indiana.edu    =
= All list subscriber additions, deletions, or administrative details to: =
=                    alife-request@iuvax.cs.indiana.edu                   =
=         All software, tech reports to Alife depository through          =
=         anonymous ftp at iuvax.cs.indiana.edu in ~ftp/pub/alife         =
=                                                                         =
=     List maintainers: Elisabeth Freeman, Eric Freeman, Marek Lugowski   =
=           Artificial Life Research Group, Indiana University            =
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=---=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

