Artificial life
by Steven Levy · first published 1992
93% recommend7% neutral
Why HN recommends it
An engaging, readable introduction to artificial life, where computing meets biology. Suits newcomers and curious readers wanting a light, absorbing tour of the early researchers and ideas, despite its 1992 date.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
This is the startling story of a new science: the science of artificial life. Computer scientists, microbiologists, chemists, physicists, mathematicians, and evolutionary theorists have succeeded in making creatures that look and act very much like living organisms. They grow, eat, reproduce, mutate, fight with each other, die--and do all this spontaneously, without interference from their human creators. Artificial Life is also the story of a new way of doing science, one arising not out of the laboratory but out of the computer. The power of the computer to depict--and create--emerging syste
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Artificial Life, by Steven Levy - I've lost count of how many times I've read it.
on “Ask HN: Favorite true story tech book?” ↗…Six Degrees: The Science of a Connected Age - Duncan Watts Linked: How Everything Is Connected to Everything Else and What It Means for Business, Science, and Everyday Life - Albert-laszlo Barabasi Artificial Life - Steven Levy The Four Steps To The Epiphany - Steve Blank The World is Flat - Thomas Friedman not a book, but the various writings of Douglas Engelbart - http://www.dougengelbart.org/library/library.html…
on “Ask HN: What are the most thought-provoking books that you have read?” ↗…"pg" Graham Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution by Steven Levy The Soul of a New Machine by Tracy Kidder Cyberpunk: Outlaws and Hackers on the Computer Frontier by Katie Hafner & John Markoff Artificial Life: A Report from the Frontier Where Computers Meet Biology by Steven Levy Godel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid by Douglas Hofstadter Most or all of Paul Graham's essays. http://paulgraham.com/articles.html…
on “Steps to become a good hacker?” ↗…in symbolic logic and symbolic computation. I didn't read the whole book but I read enough to write a program on my HP-48 GX graphicing calculator to simplify symbolic propositional logic statements. Artificial Life: A Report from the Frontier Where Computers Meet Biology by Steven Levy [4] - This was my first exposure to celluar automata in the form of John Conway's Game of Life. This books also inspired me to…
on “Ask HN: Most influential books you read growing up” ↗Sure. Probably most relevant in terms of this forum is a book 'Artificial Life' by Steven Levy. By itself, there's nothing wrong with this book. It's very interesting, and I would actually recommend this if anyone is interested in the subject matter. The catch is, I read this right…
on “Why read books if we can’t remember what’s in them?” ↗I don't know about order... they've all done some amazing stuff. FWIW, there's some interesting historical / biographical information on some of these folks in two books, both by Steven Levy: Artificial Life and Hackers: Heroes Of The Computer Revolution That said, the stuff Claude Shannon did basically established the field of Information Theory[1], which underpins huge swathes of our modern digital world.…
on “Doug Engelbart has died” ↗A bit of a belated response, but check out Steven Levy's Artifical Life book: http://www.amazon.com/Artificial-Life-Frontier-Computers-Bio... It's slightly dated, but I thought it was a really good introduction.
on “Maverick forerunner of artificial life and animation remains largely unknown” ↗The Four Steps to the Epiphany - Steve Blank Steve Jobs - Walter Isaacson Artificial Life - Steven Levy On Writing - Stephen King Machine Learning for Hackers - Drew Conway and John Myles White How Doctors Think - Jerome Goopman Cholesterol Clarity: What The HDL Is Wrong With My Numbers?…
on “Ask HN: Books with a high signal to noise ratio?” ↗…scientific comic books, just scroll down a little for the English versions: https://www.savoir-sans-frontieres.com/JPP/telechargeables/f... Does God Play Dice - The new mathematics of Chaos by Ian Stewart. Artificial Life - The Quest for a New creation by Steven Levy Screw it, Just do it by Richard Branson. Insanely Great: The Life and Times of the Macintosh - the computer that changed everything by Steven Levy Manual…
on “Ask HN/YC: Please suggest me some good books I can gift a 8 year kid” ↗The Four Steps To The Epiphany - Steve Blank Code by Charles Petzold Artificial Life - Steven Levy Time Reborn - Lee Smolin The Singularity is Near - Ray Kurzweil Surfaces and Essences - Douglas Hofstadter How to Measure Anything - Douglas Hubbard -- One of my favorites is How Not…
on “Ask HN: What are your favorite books?” ↗…Batshit Insanity" cited by another comment here. Wolfram is a good read and a lot of fun, but I question the "science" in the book.) I haven't re-read it recently to see how it holds up, but Steven Levy's "Artificial Life" (https://www.amazon.com/Artificial-Life-Frontier-Computers-Bi...) hooked me as a kid and set a direction for my future thought. It's not a technical book (which was frustrating to a 14 y/o kid with a…
on “A Mind is Born” ↗I did a similar thing (the evolution of corewars code bit-- not the light fixture bit) after reading Steven Levy's "Artificial Life"[1] in the early 90s. The chapter on Tom Ray's Tierra[2] really excited me. Some people say that reading Richard Dawkins caused them to become atheist. For me, it was very clearly "Artificial Life" and…
on “We rebuilt Corewars and used it to teach Computer Science students in India” ↗…it had a big impact on me. I was kind of obsessed with chaos and fractals for a while. Right around that time a whole bunch of similar pop sci books came out and I read a bunch of them. Steven Levy's Artificial Life, a Mondo 2000 collection, John Koza's Genetic Programming, and Cliff Stoll's The Cuckoo's Egg all stand out in my memory.
on “AI Poised to Transform Video Compression Landscape” ↗…I didn't have a way to get at any of Ray's papers or code. Now I do, but I'd kinda forgotten about it. I really should revisit it. There's probably a lot of fun to be had there. Aside: Steven Levy's "Artificial Life"[1] was where I learned about Tierra. That book, along with Levy's "Hackers"[2], and Gleick's "Chaos"[3] were formative books for young me. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Core_War [1] https://www.amazon.com/Artificial-Life-Frontier-Computers-Bi...…
on “Google creates self-replicating life from digital 'primordial soup'” ↗…"pg" Graham Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution - Steven Levy The Soul of a New Machine - Tracy Kidder Cyberpunk: Outlaws and Hackers on the Computer Frontier - Katie Hafner & John Markoff Artificial Life: A Report from the Frontier Where Computers Meet Biology - Steven Levy Ghost In The Wires - Kevin Mitnick The Art of Deception - Kevin Mitnick The Art of Intrusion - Kevin Mitnick Godel, Escher, Bach:…
on “Ask HN: Which books you have read till now that were worth investing time in?” ↗