Thoughts on ALIFE

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Thoughts onALIFE
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Cellular Automata (CA) --- what can they be used
for?

• Understand emergent behavior through simulation
  of the functions that the individual objects use.
• As structure/display generating tools (e.g. for
  art, movies,)
• For the simulation of biological systems (e.g.
  how flocks of birds fly)
• As models for genetic replication and
  recombination (e.g. DNA has to be copied a lot in
  biological system)
• As an approach to compute complex functions fast
  through localized computations
• As a computing paradigm to develop forms of
  collaboration in a distributed system
• As a function approximation tool teach a CA to
  compute a particular function (?machine learning)

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What about ALIFE?

1. Was is interesting to look at the various ALIFE
   demos? What did you learn from looking at those
   demos? What was the qualify of the web-pages you
   looked at? What about the availability of
   teaching material for ALIFE?
2. What do you believe is the main purpose of ALIFE
   research?
3. What can computer scientists learn from studying
   ALIFE? What can the general public / students
   learn from studying ALIFE?
4. What was your overall impression of the field of
   ALIFE? How well is the field developed? Did you
   observe any trends?
5. What are the main applications for ALIFE
   technology?
6. If you had to convince the NSF (National Science
   Foundation) to fund more ALIFE research what
   argument would you use? Do you believe ALIFE
   research should be obtain more / less funding?
7. Any other reasons that make ALIFE worthwhile
   studying?