Items related to Artificial Life (Penguin Science)
Synopsis
This enthralling book alerts us to nothing less than the existence of new varieties of life. Some of these species can move and eat, see, reproduce, and die. Some behave like birds or ants. One such life form may turn out to be our best weapon in the war against AIDS.
What these species have in common is that they exist inside computers, their DNA is digital, and they have come into being not through God's agency but through the efforts of a generation of scientists who seek to create life in silico.
But even as it introduces us to these brilliant heretics and unravels the intricacies of their work. Artificial Life examines its subject's dizzying philosophical implications: Is a self-replicating computer program any less alive than a flu virus? Are carbon-and-water-based entities merely part of the continuum of living things? And is it possible that one day "a-life" will look back at human beings and dismiss us as an evolutionary way station -- or, worse still, a dead end?
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From the Back Cover
"We used to think we knew what life is [but] not any more. 'Artificial life' has become a strange and exciting frontier of modern science...and Steven Levy makes an ideal tour guide." -- James Gleick.
author of Chaos and Genius
About the Author
Steven Levy is the author of Hackers, which has been in print for more than 15 years, as well as Insanely Great: The Life & Times of Macintosh, the Computer That Changed Everything. He is also Newsweek's chief technology writer and has been a contributing writer to Wired since its inception. He lives in New York City with his wife and son.
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Artificial Life: The Quest For a New Creation (Penguin science)
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Artificial Life: The Quest For a New Creation (Penguin science)
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Artificial Life (Penguin science)
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Artificial Life: The Quest For a New Creation (Penguin science)
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Penguin Books Ltd, United Kingdom, London, 1993
ISBN 10: 0140231056
ISBN 13: 9780140231052
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Paperback. Condition: Very Good. This book looks at artificial life science - A-Life, an important new area of scientific research involving the disciplines of microbiology, evolutionary theory, physics, chemistry and computer science. In the 1940s a mathematician named John von Neumann, a man with a claim to being the father of the modern computer, invented a hypothetical mathematical entity called a cellular automaton. His aim was to construct a machine that could reproduce itself. In the years since, with the development of hugely more sophisticated and complex computers, von Neumann's insights have gradually led to a point where scientists have created, within the wiring of these machines, something that so closely simulates life that it may, arguably, be called life. This machine reproduces itself, mutates, evolves through generations and dies. The book has been read, but is in excellent condition. Pages are intact and not marred by notes or highlighting. The spine remains undamaged. Seller Inventory # GOR002802347
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Artificial Life: The Quest For a New Creation (Penguin science)
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Artificial Life
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Artificial Life
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Artificial Life: The Quest For a New Creation (Penguin science)
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Artificial Life: The Quest For a New Creation (Penguin science)
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Artificial Life (Penguin Science)
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