REVIEW - Artificial Life - An Overview


Title:

Artificial Life

An Overview

Author:

Christopher G. Langton

ISBN:

Publisher:

MIT Press (1997)

Pages:

340pp

Reviewer:

Francis Glassborow

Reviewed:

April 1998

Rating:

★★★☆☆


If you want a good overview of the subject I think this book would be an excellent place to start. It is (in computer specialist terms) relatively cheap while having a high quality of content based on a reasonably planned table of contents.

I reviewed the published papers from the Fourth European Conference on Artificial Life in the last issue. This book is considerably cheaper, about a year older (it was published in hardcover in 1995 and rather more designed. By that last I mean that the editor has collected a series of essays/papers commissioned to cover the field whereas the other book consisted of the papers that were actually presented at a specific event.

If you want a good overview of the subject I think this book would be an excellent place to start. It is (in computer specialist terms) relatively cheap while having a high quality of content based on a reasonably planned table of contents.

Like the previous book, it is not targeted at programming practitioners. This time the aim is to give those wanting some understanding of the broad subject area that includes such diverse areas as genetic algorithms, artificial neural networks, biological research tools etc.

Getting to grips with these new areas can prove very profitable. I can still remember my surprise when a company developing software for share price predictions contacted me some years ago. My surprise was because they were interested in such things as Chaos Theory. Such innovative work is not for a journeyman programmer lacking imagination. However if you have imagination studying area of Artificial Life might be just what you need to turn your programming expertise into something special.


Book cover image courtesy of Open Library.





Your Privacy

By clicking "Accept Non-Essential Cookies" you agree ACCU can store non-essential cookies on your device and disclose information in accordance with our Privacy Policy and Cookie Policy.

Current Setting: Non-Essential Cookies REJECTED


By clicking "Include Third Party Content" you agree ACCU can forward your IP address to third-party sites (such as YouTube) to enhance the information presented on this site, and that third-party sites may store cookies on your device.

Current Setting: Third Party Content EXCLUDED



Settings can be changed at any time from the Cookie Policy page.