What is Artificial Life?

Artificial life (AL: Artificial life) is the field of studying life through artificial simulation of living systems. The concept of artificial life includes two aspects: 1) virtual life systems that belong to the field of computer science, involving computer software engineering and artificial intelligence technologies, and 2) engineering biological systems that genetically engineer artificially to transform organisms, involving synthetic organisms Learn technology. AL was first proposed by computer scientist Christopher Langton at the "International Conference on Generating and Simulating Living Systems" held in Los Alamos National Laboratory in 1987.

The essence of the field

Although the area of artificial life (AL) and the field of artificial intelligence (AI) do have obvious overlap, they have very different original intentions and evolutionary histories. The research on artificial intelligence to study whether and how to implement simulated intelligence has risen as early as the birth of computers. However, researchers of artificial life who try to clarify the nature of emergent behaviors can be said to have never known others doing similar Working and working alone, it wasn't until the late 1980s that this field was officially born.

The concept of artificial life refers mainly to belonging to

Artificial life (Alife for short) is an emerging discipline that emerged in the late 1980s. The concept of artificial life was proposed by Professor Langton CG of the Santa Fe Institute in the United States in 1987 and defined it as "the study of artificial systems with behavioral characteristics of natural living systems". At present, there is no unified definition of artificial life Scholars with different subject backgrounds have different understandings of it. Boden, a well-known scholar of artificial life sciences, believes that "artificial life uses information concepts and computer modeling to study general life and life unique to the earth"; Ray T believes that "artificial life uses non-life elements to construct life phenomena to "Understanding biology, rather than breaking down natural organisms into individual units, is a comprehensive approach rather than a reductive approach." ^[1]

This field requires the use of many computer programs and

Artificial life is aided by computers and other

Strong artificial life: "The evolutionary process of living systems is a process that can be abstracted from any special medium." (John Von Neumann). Notably, Tom Ray first demonstrated in the Tierra simulation experiment that the evolutionary process This can easily happen in certain groups of computer programs that are struggling for computer storage.

Weak artificial life: It is thought that it is impossible to generate by not based on carbon "life process". Their research is not to simulate this process, but to try to understand individual phenomena. It is usually researched through an agent based model, which usually provides the simplest possible conclusion, that is, we do not know what caused this phenomenon in nature, but the principle of complex biological phenomena may be found through simulation.

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Birth of the world's first artificial life structure

Craig Venter, a controversial pioneer in genome research, and his research team have created a bacterial genome and implanted it into a cell. At this point, they created the world's first artificially synthesized life structure. ^[3]

This result is considered a landmark and will pave the way for the design of organics. In the future, organic matter may not be changed through evolution, but may be manufactured through artificial synthesis. ^[3]

Can create new life for the benefit of mankind

A total of 20 scientists participated in this controversial experiment, which took up to 10 years before and after, and the experiment cost about $ 40 million. One scholar said the experiment was a "biologically decisive moment." ^[3]

Genomic research pioneer and American geneticist Craig Venter was one of the leaders of the experiment. He said that this achievement is like the dawn of a new era. In the future, scientists can create new life for the benefit of mankind, and bacteria that can make biofuels will be the first "artificial life".

The research team now plans to use synthetic organisms to make the genes needed for survival. In this way, new genes can be added to existing organisms to create new microorganisms, which can make useful compounds, reduce pollutants, or make proteins needed for vaccines.

The genome is synthesized from chemicals

Venter and his research team created a new life using an existing bacterium that can cause goat mastitis, but the core of the bacterium's cell is a genome made entirely of chemicals. ^[4]

Four new "watermarks" were written into the DNA of this new life, indicating its synthetic identity and allowing scientists to trace its offspring.

"When we found that cells with a 'watermark' started to multiply, we were ecstatic," said Wenter. "It is a living species and a part of life on our planet."

The research will be published online today in the journal Science. "This is an important moment in the scientific and philosophical world, and it has changed my view of life and how life works," Went told Science.