Virtual Organisms: The Startling World of Artificial Intelligence: Amazon.co.uk: Mark Ward: Books

Amazon.co.uk Review

Looked at one way, all that has been achieved is some glorified computer programmes and a few robots that stagger around even when you blow one of their legs off. Looked at in another, we stand on the brink of a something that has not happened since the Earth cooled and ceased to be battered constantly by meteors--the creation of a new and unrelated form of life. Mark Ward's report from the front takes what is called a Strong AI position--he dismisses as obscurantism the arguments of philosophers that mechanical creations can never rightly be called alive or conscious. In order to do this, he takes us fluently through the establishment of life on earth and the arguments of those who see it as a constant process of adaptive symbiosis, of partnerships between specialised creatures that together become something else. His cogent argument is essentially that the various sorts of research into machine intelligence, machine perception and computer programmes that imitate reproduction and evolution will come together and produce something like life, and will also help us understand our own evolutionary history. This controversial position may be wishful thinking, but if it proves not to be, Ward has laid the groundwork for ways of coping. --Roz Kaveney --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Description

British Telecom are teaching small packets of software to have sex. Telephone traffic is now so huge that it cannot be run by a single large program, so BT are experimenting with various species of small "ant" programs which are autonomous and can breed and evolve better offspring by trial, error, and natural selection. The most efficient number of sexes is three, they have discovered. Meanwhile harmless artificial life forms are already loose on the Internet; computer viruses and even robots are now able to evolve randomly like their biological couterparts. Protein-based computers are on the agenda: a team in Japan aim to build an organic brain as clever as a puppy. The convergence of technology with biology has big implications. Artificial life is evolving beyond its designers' control. This book is a "tour d'horizons" of who is developing what artificial life around the world. Mark Ward has interviewed the researchers and developers of artificial life and has some scary predictions for the directions in which they are taking us.

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11 of 11 people found the following review helpful

Excellent introduction for beginners 12 Sep 2000

By A Customer

Format:Paperback

While the book didn't have too much new information to offer for me, people new to Artificial Life will no doubt find this book incredibly interesting. From basic ALife principles to why BT uses sex to optimize its networks...excellent stuff.

The book looks as much into robotics as it does into software, something else I appreciated. All the "greats" are covered: TIERRA and Thomas Ray, Rodney Brooks and all his robots, and a variety of others. It was a great mixture of history and information.

The book also has a very sobering last chapter that actually did change the way I look at human beings and intelligence.

Conclusion: Excellent book, not much new ALife veterans, but for beginners - you won't find better.

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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful

A good overview but lacking in detail 27 Aug 2001

By M B ROBERTS

The book provides an excellent historical account of the work done in the field of artificial intelligence and artificial life, although it did digress slightly from the subject matter in the first half of the book by giving detailed accounts of the lives of researchers.

I would not however recommend the book if you are looking for a more detailed description of how artificial life software and simple robotic systems such as those developed by Mark Tilden work. This was not provided which I found somewhat disappointing

The book concludes by giving a good analysis of some of the far reaching philosophical and social issues and provides a good introduction for further reading.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

Whats happening... 21 Oct 2002

A good review of the artifical intellegence scene at the moment. Nothing too exciting and a lot of history. Good if you dont really know anything about AI and ALife and looking for somewhere to start.