The Computational Paradigm Applied to the Study of Life

The computational paradigm has given birth to a new discipline, parallel to Artificial Intelligence, under the name of artificial Life. Both are interdisciplinary and make essential use of electronic computation. In the case of AI, one wants to build programs that perform intelligently; in the case of AL, computer programing offers the most economical and efficacious way of producing the elements whose behavior is the object of study. In both cases computing is a methodological tool for experimenting with models of what–for different reasons–cannot be experimented directly. More importantly, both disciplines constitute a scientific effort at a high degree of abstraction to promote unprecedented generalization of two of the most important contemporary empirical sciences: psychology and biology. Some examples of actual applications of the new discipline are presented, and some technological prophecies are browsed over. Finally, some philosophical consequences of AL are examined.