The meaning of 'life'.
The article reports that scientists are switching from the chemistry set to the computer to understand the origin of life. For several years, people have been playing with "artificial life" in the silicon world of computers' central processing units. These life forms are computer programs which mimi...
| Publicado en: | Economist Vol. 322; no. 7740; pp. 73 - 76 |
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| Formato: | Artículo |
| Publicado: |
Economist Newspaper Limited
1/4/92
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| Materias: | |
| Acceso en línea: | Ver este registro en EBSCOhost |
| Sumario: | The article reports that scientists are switching from the chemistry set to the computer to understand the origin of life. For several years, people have been playing with "artificial life" in the silicon world of computers' central processing units. These life forms are computer programs which mimic-some would say embody-some or all of life's properties. Artificial life is useful in two ways. it can be used to explore the internal processes which give life to an organism. One insight coming from these computer studies is that the distinction between life and non-life is probably a sharp one. The buzz-word to describe this sudden quickening is "anastrophe". |
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