Artificial Life, or ALife, is the study and creation of life-like systems using technology. Researchers in this field explore the fundamental principles of life—not just as it is, but as it could be.
ALife brings together biology, computer science, physics, art, robotics, and more to ask bold questions:
•What is life?
• How can we recreate it?
• How does it evolve, adapt, and thrive—in nature and beyond?
These questions are explored in many different ways, often across three main “branches” of ALife research:
• Software-based ALife uses simulations and algorithms to model lifelike behavior in virtual environments. Think evolving creatures, digital ecologies, or neural systems learning over time.
• Hardware-based ALife builds physical systems—like robots or machines—that mimic lifelike behaviors such as movement, sensing, and adaptation.
• Wetware-based ALife involves biological and chemical systems, including synthetic biology, artificial cells, or biochemically inspired processes.
These three branches may look different, but they all aim to understand and create life-like processes, systems, and intelligence.
Many people are surprised to learn that Artificial Intelligence, robotics, synthetic biology, complex systems, and even generative art are all part of the ALife landscape. ALife is not a narrow niche—it’s a broad, interdisciplinary umbrella that brings together researchers, artists, and technologists working at the edge of what’s possible.
Whether it’s designing digital organisms, exploring how intelligence can emerge in machines, or creating new kinds of artificial ecosystems, ALife invites us to reimagine what life can be—and how we might shape it.
Below is a video series from the ALIFE 2023 ISAL Summer School Exploratorium series that introduces what ALife is from the perspective of several ALife researchers themselves:
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