Alife News

The Artificial Life Community Newsletter

The ALife Newsletter’s 2023 Advent Calendar

General:

The “Twelve Days of ALife Xmas” is a special event by the Artificial Life Newsletter. Every day, between December 13th and December 25th, we bring you a tiny bite of cool ALife Links for you to enjoy. Webpages, Videos, Papers, Images - we bet there will be something here, probably many somethings, that you might not have seen before, and will be quite pleased to find out! I know I did! The links themselves will be only lightly described, to give you the pleasure of surprise and discovery -- kinda like opening a gift, or reading the log of that simulation that ran for an entire week!

Without further ado:

One Creative Community

On the first day of ALife Xmas, the newsletter gave to me: One creative community! The ALife community is several hundreds of researchers from various fields, all brought together by a fascination for the processes behind Life as we know it, and a desire to create Life as we don’t yet know it. The ALife community is our first gift: join us, connect through https://alife.org/ and subscribe to this very newsletter at https://forms.gle/tXKTzx8SmKhD8j167 !

Two Inspiring Introductions

On the second day of ALife Xmas, the newsletter gave to me: Two inspiring introductions to Artificial Life! Share these links with your friends if you can’t quite explain what you are doing late at night reading about microbes, artificial chemistries, and simulations of evolution! Two approachable descriptions of our vast, dear field.

Three Active Youtube Channels

On the third day of ALife Xmas, the newsletter gave to me: Three active YouTube channels! These YouTube channels provide excellent viewing, listening, and learning for anyone that is interested in ALife. If you were ever feeling a bit short on ALife-related viewing on YouTube, then these channels will give you hours of content to peruse. If you like what you see, please subscribe to the channels and share them with your colleagues!

Four Stupendous Subtypes

On the fourth day of ALife Xmas, the newsletter gave to me: Four stupendous subtypes of ALife research! ALife is commonly divided between Hard ALife (hardware: robots, chips…), Wet ALife (chemistry, biology…) and Soft ALife (software: simulations, algorithms…). And let’s not forget the 4th one: art, from images to operas!

Five Amazing Artwork Collections

On the fifth day of ALife Xmas, the newsletter gave to me: Five amazing collections of artwork inspired by Artificial Life, for you to enjoy and feel inspired by. Sometimes they are a different way of looking at an existing concept, sometimes they are new things we can create with our existing tools. In the end, Life can be an inspiring thing, and so can Artificial Life!

Six Knowledge-Kindling Non-Fictions

On the sixth day of ALife Xmas, the newsletter gave to me: Six knowledge-kindling non-fictions. Need to quench your thirst for ALife knowledge this Christmas? Here is a selection of books related to artificial life in some way, some of which are written by active members of our community. From books describing the mathematics that organize natural systems to discussions of autonomous machines, there is something on this list for everybody! It’s not too late to get them on your Christmas wishlist…!

Seven Upcoming Conferences

On the seventh day of ALife Xmas, the newsletter gave to me: Seven upcoming conferences! Conferences are great! They create opportunities to stay up-to-date with upcoming research, to expand our networks, to meet old and new friends, and to travel to fun places! Here is a list of upcoming conferences in 2024 that we think ALifers might be interested in keeping an eye on - or even attending!

Eight Gripping Games

On the eighth day of ALife Xmas, the newsletter gave to me: Eight gripping games that remind us of Artificial Life! These are digital and physical games in the past, present, and future; they play with ideas that are dear to our research, such as complex simulations, evolution, adaptation, alien worlds and alien lifeforms; and above all: “life as it could be”. Take some time to remember how people explored these ideas in the past, or maybe try something new to play during the end of the year break!

Nine Fascinating Fictions

On the ninth day of ALife Xmas, the newsletter gave to me: Nine fascinating fictions that will certainly delight the ALifers out there. The links today introduce several books and movies that involve themes such as future society, artificial intelligence, sentience, and what it means to be a living being deserving of rights. Grab a nice couch, and dive in these words! Maybe your next research idea will come from one of these?

Ten Scintillating Simulations

On the tenth day of ALife Xmas, the newsletter gave to me: Ten Scintillating Simulations of living systems doing their thing in silicon. You probably heard of some of them, but we are sure there is something in these links which will surprise you! Simulation of an environment? Yes. Language? Sure. Evolution? Of course. Something more abstract? We got that too. GPU Acceleration? Oh yeah! If you are going to make a new ALife simulation, make sure to check these ones out first!

Eleven Rich Community Resources

On the 11th day of ALife Xmas, the newsletter gave to me: Eleven rich community resources to engage with and contribute to! Are you looking for teaching material, definitions of common ALife terms, or a contest to participate in? We have you covered!

Twelve Thought-Provoking Papers

On the 12th day of ALife Xmas, the newsletter gave to me: Twelve Thought-Provoking Papers! Here is a selection of ALife papers with a slightly philosophical edge that have (mostly) featured in the Artificial Life journal over the years. Whether you’re new to the community or if you’ve been involved for decades, we’re sure you’ll have plenty of chin-scratching moments by visiting or revisiting some of these articles.