Promotion

Use code CYBER2024 for 30% off sitewide + free shipping over $30

Artificial Worlds

Computere Complexity And The Riddle Of Life

Artificial Worlds Open the full-size image

Contributors

By Richard Morris

Formats and Prices

Price

$19.99

Price

$25.99 CAD

Format

Trade Paperback

Format:

Trade Paperback $19.99 $25.99 CAD

This item is a preorder. Your payment method will be charged immediately, and the product is expected to ship on or around January 24, 2003. This date is subject to change due to shipping delays beyond our control.

Also available from:

In their laboratories, complexity scientists have been experimenting with complex chemicals that display some of the characteristics of life, and have created electronic computer-virus-like life-forms that are born, die, reproduce, mutate, and evolve. Through these artificial worlds they have actually been able to monitor evolution as it happens, since it takes place at a much more rapid pace within a computer – where new species can evolve in as little as an hour. Among the phenomena that these scientists hope to observe are the evolution of multicellular life forms, and possibly even the evolution of electronic intelligence. Could it be that life itself is an emergent property that arises spontaneously when a chemical system attains a certain degree of complexity? At the cutting edge of discovery, this exciting new branch of science has fostered a rare and intriguing dialogue between innovators across a broad range of disciplines, from mathematicians, computer scientists, and economists, to anthropologists and biologists. Richard Morris makes this major field of inquiry accessible to a popular readership as never before, while he reveals its potential to solve the greatest of all questions to puzzle humankind – what is life?

Genre:

On Sale
Jan 24, 2003
Page Count
208 pages
Publisher
Basic Books
ISBN-13
9780738208718

You May Also Like

Earth in Human Hands
Earth in Human Hands $14.99 $19.99 CAD
The End Of Science
The End Of Science $21.99 $28.99 CAD
Skulls
Skulls $29.95 $35.95 CAD
Lives of the Planets
Lives of the Planets $22.99 $29.99 CAD
Powering the Dream
Powering the Dream $10.99 $13.99 CAD

Richard Morris

About the Author

Richard Morris earned a Ph.D. in physics in 1968. He is the author of more than 20 books, 10 of which are about science, including Evolution and Human Nature. He lives in San Francisco.

Learn more about this author