A framework and simulation engine for studying artificial life

The area of computer-generated artificial life-forms is a relatively recent field of inter-disciplinary study that in-volves mathematical modelling, physical intuition and ideas from chemistry and biology and computational science. Although the attribution of “life ” to non biological systems is still controversial, several groups agree that certain emergent properties can be ascribed to computer simulated systems that can be constructed to “live ” in a simulated environment. In this paper we discuss some of the issues and infrastructure necessary to construct a simulation laboratory for the study of computer generated artificial life-forms. We review possible technologies and present some preliminary studies based around simple models