Essays on Darwinism 2: Organismic Darwinism

Arti cial Life is, by its nature, an interdisciplinary research programme; it will involve biologists, of course, but also philosophers, mathematicians, chemists, com-puter scientists|and perhaps even (as in my case) engineers. Success in our endeav-ours will require some of us, at least, to venture into foreign territory. This essay is a log of my personal expedition into evolutionary biology. I attempt to provide a comprehensive review of Darwinism in the biological world, and to do so as an outsider|a non-professional in the eld. My purpose is twofold. Firstly, I hope that real biologists may take this opportunity to correct at least the worst of my errors. Secondly, I oer this to other non-specialists as a sort of map|a record of my par-ticular exploration. I hope it might at least provide some insight into the kinds of questions which need to be asked, even if the particular answers suggested here are less than satisfactory. Above all, I want to convince any who may be in doubt that Darwinism encompasses a complex and subtle system of interrelated theories, whose substantive transplantation to any articial medium will be very far from easy