Silicon second nature : culturing artificial life in a digital world / Stefan Helmreich.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Helmreich, Stefan, 1966- author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Santa Fe Institute (Santa Fe, N.M.).

Biological systems--Computer simulation--Philosophy.

Biological systems.

Biological systems--Computer simulation--Research.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xii, 314 pages) illustrations.

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

Berkeley, California : University of California Press, 2000.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Silicon Second Nature takes us on an expedition into an extraordinary world where nature is made of bits and bytes and life is born from sequences of zeroes and ones. Artificial Life is the brainchild of scientists who view self-replicating computer programs--such as computer viruses--as new forms of life. Anthropologist Stefan Helmreich's look at the social and simulated worlds of Artificial Life--primarily at the Santa Fe Institute, a well-known center for studies in the sciences of complexity--introduces readers to the people and programs connected with this unusual hybrid of computer science and biology. When biology becomes an information science, when DNA is downloaded into virtual reality, new ways of imagining "life" become possible. Through detailed dissections of the artifacts of Artificial Life, Helmreich explores how these novel visions of life are recombining with the most traditional tales told by Western culture. Because Artificial Life scientists tend to see themselves as masculine gods of their cyberspace creations, as digital Darwins exploring frontiers filled with primitive creatures, their programs reflect prevalent representations of gender, kinship, and race, and repeat origin stories most familiar from mythical and religious narratives. But Artificial Life does not, Helmreich says, simply reproduce old stories in new software. Much like contemporary activities of cloning, cryonics, and transgenics, the practice of simulating and synthesizing life in silico challenges and multiplies the very definition of vitality. Are these models, as some would claim, actually another form of the real thing? Silicon Second Nature takes Artificial Life as a symptom and source of our mutating visions of life itself.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

Preface to the Paperback Edition

Acknowledgments

Introduction

1 Simulation in Santa Fe

2 The Word for World Is Computer

3 Inside and Outside the Looking-Glass Worlds of Artificial Life

4 Concerning the Spiritual in Artificial Life

5 Artificial Life in a Worldwide Web

Coda

Notes

References

Index

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

9780520918771

0520918770

9780585245324

0585245320

OCLC:

1344540764