I urge anyone who's interested in that kind of stuff to read "Allure of machinic life" by John Johnston [1]. A fascinating read that touches upon all strands of

I urge anyone who's interested in that kind of stuff to read "Allure of machinic life" by John Johnston [1]. A fascinating read that touches upon all strands of natural computing (soft / hard ALife, wetware, AI, evolutionary computation, swarm intelligence, behavior-based robotics, 1st and 2nd order cybernetics, theory of self-reproducing automata and whatnot) with a pondering touch of Deleuzian philosophy. There's no mention of Barricelli though, but another equally interesting book [2] recognizes his pioneering work on artifical symbiogenesis (and that was back in 1953!), and speculates on its importance in the genealogy of computer worms and viruses. [1]: https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/allure-machinic-life https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/allure-machinic-life [2]: https://www.peterlang.com/view/title/58766 https://www.peterlang.com/view/title/58766