I would be remiss if I didn't mention Steve Grand. He's been chasing this dream for many, many years. If you remember Creatures, it was his first attempt at art

I would be remiss if I didn't mention Steve Grand. He's been chasing this dream for many, many years. If you remember Creatures, it was his first attempt at artificial life. Sadly the computing capabilities in 1991 weren't enough to achieve anything remotely like consciousness, but he did an admirable job of simulating a simple lifeform with a basic adaptive / reactive neural network. It also has a simple biology / biochemistry to work with the brain. (Incidentally, the Creatures community is alive and well if anybody wants to check that out: https://creatures.wiki/Discord https://creatures.wiki/Discord ) Steve is working on a new project, Grandroids, that hopes to imbibe creatures with imagination and forward planning. Exciting stuff! (https://creatures.wiki/Grandroids https://creatures.wiki/Grandroids)