5 ms·

Maverick forerunner of artificial life and animation remains largely unknown

64 points by ayberkt 12y ago

carlob 12y ago
I ran into Nils Barricelli while reading Turing's Cathedral, which is a book I enjoyed throughly.
- devindotcom 12y ago
  I need to jump back into that. I'm not a big nonfiction guy so I put it down to start something else and never picked it back up. Thanks for reminding me.
gamegoblin 12y ago
Non-mobile link: http://nautil.us/issue/14/mutation/meet-the-father-of-digital-life http://nautil.us/issue/14/mutation/meet-the-father-of-digita...
pradocchia 12y ago
Barricelli presented a bold challenge to the standard Darwinian model of evolution by competition by demonstrating that organisms evolved by symbiosis and cooperation. Somehow I thought symbiosis and cooperation was the accepted model, and competition was just a cultural projection. No?
- jal278 12y ago
  While the mainstream view is evolving (ha..), the selectionist (competition-centric) view has been largely dominant in biological thinking (e.g. Richard Dawkins). It is giving way to a more balanced view of how natural evolution produces innovation. For example, researchers like Gould stress non-competitive forces like the role of historical contingency, and exaptation [0]. Margulis, who was mentioned in the article, had a theory that much complexity in cells was accumulated through symbiosis -- a theory that was radical when first introduced but was later validated [1]. In effect, one cell would engulf another, but instead of eating the other cell, they would co-evolve together; for example, the mitochondria (cellular power plant) is thought to have arisen from such an event (it has its own DNA). [0] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exaptation http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exaptation [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lynn_Margulis#Endosymbiosis_theory http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lynn_Margulis#Endosymbiosis_the...
  - trendoid 12y ago
    You are probably not seeing this but your point needs refutation. Dawkins model(not his actually but he presented to general public) was not competition-centric. Main idea was gene centric view of life. Competition, cooperation, symbiosis etc all were explained from the genes point of view. The thing to note is, even when we see apparent 'cooperation' between species, at the genes level there is a competition with other gene pools. So the non-competitive forces look so on the surface, but the only thing genes care about is moving on to the next generations and spreading as much copies as possible even if that happens with symbiosis. Gould on the other hand, was not happy with this selfish view of life(everyone says he had Marxist ideologies which made him a bit bias). He thought of selection as happening at multiple levels, not just limited at genes but also species and individual. This was the main controversy between him and dawkins. So, to reply to GPs query, yes that quote is sort of incorrect since everyone agreed that cooperation and symbiosis(Darwin too) are very much part of evolution.
fophillips 12y ago
Link to Alexander Galloway's Processing implementation http://cultureandcommunication.org/galloway/Barricelli/ http://cultureandcommunication.org/galloway/Barricelli/
matt1 12y ago
If you're interested in emergence and artificial life, I've been working on creating in JavaScript a lot of the work that has been done by others in the past as well as some original projects: http://www.emergentmind.com/ http://www.emergentmind.com/ The last project (The Evolution of Color) has similarities to the color visualizations described in this post: it uses genetic algorithms to evolve a population of colors towards a fittest color as determined by the closeness of the bits that comprise the colors. I have a few other projects planned so if you're into this stuff you're welcome to sign up for the mailing list to get notified when they are launched: http://www.emergentmind.com/newsletter http://www.emergentmind.com/newsletter I'm always open to ideas for new projects so if you have anything you'd like to see implemented or want to work on something together feel free to shoot me a note.
- jal278 12y ago
  Something like evolving virtual creatures would be a fun (although pretty ambitious) addition [1]. There's a processing 2D virutal creatures model called sticky feet [2] (source available) that perhaps could be ported to js pretty quickly. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JBgG_VSP7f8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JBgG_VSP7f8 [2] http://www.cc.gatech.edu/~turk/stickyfeet/ http://www.cc.gatech.edu/~turk/stickyfeet/
  - matt1 12y ago
    For sure -- that is one of the medium term projects I want to work on. We'll see how it goes in the browser though...
- trendoid 12y ago
  This is great. can you recommend a few readings to someone who is interested in artificial life(and has some programming experience) but not sure where to start?
  - matt1 12y ago
    A bit of a belated response, but check out Steven Levy's Artifical Life book: http://www.amazon.com/Artificial-Life-Frontier-Computers-Biology/dp/0679743898 http://www.amazon.com/Artificial-Life-Frontier-Computers-Bio... It's slightly dated, but I thought it was a really good introduction.
JackFr 12y ago
Sounds charming and brilliant enough to be considered a proto-Wolfram.
mindcrime 12y ago
Damn, and I thought I knew a little bit about the ALife field. But I have to admit, I had also never heard of Nils Barricelli until now. This is the kind of content I love HN for. This is good stuff. I'm looking forward to looking up some of Barricelli's work and reading up on it. Thank you, ayberkt, for submitting this. Also, from the "scientists a lot of people have not heard of, but probably should have" department, I offer Ilya Prigogine. Probably not as obscure as Barricelli, but I haven't found a lot of people know much about Prigogine. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ilya_Prigogine http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ilya_Prigogine

64 points by ayberkt 12y ago

carlob 12y ago

I ran into Nils Barricelli while reading Turing's Cathedral, which is a book I enjoyed throughly.

devindotcom 12y ago
I need to jump back into that. I'm not a big nonfiction guy so I put it down to start something else and never picked it back up. Thanks for reminding me.

gamegoblin 12y ago

Non-mobile link: http://nautil.us/issue/14/mutation/meet-the-father-of-digital-life http://nautil.us/issue/14/mutation/meet-the-father-of-digita...

pradocchia 12y ago

Barricelli presented a bold challenge to the standard Darwinian model of evolution by competition by demonstrating that organisms evolved by symbiosis and cooperation. Somehow I thought symbiosis and cooperation was the accepted model, and competition was just a cultural projection. No?

jal278 12y ago
While the mainstream view is evolving (ha..), the selectionist (competition-centric) view has been largely dominant in biological thinking (e.g. Richard Dawkins). It is giving way to a more balanced view of how natural evolution produces innovation. For example, researchers like Gould stress non-competitive forces like the role of historical contingency, and exaptation [0]. Margulis, who was mentioned in the article, had a theory that much complexity in cells was accumulated through symbiosis -- a theory that was radical when first introduced but was later validated [1]. In effect, one cell would engulf another, but instead of eating the other cell, they would co-evolve together; for example, the mitochondria (cellular power plant) is thought to have arisen from such an event (it has its own DNA). [0] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exaptation http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exaptation [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lynn_Margulis#Endosymbiosis_theory http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lynn_Margulis#Endosymbiosis_the...
- trendoid 12y ago
  You are probably not seeing this but your point needs refutation. Dawkins model(not his actually but he presented to general public) was not competition-centric. Main idea was gene centric view of life. Competition, cooperation, symbiosis etc all were explained from the genes point of view. The thing to note is, even when we see apparent 'cooperation' between species, at the genes level there is a competition with other gene pools. So the non-competitive forces look so on the surface, but the only thing genes care about is moving on to the next generations and spreading as much copies as possible even if that happens with symbiosis. Gould on the other hand, was not happy with this selfish view of life(everyone says he had Marxist ideologies which made him a bit bias). He thought of selection as happening at multiple levels, not just limited at genes but also species and individual. This was the main controversy between him and dawkins. So, to reply to GPs query, yes that quote is sort of incorrect since everyone agreed that cooperation and symbiosis(Darwin too) are very much part of evolution.

fophillips 12y ago

Link to Alexander Galloway's Processing implementation http://cultureandcommunication.org/galloway/Barricelli/ http://cultureandcommunication.org/galloway/Barricelli/

matt1 12y ago

If you're interested in emergence and artificial life, I've been working on creating in JavaScript a lot of the work that has been done by others in the past as well as some original projects: http://www.emergentmind.com/ http://www.emergentmind.com/ The last project (The Evolution of Color) has similarities to the color visualizations described in this post: it uses genetic algorithms to evolve a population of colors towards a fittest color as determined by the closeness of the bits that comprise the colors. I have a few other projects planned so if you're into this stuff you're welcome to sign up for the mailing list to get notified when they are launched: http://www.emergentmind.com/newsletter http://www.emergentmind.com/newsletter I'm always open to ideas for new projects so if you have anything you'd like to see implemented or want to work on something together feel free to shoot me a note.

jal278 12y ago
Something like evolving virtual creatures would be a fun (although pretty ambitious) addition [1]. There's a processing 2D virutal creatures model called sticky feet [2] (source available) that perhaps could be ported to js pretty quickly. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JBgG_VSP7f8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JBgG_VSP7f8 [2] http://www.cc.gatech.edu/~turk/stickyfeet/ http://www.cc.gatech.edu/~turk/stickyfeet/
- matt1 12y ago
  For sure -- that is one of the medium term projects I want to work on. We'll see how it goes in the browser though...
trendoid 12y ago
This is great. can you recommend a few readings to someone who is interested in artificial life(and has some programming experience) but not sure where to start?
- matt1 12y ago
  A bit of a belated response, but check out Steven Levy's Artifical Life book: http://www.amazon.com/Artificial-Life-Frontier-Computers-Biology/dp/0679743898 http://www.amazon.com/Artificial-Life-Frontier-Computers-Bio... It's slightly dated, but I thought it was a really good introduction.

JackFr 12y ago

Sounds charming and brilliant enough to be considered a proto-Wolfram.

mindcrime 12y ago

Damn, and I thought I knew a little bit about the ALife field. But I have to admit, I had also never heard of Nils Barricelli until now. This is the kind of content I love HN for. This is good stuff. I'm looking forward to looking up some of Barricelli's work and reading up on it. Thank you, ayberkt, for submitting this. Also, from the "scientists a lot of people have not heard of, but probably should have" department, I offer Ilya Prigogine. Probably not as obscure as Barricelli, but I haven't found a lot of people know much about Prigogine. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ilya_Prigogine http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ilya_Prigogine