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 ht

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.