Stephen Pinker – Evolutionary psychology and the computational theory of mind, experimental psychologist, cognitive scientist.
Stephen Johnson – Emergence, (Emergence: The Connected Lives of Ants, Brains, Cities, and Software (2001))
Leda Cosmides – Evolutionary psychology (cognitive science, human evolution, hunter gatherer studies, neuroscience, psychology and evolutionary biology)
Stephen Wolfram – Particle physics, cellular automata, complexity theory, computer algebra, and is the creator of the computer program Mathematica and Founder of the Centre of Complex Systems Research.
read transcript of THE GENERATION OF FORM IN A NEW KIND OF SCIENCE >>>
Karl Sims – computer graphics artist, particle systems and artificial life in computer animation, evolved virtual creatures, evolutionary computation
READ EVOLVING VIRTUAL CREATURES by Karl Sims (Siggraph ’94 Proceedings) >>>
I found the paper Evolving Virtual Creatures by Karl Sims incredibly interesting and useful for my research. Karl Sims has researched and worked on developing genetic algorithms along with 3D artificial evolution processes. He uses a genetic language, which controls behavioural systems for the creatures e.g. swimming, jumping, and walking. The functions are based on biology (there are genotypes and phenotypes which are coded representations of possible outcomes, like in biology genotypes are composed of DNA which is a series of instructions for development.)
An interesting paragraph I found was: “A classic trade-off in the field of computer graphics and animation is that of complexity vs. control. It is often difficult to build interesting or realistic visual entities and still maintain control over them. Sometimes it is difficult to build a complex virtual world at all, if it is necessary to conceive, design, and assemble each component.”
This idea of ‘user control’ is interesting to me. I keep wondering, why do we need to control it in the first place? I think it is our human nature to want control over things, but this article made me think: if we are to create and experience amazing, interesting, complex virtual worlds, we can not create them ourselves. The human mind has limitations to the creativity and complexity that it takes to develop such simulations. What we need to do is design systems and let them EVOLVE.
ARTIFICIAL EVOLUTION PERMITS THE GENERATION OF COMPLICATED VIRTUAL SYSTEMS WITHOUT REQUIRING DESIGN….ALLOWING EVOLVING SYSTEMS TO INCREASE IN COMPLEXITY BEYOND OUR UNDERSTANDING. – (Karl Sims)
Jared Tarbell - comouter scientist/digital artist,
Evolving Computational Creatures >>>>>>>
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