Artificial life (often abbreviated
ALife or
A-Life) is a field of study and an associated art form which examine
systems related to
life, its processes, and its evolution, through the use of
simulations with
computer models,
robotics, and
biochemistry. The discipline was named by
Christopher Langton, an American computer scientist, in 1986. There are three main kinds of alife, named for their approaches:
soft, from
software;
hard, from
hardware; and
wet, from biochemistry. Artificial life imitates traditional
biology by trying to
recreate some aspects of biological phenomena. The term "artificial intelligence" is often used to specifically refer to soft alife.