ALiCE - Artificial Life, Culture and Evolution
Nicholas Gessler

The virtual realities of artificial life, artificial culture and evolutionary computation are changing what it means to describe, explain and understand the complex world we live in. The computer on our desktops is emblematic of a much deeper intellectual discovery: the realization that the driving force in nature, from the origin of matter to great cultural accomplishments of science and art, is computational at its core. According to this view the world evolved from the bottom-up through the process of emergence: the assembly of increasing dynamical hierarchies of self-organization from a multitude of agents adhering to local rules who interact in complex ways to form global patterns of behavior. Simulation is the process of constructing artificial worlds. We simulate in order to imagine how things could be and to reconsider how things really are. Thus simulation can both entertain and educate. In simulation, we can transcend our own individual limited perceptions of our social and physical environments. We take a look at the epistemology and practice behind these new sciences of complexity through small programming applications written in & for Windows PCs. Through this portal we gain a critical and informed perspective on the impact of computation in culture, both popular and academic, scientific and political, artistic and literary.