Artificial Life Forms

By ASHLEY DUNN

July 6, 1998 12 AM PT

Cellular automata

What: Hungarian mathematician John von Neumann proposed 50 years ago the idea that extremely complex behavior could emerge from the interaction of many small elements even if each had only a basic set of instructions. This phenomenon of emergent behavior is one of the cornerstones of artificial life research.

Commercial application: Animation studios have latched onto a more complex vision of cellular automata to create lifelike crowd scenes in animated movies. Some of the best-known examples include a 1987 short called “Breaking the Ice” and the wildebeest stampede in Disney’s “The Lion King.”

Evolutionary computation

What: Evolutionary computation covers a broad range of programs that rely on random mutation and competition to accomplish their tasks. They are based on a vision of Darwinian evolution in which only the fittest solutions survive. Genetic algorithms and evolutionary programs are two large categories in the field of evolutionary computation.

Commercial applications: The programs have been used to create mathematical models of the stock market, optimal factory schedules and military simulations in which computer opponents learn from past battles.

Neural networks:

What: Modeled on the functioning of biological nervous systems, neural networks are formed out of artificial neurons, or nodes, that respond only to the input of their immediate neighbors. The nodes can organize themselves to accomplish a specified goal and adjust themselves to adapt to changing situations.

Commercial applications: Most commonly used for robotic control, image pattern recognition, signal processing and control of manufacturing processes.

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Ashley Dunn

Ashley Dunn is the former weekend editor at the Los Angeles Times. He previously served as assistant managing editor in charge of California news. Dunn joined The Times in 1986 as a suburban reporter in the San Gabriel Valley and later moved to the Metro section, where he participated in coverage of the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake and the 1992 Los Angeles riots. After a stint at the New York Times, Dunn returned to Los Angeles in 1998 as a reporter and then editor in The Times’ Business section. He later was named to run science coverage. He worked as deputy national editor from 2007 to 2011 and played a central role in the coverage of some of the biggest national stories of recent years, including the 2010 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico and the 2008 election of President Obama. Prior to his career at The Times, Dunn worked at the South China Morning Post in Hong Kong, the Danbury News-Times in Connecticut and the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. Dunn is a California native who has worked as a dishwasher in Sacramento, a printer in San Francisco and a bicycle repairman in Walnut Creek. He has lived along the levees of the Sacramento Delta, the Powell-Hyde Street cable car line and the shaded streets of Pasadena. He is a graduate of UC Berkeley with a degree in English.

Artificial Life Forms

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