artificial life

From the field of artificial intelligence, "artificial life" is a field of study where scientists create and examine systems that mimic the behavior, processes, and evolution of natural living things. In other words, the modeling of complex, lifelike behaviors in computer programs. Artificial life forms can supposedly evolve and produce behaviors not contained within the rules set by the programmers. 

ALife is divided into three main categories:

• Soft ALife (Software): Computer simulations and digital organisms. For example, Conway's Game of Life (a grid-based cellular automata model) and digital evolution programs like Avida or Tierra. 
• Hard ALife (Hardware): Robotic and mechanical systems that display autonomous behavior, swarm intelligence, or self-preservation.
• Wet ALife (Biochemistry): Synthetic biology and biochemical engineering, such as artificial cells (e.g., "Spud Cells") or synthetic bacterial genomes built from scratch in a laboratory. 

Historical perspective: The term was coined in 1986 by computer scientist Christopher Langton, who organized the first international conference on the subject in Los Alamos, New Mexico.