Overview

Artificial life investigates the fundamental properties of living systems through simulating and synthesizing biological entities and processes in artificial media. Summer 2008 will see the international ALife conference hosted by the University of Southampton, UK, bringing the meeting to Europe for the first time in its 21-year history.

Over the last two decades, some of the highly speculative ideas that were discussed at the field's inception have matured to the extent that new conferences and journals devoted to them are being established: synthesising artificial cells, simulating massive biological networks, exploiting biological substrates for computation and control, and deploying bio-inspired engineering are now cutting-edge practice. The Artificial Life XI conference provides an opportunity for those working across these topics to get together and exchange ideas and results. To this end, the conference will present a selection of the best current work in the field, highlight new directions for investigation, and present high-profile keynote speakers.

Artificial Life XI will take place in Winchester, a beautiful historic city in southern England, in August 2008. It is hosted by the Science and Engineering of Natural Systems group in the School of Electronics and Computer Science at the University of Southampton.

The Organizing Committee of Artificial Life XI,
Seth Bullock (Chair), Jason Noble, Richard Watson and Mark Bedau