artificial-life.html

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	<h2>What is artificial life?</h2>
	<p class="text-justify">
		Artificial life is a bottom up form of
		modelling biological systems. Therough the interactions of simplistic
		automatons and the tuning of their invidivual beahviours, interesting
		global dynamics emerge that resemble those seen in life. The goal of
		these systems is to generate these emergant, lifelike, behaviours
		using the simplest possible method. By constructing these models, a
		greater understanding of how simple base components can be responsible
		for highly complex global emergant behaviours.
	</p>
	<p class="text-justify">
		There are three main categories in artificial life: (1) soft[ware],
		(2) hard[ware], and (3) wet[ware]. Soft artificial life systems are
		implemented in software and simply emulate behaviours in a simulated
		environment (e.g. the system described in [<a href="#ref1">1</a>],
		which is discussed later). Hard artificial life are generally robots
		that are controlled by an artificial life algorithm. Finally, wet
		artificial life systems are systems that use a bioligical controller
		as part of the algorithm, for example the robots discussed in [<a
			href="#ref2">2</a>, <a href="#ref3">3</a>].
	</p>
	<p>
		The fish simulation showcased here builds upon an artificial life
		simulation known as boids [<a href="#ref1">1</a>]. Boids work by
		following three simple principles:
	</p>
	<ol>
		<li><strong>Separation:</strong> Each agent should avoid crowding
			its neighbours.</li>
		<li><strong>Cohesion:</strong> Each agent should attempt to head
			toward the position of its neighbours.</li>
		<li><strong>Alignment:</strong> Each agent should head in the
			same direction as its neighbours.</li>
	</ol>
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