Langton, Christopher. “Artificial life”.  SFI Studies in the Sciences of Complexity: Boston, U.S.A Addison Wesley Publishing Company. 1988

Christopher Langton (born 1948/49) is an American computer scientist and one of the founders of the field of, Artificial Life. He coined the term in the late 1980s when he organized the first “Workshop on the Synthesis and Simulation of Living Systems”. Artificial life is the study of man-made systems that exhibit behaviours characteristic of natural living systems. Alife looks at “life- as- we- know- it” in comparison to ‘life- as- it- could- be”. In his overview, “Artificial Life: an overview” Langton describes that the difference between artificial life and artificial intelligence is that Alife is concerned with generating lifelike behavior whereas AI is supposedly concerned with generating intelligent behavior. It is not so much that Alife is to be a threat to human existence, more so how to find ways to artificially produce useful functions which mimic nature so humans refrain from exhausting natural environments. How can we both exist and protect the world creating safe sustainable solutions. I have only recently learned the difference between AI and Alife and have developed a curiosity towards the progression of Alife. In its optimism and solution based philosophy the overview reads as an assistance to aid the world and to better our existence, whereas AI seems to be replacing the rolls of humans. In regards to my art practice I will research further into the space and find way to incorporate scenes and situations into my work and that of the “impossible space”.

Manning, P.J. “Is Technology Destroying Empathy?” Live Science. June 30, 2015.https://www.livescience.come/51392-will-tech-bring-humanity-together-or-tear-it-apart.html.