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IT'S HARD NOT TO think of the mythic Icarus when Chris Langton, hobbling on crutches with his left leg in a cast, approaches the dais as the first speaker at A-Life IV, the Fourth International Workshop on the Synthesis and Simulation of Living Systems, held at the Massachussetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge in July 1994. Introducing the godfather of artificial life (A-Life), M.I.T. Professor Rodney Brooks reminds the audience of Langton's proclivity for "flying accidents."
Artificial life, a heretical concept until recently, is rapidly emerging as the liveliest of today's computer sciences, yielding promising methods for solving once-intractable problems--from eradicating miniscule computer viruses to predicting the behavior of vast financial markets--amid the real-world complexity of evolving structures and fast-changing environments. A-Life software is able to solve these problems by replicating basic biological processes that allow the programs to learn, reproduce and survive.
For his tinkering with the secrets of growth and death and life itself, it would seem Langton has been reserved the same punishment meted out by the gods to Icarus in Greek mythology. Remember that Icarus challenged the natural order that humans couldn't fly, only to soar too close to the sun, melting his artificial wings and crashing to earth.
Almost 20 years ago, a hang-gliding accident in the Blue Ridge mountains of North Carolina shattered 35 of Langton's bones, breaking his legs and arms, smashing his knees into his face and causing severe trauma to his brain. He would later describe his year of mental recovery in terms of the self-organizing principles at the heart of A-Life. With his brain "rewired" and able to perceive the connections between the once mutually exclusive realms of biology and computing, Langton coined the term "artificial life" and watched its influence grow through three seminal conferences, which he organized with help from friends and colleagues.
At A-Life IV, though, Langton for the first time is just a participant, starting his talk with an obviously heartfelt: "It's very good to be here." Of his latest losing confrontation with gravity's laws, he explains: "I was building a tree house for my kids and I fell out of the tree."
At 46, with his broad-featured face, mane of dark hair and casual blue-jean style of dress, Langton...