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FORMAL DEFINITION

An artificial chemistry is defined in general as a triple (S,R,A). In some cases it is sufficient to define it as a tuple (S,I).

  • S is the Set of possible molecules S={s1...,sn}, where n is the number of elements in the set, possibly infinite.


  • R is a set of N-ary Operation s on the molecules in S, the reaction rules R={r1...,rn}. Each rule ri is written like a chemical reaction a+b+c->a---+b---+c---. Note here that ri are operators, as opposed to +.


  • A is an Algorithm describing how to apply the rules R to a Subset P\subsetS.


  • I are the interaction rules of the molecules in S.



DIFFERENT KINDS OF ARTIFICIAL CHEMISTRIES


  • depending on the space of possible molecules

  • --- finite

  • --- infinite


  • depending on the type of reactions

  • --- catalytic systems

  • --- reactive systems


  • depending on the space topology

  • --- well stirred reactor

  • --- topologically arranged (1,2,3 dimensional)



IMPORTANT CONCEPTS


  • Organizations: An organization is a set of molecules that is closed and self-maintaining. As such, it is a set that does not create anything outside itself, and such that any molecule inside the set can be generated within the set.

  • Closed sets

  • Self-maintaining sets

  • Hasse diagram of organizations



HISTORY OF ARTIFICIAL CHEMISTRIES

Artificial chemistries emerged as a sub-field of Artificial Life , in particular from Strong Artificial Life . The idea behind this field was that if one wanted to build something alive, it had to be done by a combination of non-living entities. For instance, a cell is itself alive, and yet is a combination of non-living molecules. Artificial chemistry enlists, among others, researchers that believe in an extreme bottom-up approach to artificial life.


IMPORTANT CONTRIBUTORS


The first reference about artificial Chemistries come from a Technical paper written by John McCaskill . Walter Fontana working with Leo Buss then took up the work developing the AlChemy Model . The model was presented at the second International Conference of Artificial Life. In his first papers he presented the concept of Organization , as a set of molecules that is algebraically closed and self-maintaining.

Two main schools of artificial chemistries have been in Japan and Germany. In Japan the main researchers have been Takashi Ikegami and Hideaki Suzuki . In Germany , it was Wolfgang Banzhaf , who, together with his students Peter Dittrich and Jens Ziegler , developed various
artificial chemistry models. Their 2001 paper 'Artificial Chemistries - A Review' became a standard in the field. Jens Ziegler , as part of his PhD thesis, proved that an artificial chemistry could be used to control a small Khepera robot. Among other models, Peter Dittrich developed the Seceder Model which is able to explain group formation in society through some simple rules. Since then he became a professor in Jena where he investigates artificial chemistries as a way to define a general theory of Constructive Dynamical System s.


APPLICATIONS OF ARTIFICIAL CHEMISTRIES


Artificial Chemistries are often used in the study of protobiology, trying to bridge the gap between Chemistry and Biology .
A further motivation to study artificial chemistries is the interest in constructive dynamical systems.


SEE ALSO



EXTERNAL LINKS AND REFERENCES