Advances in Artificial Life: 8th European Conference, ECAL 2005, Canterbury, UK, September 5-9, 2005, Proceedings

The Artificial Lifeterm appeared more than 20 years ago in a small corner of New Mexico, USA. Since then the area has developed dramatically, many researchers joining enthusiastically and research groups sprouting everywhere. This frenetic activity led to the emergence of several strands that are now established fields in themselves. We are now reaching a stage that one may describe as maturer: with more rigour, more benchmarks, more results, more stringent acceptance criteria, more applica...