Evolvable Systems: From Biology to Hardware: 6th International Conference, ICES 2005, Sitges, Spain, September 12-14, 2005, Proceedings

The flying machines proposed by Leonardo da Vinci in the fifteenth century, the se— reproducing automata theory proposed by John von Neumann in the middle of the twentieth century and the current possibility of designing electronic and mechanical systems using evolutionary principles are all examples of the efforts made by humans to explore the mechanisms present in biological systems that permit them to tackle complex tasks. These initiatives have recently given rise to the emergent field ...