Overview

Welcome to Artificial Life and Digital Evolution! Most class meetings will have preparation that you should do beforehand and learning objectives that you should be comfortable with before class and after class.

I know that this first one you might not be able to get done before class, so I’ve extended the due date for the check to 10pm tonight for this check only.

All of these preparation pages will have checks of some kind that you need to submit and which will be evaluated for completeness. You need to submit a complete check to earn the engagement credit for that day.

Basic Learning Objectives

These are the learning objectives that each student is responsible for having proficiency at BEFORE the class meeting.

If you aren’t sure of any of them, you should definitely aim to reach out before the class meeting to clear things up.

Before class, you should be able to:

  • Explain how your grade in this course will be determined
  • List some of the requirements people have for something being ‘alive’
  • Explain very basically what the field of artificial life tries to do

Advanced Learning Objectives

After class, you should be able to:

  • List the assignments and structure of the class
  • Define (as much as anyone can) the terms artificial life and digital evolution
  • List some of the subfields of artificial life
  • Reflect on your own requirements for something being ‘alive’

Resources

I will always include recommended resources (usually readings) where you can find all the necessary answers. However, you are also always allowed to interact with Gemini while logged into your Carleton account to achieve the basic objectives and checks.

To achieve the basic learning objectives, you can read the following:

Checks

Submit answers to the following through Moodle:

  • What is the criteria for an A in the course?
  • What are three requirements that have been proposed for something being “alive”?
  • What does the field of artificial life try to do?