__NOTOC__ Christopher Gale Langton (born 1948/49) is an American

computer scientist A computer scientist is a scientist who specializes in the academic study of computer science. Computer scientists typically work on the theoretical side of computation. Although computer scientists can also focus their work and research on ...

and one of the founders of the field of

artificial life Artificial life (ALife or A-Life) is a field of study wherein researchers examine systems related to natural life, its processes, and its evolution, through the use of simulations with computer models, robotics, and biochemistry. The discipline ...

. He coined the term in the late 1980s when he organized the first "Workshop on the Synthesis and Simulation of Living Systems" (otherwise known as Artificial Life I) at

Los Alamos National Laboratory Los Alamos National Laboratory (often shortened as Los Alamos and LANL) is one of the sixteen research and development Laboratory, laboratories of the United States Department of Energy National Laboratories, United States Department of Energy ...

in 1987. Following his time at Los Alamos, Langton joined the

Santa Fe Institute The Santa Fe Institute (SFI) is an independent, nonprofit theoretical research institute located in Santa Fe, New Mexico, United States and dedicated to the multidisciplinary study of the fundamental principles of complex adaptive systems, inc ...

(SFI), to continue his research on artificial life. He left SFI in the late 1990s, and abandoned his work on artificial life, publishing no research since that time. He was profiled extensively in chapters 6 and 8 of the book Complexity (1993), by M. Mitchell Waldrop.

Artificial life

Langton made numerous contributions to the field of artificial life, both in terms of simulation and computational models of given problems and to philosophical issues. Early on, he identified the problems of information, computation and reproduction as intrinsically connected with complexity and its basic laws. Inspired by ideas coming from physics, particularly

phase transition In physics, chemistry, and other related fields like biology, a phase transition (or phase change) is the physical process of transition between one state of a medium and another. Commonly the term is used to refer to changes among the basic Sta ...

s, he developed several key concepts and quantitative measures for

cellular automata A cellular automaton (pl. cellular automata, abbrev. CA) is a discrete model of computation studied in automata theory. Cellular automata are also called cellular spaces, tessellation automata, homogeneous structures, cellular structures, tessel ...

and suggested that critical points separating order from disorder could play a very important role in shaping complex systems, particularly in biology. These ideas were also explored simultaneously, albeit with different approximations, by James P. Crutchfield and

Per Bak Per Bak (8 December 1948 – 16 October 2002) was a Danish theoretical physicist who coauthored the 1987 academic paper that coined the term " self-organized criticality." Life and work After receiving his Ph.D. from the Technical University ...

among others. While a graduate student at the

University of Michigan The University of Michigan (U-M, U of M, or Michigan) is a public university, public research university in Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest institution of higher education in the state. The University of Mi ...

, Langton created the Langton ant and Langton loop, both simple artificial life simulations, in addition to his lambda parameter, a dimensionless measure of complexity and computation potential in

, given by a chosen state divided by all the possible states. For a 2-state, 1-r neighborhood, 1D cellular automata the value is close to 0.5. For a 2-state,

Moore neighborhood In cellular automata, the Moore neighborhood is defined on a two-dimensional square lattice and is composed of a central cell and the eight cells that surround it. Name The neighborhood is named after Edward F. Moore, a pioneer of cellular aut ...

, 2D cellular automata, like Conway's Life, the value is 0.273.

Personal life

Langton is the first-born son of Jane Langton, author of books including the ''Homer Kelly Mysteries''. He has two adult sons: Gabe and Colin. He is an atheist."Chris Langton". NNDB.com. Retrieved 18 July 2012

Major publications

* Christopher G. Langton. "Artificial Life: An Overview". (Editor), MIT Press, 1995. * Christopher G. Langton. "Artificial Life III: Proceedings of the Third Interdisciplinary Workshop on the Synthesis and Simulation of Living Systems". (Editor), Addison-Wesley, 1993. * Christopher G. Langton. "Life at the Edge of Chaos". in "Artificial Life II", Addison-Wesley, 1991. * Christopher G. Langton. "Artificial Life II: Proceedings of the Second Interdisciplinary Workshop on the Synthesis and Simulation of Living Systems". (Editor), Addison-Wesley, 1991. * Christopher G. Langton. "Computation at the edge of chaos". ''Physica D'', 42, 1990. * Christopher G. Langton. "Computation at the edge of Chaos: Phase-Transitions and Emergent Computation." Ph.D. Thesis,

(1990). * Christopher G. Langton. "Is There a Sharp Phase Transition for Deterministic Cellular Automata?", with W.K Wootters, ''Physica D'', 45, 1990. * Christopher G. Langton. "Artificial Life: Proceedings of an Interdisciplinary Workshop on the Synthesis and Simulation of Living Systems". (Editor), Addison-Wesley, 1988. * Christopher G. Langton. "Studying Artificial Life with Cellular Automata". ''Physica D'', 22, 1986. * Christopher G. Langton. "Self Reproduction in Cellular Automata". ''Physica D'', 10, 1984. ;About Langton's work * A. GaJardo, A. Moreira, E. Goles. "Complexity of Langton's Ant". ''Discrete Applied Mathematics'', 117, 2002. * M. Boden. "The Philosophy of Artificial Life". ''Oxford University Press'', 1996. * Stuart Kauffman. ''Origins of Order: Self-Organization and Selection in Evolution''. Oxford University Press, 1993. * Melanie Mitchell, Peter T. Hraber, and James P. Crutchfield.
Revisiting the edge of chaos: Evolving cellular automata to perform computations
'. ''Complex Systems'', 7:89–130, 1993. * Melanie Mitchell, James P. Crutchfield and Peter T. Hraber
Dynamics, Computation, and the "Edge of Chaos": A Re-Examination
' * J. P. Crutchfield and K. Young, "Computation at the Onset of Chaos", in ''Complexity, Entropy and the Physics of Information'', W. Zurek, editor, SFI Studies in the Sciences of Complexity, VIII, Addison-Wesley, Reading, Massachusetts (1990) pp. 223–269.

References

External links

Explanation of Langton's LambdaThe Swarm development group
{{DEFAULTSORT:Langton, Christopher American atheists Cellular automatists American computer scientists Complex systems scientists 1949 births Living people Researchers of artificial life University of Michigan alumni Santa Fe Institute people

Artificial life

Personal life

Major publications

See also

References

External links