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Creation: Life and How to Make It Paperback – May 30, 2003

by Steve Grand (Author)
4.4 4.4 out of 5 stars 50 ratings
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Working mostly alone, almost single-handedly writing 250,000 lines of computer code, Steve Grand produced Creatures®, a revolutionary computer game that allowed players to create living beings complete with brains, genes, and hormonal systems―creatures that would live and breathe and breed in real time on an ordinary desktop computer. Enormously successful, the game inevitably raises the question: What is artificial life? And in this book―a chance for the devoted fan and the simply curious onlooker to see the world from the perspective of an original philosopher-engineer and intellectual maverick―Steve Grand proposes an answer.

From the composition of the brains and bodies of artificial life forms to the philosophical guidelines and computational frameworks that define them, Creation plumbs the practical, social, and ethical aspects and implications of the state of the art. But more than that, the book gives readers access to the insights Grand acquired in writing Creatures―insights that yield a view of the world that is surprisingly antireductionist, antimaterialist, and (to a degree) antimechanistic, a view that sees matter, life, mind, and society as simply different levels of the same thing. Such a hierarchy, Grand suggests, can be mirrored by an equivalent one that exists inside a parallel universe called cyberspace.

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  1. Print length
    240 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Harvard University Press
  4. Publication date
    May 30, 2003
  5. Dimensions
    5.5 x 0.75 x 12.75 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    0674011139
  7. ISBN-13
    978-0674011137
  8. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

Review

“Steve Grand is the creator of what I think is the nearest approach to artificial life so far, and his first book, Creation, is as interesting as you would expect. But he illuminates more than just the properties of life; his originality extends to matter itself and the very nature of reality.”―Richard Dawkins, The Guardian

“If you’ve heard about A-life but aren’t quite sure what it is or where it’s going, Grand’s book is an excellent place to enter one of the more exciting areas of twenty-first-century science.”―John L. Casti, Nature

“When Steve Grand developed his artificial-life computer game Creatures nine years ago, he never dreamed that 1 million people would play it and come to care deeply about the lives of their virtual pets. Creatures allowed players to design these pets, or norns, and observe how they interacted with their environment and with other norns. The norns have computer-simulated hormones and DNA. They eat and breed. They fall in love. According to Grand’s book Creation…‘Creatures was probably the closest thing there has been to a new form of life on this planet in four billion years.’ That’s a pretty startling claim, but as Grand explains in his strangely accessible and consistently surprising book, whether or not you believe it depends on your definition of what’s alive. Grand―now two years into building a 4-month-old robot orangutan named Lucy―argues that our traditional notion of life is just now beginning to change.”―Suzy Hansen, Salon

“Grand’s entertaining but highly educational, historical, and intensely philosophical book on artificial life takes readers inside the mind of the creator of one of the more popular games, Creature[s], and its follow-ons. This personal account of the developmental steps of the game and its lifelike artificial creature in a rich cyberworld not only highlights the magic of how the creatures are programmed, but also provides a glimpse into the philosophy, implications, perspectives, and dilemmas in making them. This book is written not only to detail the highly technical aspects of the inner world image of the game, but also to enrich, incite, and promote the general awareness of synthetically generated beings… Delightful to read, easy to understand, and interesting to gamers and nongamers alike.”―J. Y. Cheung, Choice

“[Creation is] the latest word on computer intelligence, from the designer of a popular computer game… On the whole, Grand succeeds in providing useful hints to computer-savvy readers without drowning laymen in details of programming. At the same time, he gives an entertaining glimpse of the game itself, with descriptions of ‘Ron,’ the first creature he programmed for the computer game. Smoothly written and thought-provoking―worth a look for anyone curious about computer intelligence.”―Kirkus Reviews

“Blending aspects of philosophy, computer science, artificial intelligence, biology and computer gaming, Grand attempts to define life, discuss the nature of the human soul and demonstrate how it is possible to create entities that demand to be called both living and intelligent. A tall order indeed, and to wonderful effect… [Grand] is at his best describing the problems encountered and the solutions used to animate his virtual universe. While at first glance Grand’s definitions of life might be off-putting, he explains his terms clearly and carefully, guiding the reader comfortably through various levels of discussion… [E]njoyable and thought-provoking.”―Publishers Weekly

“Very occasionally somebody from outside academia comes along and shows us academics how to do something we’ve been working on for years. Steve Grand showed us how to build a universe of evolving creatures, without the prevailing academic biases. This delightful book is a fresh and inspiring account of how to succeed in creating artificial life.”―Rodney Brooks, Director, Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, MIT

“A giant leap forward into a new and unknown world…awe-inspiring.”―Douglas Adams, on the computer game Creatures

About the Author

Steve Grand is co-founder and former Director of Technology at Creature Labs, a firm based in the United Kingdom. He has written and lectured widely on the topic of artificial life and was nominated by the Sunday Times (of London) as one of “The Brains behind the 21st Century.” His latest research objective is to build the world’s first conscious machine.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Harvard University Press (May 30, 2003)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 240 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0674011139
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0674011137
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 12.8 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.5 x 0.75 x 12.75 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.4 4.4 out of 5 stars 50 ratings

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Customer reviews

4.4 out of 5 stars
4.4 out of 5
50 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

glinkot
5.0 out of 5 stars A brilliant introduction to artificial life
Reviewed in the United States on December 26, 2012
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I read this over the Christmas break having had it on my shelf for the last year. It's a great and inspiring read. Written by someone with actual practical experience creating sophisticated AI software and robots, the details mentioned in here really demonstrate depth of knowledge.

It's highly readable though, requiring no technical knowledge, and one of those titles (like Dawkins' Selfish Gene) that makes the reader feel like a genius as the layers unfold. It focuses on the details of making a single individual as sophisticated as possible rather than the approach taken by most comparable researchers, who hook together 'creatures' driven by a few simple rules, apply those to a large population and let 'emergent' processes do the rest and generate complex outcomes. It's true - looking at ants in the real world, and various a-life programs created, you do indeed get interesting and unforeseen complexities from a large population of super simple organisms. But every increase in the sophistication of the individual creatures will have exponential benefits in how rich the outcomes will be from a population of them!

Steve Grand is still at work developing a new version of his beloved creatures, called 'Grandroids'. This is a great insight into his thought processes and an exciting peek at what the next generation of intelligent artificial creatures may be like.
9 people found this helpful
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Dennis Cox
5.0 out of 5 stars Turning the tide on AI research in a sense
Reviewed in the United States on July 9, 2004
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I must say I enjoyed the book completely. While I don't agree with the author on all points - the book is incredibly thought provoking. I was so glad to see such a book written that after I read the book (in 3 nights - short book) I bought three copies for co-workers who I wanted to read it. Steve Grand is now quite famous (or should I say even more famous) after writing this book. He has challenged traditional thought on the subject of AI and in a way that has made converts out of many.

However, he spends 10 chapters saying "you are all wrong - this is the way to do it" - then doesn't follow up on doing it himself but rather takes enough shortcuts to make the work suspect - but to his credit he does say he's doing going just that :) All in all - if you're a software engineer or software developer I highly recommended the book.
9 people found this helpful
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M. K. Love
5.0 out of 5 stars Interesting concepts
Reviewed in the United States on January 1, 2010
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Steve Grand's introduction to artificial life for the non-scientist is nothing if not an interesting read. While he may go out on an intellectual limb from time to time, he does put forth a convincing, and somewhat radical, definition of what constitutes life. I was quite impressed with his approach to creating a synthetic life form. Rather than just attempting to animate a cartoon with a limited repertoire of behaviors, he practically starts at the sub-atomic level. From there he builds his creatures molecule by molecule, system by system until he has a credible model of what an artificial living being might be like. This guy is thorough! My only disappointment was that he expended this amount of well directed thought and work to create "creatures" that look like they were designed for a kids' Saturday morning cartoon. They could have been so much cooler...
One person found this helpful
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ascetic
5.0 out of 5 stars Best digital biology/artificial life book I've seen yet.
Reviewed in the United States on June 21, 2003
Verified Purchase
This book is fantastic. I wasn't really sure what to expect when I got it, but was pleasantly surprised. Before this I read 'Digital Biology' by Peter Bentley, and this book was much more interesting. No, they don't cover exactly the same subject matter, and Bentley's book covers a broader range of subjects, but if you're looking at both of them, I think this is a better intro to artificial life and digital biology.
Grand is obviously a great programmer and scientist, and he's an excellent writer to boot. I've never played Creatures (in fact, I'd never even heard of it before reading this book) but now I really want to get my hands on a copy to try it out. I can hardly wait for his next book about his current project.
14 people found this helpful
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Amazon Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars Philosophy behind A-Life - Amazing
Reviewed in the United States on August 25, 2016
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As a computer science student who played in his childhood with Creatures, I found the book fascinating. This book changed radically my understanding of life. It even motivated me to write my own A-Life software. This book is a must-read for anyone interested in the field.
2 people found this helpful
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Calif Martial Artist
3.0 out of 5 stars Some good parts, but patchy
Reviewed in the United States on February 22, 2007
Verified Purchase
There are some interesting analogies and examples of perceived or emergent behaviour but overall many of the arguments do not hold up to scrutiny. If you are looking for a book written in the form of opinions, as opposed to hard facts, then this book will be more to your liking. Certainly something I would borrow from a friend/library rather than paying for it to sit on my shelf - not something I will go back to in future to read again or for reference. It was a disappointment as I was led to it from Richard Dawkins' excellent "The God Delusion".
6 people found this helpful
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Heinrich Ziegler
4.0 out of 5 stars heavy material...
Reviewed in the United States on November 10, 2006
This book gives a very deep insight in the problems of the creation of systems with some intelligence.
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Top reviews from other countries

Amazon Kunde
5.0 out of 5 stars Impressive
Reviewed in Germany on October 8, 2018
Verified Purchase
Well written.
Interesting views on physics, what life is and psychology.
Workings of his programm well explained.
Perhaps for unacquainted difficult to follow although written as an introduction.
Perhaps a theoretical analysis of what his programm is doing is missing.
Impressive performance to write the programm and describe it so well.
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Thiago
5.0 out of 5 stars Very cool the insights and experiments presented by the author
Reviewed in Canada on October 3, 2015
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Very cool the insights and experiments presented by the author. It gives you a new perspective of how life can be defined.
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Access All Areas
5.0 out of 5 stars Quintessential popular science
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 5, 2003
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In recent years the volume of popular science books has expanded exponentially. Unfortunately, publishers have lowered their quality thresholds in order to get more books out of the door.
All of which increases the satisfaction when you find one of the gems.
Creation is a book in 2 parts - firstly Steve Grand demolishes your view of the universe, and then he explains how he created 'life' in the computer program Creatures.
Without the early groundwork, the second part would be interesting but in a 'so what?' kind of way. But viewed as a whole, the Creatures program emerges as a very clever approach to artificial life.
In passing the book also looks at other approaches to artificial life, but not in great detail, and as such this book is quite narrow in scope, but not annoyingly so.
Creation makes you look at the world slightly differently and opens up a whole load of new possibilities, which is exactly what popular science books should do.
6 people found this helpful
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Jonathan D.
5.0 out of 5 stars Glad I read it.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on July 17, 2019
Verified Purchase
The first half of this book was a series of ideas and facts new to me, that blew my mind. Having settled down, I went on to read the second half, which describes how to put these ideas together. My life is better for having read this.
One person found this helpful
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Amazon Kunde
5.0 out of 5 stars Remarkable insight in intelligence and conciousness
Reviewed in Germany on August 6, 2016
Verified Purchase
Great book, but it takes time to comrehend ideas written in it.
Keep in mind, that it's not for developers, you won't find code snippets and examples on how to create neural network etc.
It's more of a philosophy book - it shows how to change YOUR mindset in order to understand AI, neural networks and be able to work on them.
Overall - remarkable lecture.
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