Until recently, the term “artificial life” referred almost exclusively to computer programs, or maybe robots, but the progress being made by synthetic biologists building real cells out of real biological material means that the field is on the cusp of a major step forward, and that this conference has the potential to be a real breakthrough event.

Although this sounds quite impressive, it is not likely to be happening. The announcement of the ALIFE XI conference at Southampton later this year is full of optimism and non-achievement at the same time: Scientists get ‘closer’ to new forms of life, and they try to understand living systems. With the movement to biological cells the focus of the research shifts from a generalising, top-down approach to a bottom-up method: it is a very long way from a living cell to an organism that is remotely capable of what a robot or a computer is today. The state of the art in ALife research is quite far from (and not really focused on) the creation of intelligence. Long way to go still: AI Panic Level drops by -0.1%.

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