Artificial Life VIII: Call for Papers
	   UNSW, Sydney, Australia, 9th-13th December, 2002

Artificial life is an interdisciplinary scientific and engineering
enterprise investigating the fundamental properties of living systems
through the simulation and synthesis of life-like processes in
artificial media. The Artificial Life VIII conference will showcase
the best current work in this area of research and highlight promising
new avenues of investigation. It continues a successful series of
international conferences started in 1987 by Chris Langton.

All authors of contributed papers are strongly encouraged to explain
how their work sheds light on the fundamental properties of living
systems. In addition, authors should take note of the list of
fundamental open problems in artificial generated after a special
roundtable discussion at the previous Artificial Life conference
(Bedau et al., "Open problems in artificial life", Artificial Life _6_
(2000): 363-376). Authors are encouraged either to link their work to
one of the problems listed there, or to identify another important
open problem that their work addresses. Papers are welcome in (but not
limited to) the following topic areas:

*   Origin of life, self-organization, self-replication 
*   Development and differentiation 
*   Evolutionary and adaptive dynamics 
*   Robots and autonomous agents 
*   Communication, cooperation and collective behavior 
*   ALife simulation and synthesis tools and methodologies 
*   Applications of ALife technologies 
*   Philosophical, ethical, social, and cultural implications 

Full information about conference paper format and submission
procedures is available through the conference web site
http://alife8.alife.org. 

In addition to a variety of social and cultural events taking
advantage of the venue in Sydney, the Conference will include a series
of workshops and tutorials for special interest groups. An Artificial
Life VIII Workshop Proceedings will be published at the
Conference. Anyone interested in organizing or participating in a
workshop or tutorial should contact the Workshops and Tutorials Chair:
Dr. Hussein Abbass (abbass@cs.adfa.edu.au).

			See you in Sydney,
			Russell Standish
			Conference Chair