Tim Taylor

Scientist, Historian, Author & Coder of Artificial Life. Board Member @alifeofficial / Senior Research Contractor @MonashUni / Independent Researcher 🌈

[Tim Taylor @drtimt]

... Along with the translation, we've also written an in-depth commentary on Barricelli's paper, its context, his other papers on symbiogenesis & evolution and the significance and legacy of the work today. Both have today been submitted to @ARTL_journal 👍🎉 [2/2]

[Tim Taylor @drtimt]

It's taken way longer than originally anticipated (18 months), but I'm super excited to say that the project to translate Nils Aall Barricelli's groundbreaking 1954 paper on computational evolution/artificial life (Esempi Numerici di Processi di Evoluzione) is now complete! [1/2]

[Tim Taylor @drtimt]

Wonderful to see @librarycongress's restoration of George Méliès' long-lost 1897 film "Gugusse et l'Automate" ("Gugusse and the automaton"). This is the first depiction on film of an automaton (or robot, to use a term that wouldn't be coined until 1920) https://t.co/nyEgWXYgIJ

[Tim Taylor @drtimt]

Two amazing opportunities to work in Helsinki in Christian Guckelsberger's wonderful group, and collaborate with equally amazing researchers in Japan and Australia! https://t.co/Tl2IQSSzDC

[Tim Taylor @drtimt]

Good grief

[ALIFE Conference 2026 @ALifeConf]

📢 Submit your paper to #ALIFE2026 (Waterloo 🇨🇦 & online, 17–21 Aug 2026)!
📝 Full Papers & Summaries deadline: 30 March 2026
📌 Special Sessions, Workshops & Tutorials proposals: 20 Feb 2026
Theme: Living and Lifelike Complex Adaptive Systems
https://t.co/MNn4BAYk4z

[Tim Taylor @drtimt]

On @BBCr4today yesterday @j_amesmarriott used a brilliant junk food metaphor to describe search results produced by AI chatbots, calling them "ultra-processed information, superficially nutritious but actually pretty empty." Listen at https://t.co/Mpq1Gwy3D9 (starts at 2:47:42).

[Tim Taylor @drtimt]

In 1951, in between working on his application to visit John von Neumann's Electronic Computer Project group at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, Nils Aall Barricelli also found time to file a patent for "An Improved Chest of Drawers"! 😁 https://t.co/i7odA93gYe

[Tim Taylor @drtimt]

@EdinburghTrams My first experience of this was disappointing. The first three toto machines I tried at Haymarket station today did not work. Had to walk to the other end of platform to find one that worked properly

[Tim Taylor @drtimt]

@cgershen Oh, wow! No! I have not come across that one. I'll definitely check it out! Thank you Carlos :-)

[Tim Taylor @drtimt]

I'm looking forward to reading this novel, written by microbiologist Richard Goodman under the pen name Bonham Richards. Goodman was a friend of ALife pioneer Nils Aall Barricelli, and George Dyson tells me that the character Angelo Kraakmo in the book is based upon Barricelli!

[Tim Taylor @drtimt]

@mnzluca @HirokiSayama @stenichele Fantastic!! I'll be in touch by email. By any chance was your talk today recorded?

[Tim Taylor @drtimt]

@HirokiSayama @stenichele (I've already spoken to @stenichele about this 👍)

[Jitka Cejkova @CejkovaJitka]

The 40th anniversary of the @ALifeConf conference series is approaching. Please contribute your memories and archival materials to help me prepare a book for this anniversary in the field of #ArtificialLife. #ALIFE40 @alifeofficial #alife
https://t.co/PZ66T5mHip

[ISAL Artificial Life @alifeofficial]

#ALIFE2025 will take place in Kyoto, Japan (6-10 October).

[Tim Taylor @drtimt]

The npj Complexity journal has an open call for a new collection topic "Unnatural Histories: Investigating the Improbable with Experimental Evolution and Artificial Life". Accepting submissions from now up to 12 Sept 2025 https://t.co/BkDcP4QFsO

[Tim Taylor @drtimt]

I'm happy to announce that the free online version of "Rise of the Self-Replicators" has now been updated to the 2nd edition of the author-formatted version of the book, which includes the 2024 afterword as an additional chapter. Find the online version at https://t.co/NpS0qLunpH

[Tim Taylor @drtimt]

@johnny_83 It was published in Methodos, an Italian journal (no longer in business). A small number of libraries still have it.

[Tim Taylor @drtimt]

I've finally got a copy of Nils Barricelli's first paper on Artificial Life, in Italian (1954). Would be great to get it translated into English. My preference would be to have this done by a skilled human translator rather than AI. Any bilingual Italian-English folk interested?