This FAQ may not be included in commercial collections or compilations without express permission from the author. Natural Sciences Biology is a good place to mine ideas. Ideas that can be used to model new imaginary and artificial worlds, filled with living, breeding creatures behaving in their own special and artificial ways. Here is a computer scientist's introduction to evolution, genetics, ecology, the origin of life and others. From our point of view, this is not the right question to ask, because the question is rather philosophical than formal.
Evolution is the main key behind modern biological research.
It's also the main point of study for Artificial Life researchers. And evolution is not just the story told by that white bearded man Charles Darwin. What follows is an introduction to evolutionary thinking. After Darwin's research in evolution came the discovery of the inner workings of cells, and most important, the workings of genes. But before we can copycat genetic systems, an introduction to genes is given.