Simulated Creatures Evolve and Learn. Sims believes that it may be easier to evolve virtual entities with intelligent behavior than to create them from scratch. Artificial intelligence researchers have long sought to develop the so-called thinking machine. Unlike Sims, most begin by attempting to model the computer after the patterns of man. Perhaps Sims' method is more man-like than the other two.
Mankind is thought to have evolved.
Perhaps consciousness is something that has to do with being conscious of consciousness. The artificial brain which uses an evolving neural network is due to be completed by 2001. Hugo de Garis, an ATR scientist, says the purpose is to produce a silicone brain with more than 1 billion artificial neurons. Cellular automata,' each one a distinct computer program, will actually forge their own linkages. The neural net grows when cellular automata send 'growth signals' to each other, then connect via synapses.