* http://www.isd.atr.co.jp/~ray/ -- Tom's home page wayback 
* http://www.isd.atr.co.jp/~ray/pubs/images/ -- Tierra visualizations
Tom created Tierra, the first computer environment where interesting programs evolved by mutation and natural selection. Tom's work inspired my own BiotaLanguage, a feeble attempt in comparison. -- WardCunningham
Tom is well known in the ArtificialLife community. A web search, however, is more likely to turn up CarTalk.
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Sounds like an interesting experiment, now if he could just run this program on a supercomputer and iterate a couple of billion generations, it would be interesting to see what would result. Can he get a sponsor who would like to find out as well. Perhaps this could be the first step in the proving of EVOLUTION. Question: where does the first digital organism come from. Who determines the rules of interaction? Are there models which imply Intelligent Design utilized to start in the middle. How would this prove anything about natural selection working before the organism existed or the rule set was in place? Where did the first computer and the first computer instruction come from. Without a Computer Maker and and Instruction Set, How would this be possible? Could this all start up from no computer, and no rules? Evolutionists Start In The Middle, Because that's where the soup is. Last edit March 12, 2007