From: MX%"thesisnet-request@eniac.seas.upenn.edu" 9-DEC-1993 13:33:26.54 To: NOEL CC: Subj: Complex Systems Information Return-Path: Received: from linc.cis.upenn.edu by Erich.Triumf.CA (MX V3.3 VAX) with SMTP; Thu, 09 Dec 1993 13:32:43 PST Received: from eniac.seas.upenn.edu (root@ENIAC.SEAS.UPENN.EDU [130.91.4.1]) by linc.cis.upenn.edu (8.6.4/UPenn 1.4) with ESMTP id QAA00916 for ; Thu, 9 Dec 1993 16:32:12 -0500 Received: from localhost by eniac.seas.upenn.edu id QAA25541; Thu, 9 Dec 1993 16:29:33 -0500 Date: Thu, 9 Dec 1993 16:29:33 -0500 Posted-Date: Thu, 9 Dec 1993 16:29:33 -0500 Message-ID: <199312092129.QAA25541@eniac.seas.upenn.edu> From: thesisnet-request@eniac.seas.upenn.edu (ThesisNet Server) Subject: Complex Systems Information Apparently-To: noel@erich.triumf.ca Complex Adaptive Systems Information ____________________________________ "Life is if it dies when you stomp on it." Ok, for the past few months I've been looking for stuff that deals with Complex Adaptive Systems and one thing has emerged : some order to the information out there still needs to emerge ! This document represents the resources I've found so far, and while not exhaustive, still represents a fair slice of what is out there in terms of easily-accesible information. Hope it makes life a little easier for someone ! (To retrieve via email, send mail to thesisnet-request@eniac.seas.upenn.edu with the subject 'cplxsys'.) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- FTP SITES The following are some ftp sites which I've come across here and there while wandering around blindly trying to find stuff on the Net. The hyperlinks get you to the appropriate top-level directories, since for sites like life.anu.edu.au and funic.funet.fi, there are quite a few potentially interesting sub-directories. Since Mosaic does all the arduous work of retrieving the files for you, click to your hearts' content ! o The ftp site at life.anu.edu.au, in /pub/complex_systems which is further subdivided into stuff like Alife, CA, Neural Nets etc. o The UCLA ftp site at cognet.ucla.edu in /pub/alife with a fairly extensive Alife bibliography. o The ftp site at funic.funet,fi , in pub/sci, which, it's maintainers claim, is the largest ftp site in the world in all subjects ... it has stuff on Neural Nets, Neurophysiology, Artificial Intelligence and lots of other such subjects. A really useful file to look at before anything else is the file '00INDEX' in the directory pub/sci/neural. o The ftp site at ftp.cogs.susx.ac.uk, in /pub/reports/csrp : a whole bunch of PostScript files containing god-knows-what. o The Los Alamos National Laboratory ftp site at xyz.lanl.gov in /nlin-sys : this contains preprints of various papers under the same headings as given later on in this document for the *Nonlinear Science Bulletin Board*. (Seeing as they are at the same address, this is probably not surprising :-) ) o There is an archive for the Genetic Algorithm Digest at ftp.aic.nrl.navy.mil, in pub/galist. o The Xerox PARC site at parcftp.xerox.com, in /pub/dynamics,has some papers on the evolution of cooperative behaviour. o The Santa Fe Institute, which is pretty much the place where all the alife and complex systems stuff started, also has an ftp site, at ftp.santafe.edu, in /pub/Alife. However, the Alife part is kind of disappointing, with the only worthwhile thing there being Tierra (see however, the Tierra ftp site mentioned below). The GA subdirectory /pub/GA/source has a few GA simulators, and the pub/Users/mm subdirectory has some interesting papers on GA/CA. o The TIERRA ftp site, which is the official site for all things Tierra-related : ftp to life.shls.udel.edu or to tierra.slhs.udel.edu. These sites have up-to-date source code, documentation and manuscripts. o The archives of the Cellular Automata Mailing List are available via anonymous ftp at , in the directory /mail, in the files 'ca.archive*' ie 'ca.archive-1987.Z' holds the compressed version of the 1987 correspondence. The current years' archive is not compressed and is in the file 'ca.archive'. o An archive of genetic programming is at ftp.cc.utexas.edu, in /pub/genetic-programming. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- SPECIFIC PROGRAMS/PAPERS The following list is, of course, nowhere near exhaustive; these are just programs/papers I've seen/read and that are mentioned fairly frequently. In most cases, the hyperlinks just get you to the relevant directory, and it's up to you to retrieve the appropriate files; I've included the names of the 'non-obvious' ones. (Unix source code is mostly archived in a file called *.tar.Z ... this needs to be uncompressed and 'untarred'). (the addresses come first, followed by a short description in most cases) o ftp to tierra.slhs.udel.edu or to life.slhs.udel.edu. These sites have source code (runs on both UNIX and DOS platforms) and documentation for TIERRA, Thomas Ray's way cool digital ecology simulation. There are also some manuscripts on Tierra at this site, in the /doc subdirectory. See also the Tierra mailing list below. o ftp to ftp.apple.com, inn /pub/polyworld. POLYWORLD , another neat simulator, complete with C++ source code written to run on a SILICON GRAPHICS machine and technical paper describing polyworld. README file has more info. o ftp to funic.funet.fi, in /pub/sci/neural/genesis. GENESIS : this is a program for Neural Network simulation, runs on X11 platforms and is supposed to have rather good graphics. o ftp to funic.funet.fi, in /pub/sci/neural/cellsim. CELLSIM, a cellular automata simulator. o ftp to funic.funet.fi, in /pub/sci/neural/SNNS. SNNS, a neural network simulator written at the University of Stuttgart, Germany. o ftp to life.anu.edu.au, in /pub/complex_systems/alife/life. Game of Life: there are various Life forms ( geddit ?), for PCs and UNIX. Files ending in .zip are for PCs. o ftp to life.anu.edu.au, in /pub/complex_systems/alife. BUGWORLD simulates a bug-ecology, with predators and all. File is called bugworld.tar.Z. o ftp to life.anu.edu.au, in /pub/complex_systems/alife. L-systems : Aristid Lindenmayers' L-systems can be used for various neat things, like growing natural-looking plants out of very simple rules. The file is called lsys.tar.Z. o ftp to life.anu.edu.au, in /pub/complex_systems/alife. Biomorphs: I have a strong feeling that this is Richard Dawkins' program that simulates evolution of what he calls 'biomorphs'; evolutionary pressure is towards critters that look interesting. It looks like this file is for PCs; it's called biomrf.zip. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ NEWSGROUPS, JOURNALS AND MAILING LISTS O The Artifical Life Distribution List : for subscriptions, deletions or administrative details, send mail to alife-request@cognet.ucla.edu. All submissions for distribution to alife@cognet.ucla.edu. List maintainers : Liane Gabora and Rob Collins. o The Evolutionary Programming List : send mail to ep-list-request@magenta.me.fau.edu with message body 'subscribe ep-list' o There are 2 mailing lists devoted to Tierra (see under 'Specific Programs and Papers' above): one is devoted to official announcements, updates and bug-fixes (tierra-announce), while the other will carry official postings and is intended for discussion of Tierra by users (tierra-digest). The latter is distributed in digest form when there is enough material. Addresses : tierra-request@life.slhs.udel.edu -> to be added, removed or complain about problems with any of the lists. tierra-digest@life.slhs.udel.edu -> to post to the list. tierra-bug@life.slhs.udel.edu -> for bug-reports or questions about code or installation. o The Genetic Programming List : to subscribe, send mail to , with the message body 'subscribe
'. To send mail to the actual list, send mail to . See also the archive of genetic programming mentioned under FTP sites above; this site has a Genetic Programming FAQ. o The Complex Systems News Distribution List : concerned with all aspects of Complex Systems ie CA, Alife, GA, fractals etc. To subscribe, send mail to with the message body ; to post to the actual list, send mail to . o The Cellular Automata Mailing List : discusses all aspects of CA. Send mail to to be added to the list. o The Cellular Neural Networks mailing list : From the announcement for the list: "Cellular Neural Networks are continuous-time dynamical systems consisting of a grid of processing elements connected only to neighbours within a given distance. They are therefore a class of recurrent neural networks [...]" To subscribe, send mail to Marco Balsi at ; to post to the list iself, send the article to . o The Complexity International Journal, which is a refereed journal for scientific papers relating to work in complex systems research. This journal is available via ftp at life.anu.edu.au, in /pub/complex_systems/ci. Email correspondence: Submission of manuscripts to ci-submissions@life.anu.edu.au, editorial correspondence to ci-editor@life.anu.edu.au and subscriptions to ci-subscribe@life.anu.edu.au with message body 'subscribe ci "your name"' o The Nonlinear Science Preprint Bulletin Board , which provides a fully automated system for archiving and distribution of electronic preprints. This Bulletin Board is divided into several categories, and for information on how to to access and/or subscribe to any of the following divisions, send mail to the appropriate address with the subject 'help' and a blank message body. (All of the addresses are at the Los Alamos Natl. Lab) Dynamical systems/chaos/quantum chaos/topological dynamics/cycle expansions/ turbulence/propagation : mail to chao-dyn@xyz.lanl.gov Pattern formation/coherent structures/Solitons : mail to patt-sol@xyz.lanl.gov Computational methods/time series analysis/signal processing/wavelets/ lattice gases: mail to comp-gas@xyz.lanl.gov Adaptation/interacting particle systems/self-organizing systems/computation theory/machine learning : mail to adap-org@xyz.lanl.gov For all of the above, send mail to nlin-sys@xyz.lanl.gov o Newsgroups: The following newsgroups deal with the various subsets of Complex Systems : comp.theory.cell.automata, comp.theory.self-org-sys, comp.theory.dynamic-sys, sci.nonlinear, comp.ai.genetic, comp.ai.neural-nets. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- FAQs The newsgroups comp.ai.neural-nets and comp.ai.genetic have FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions) available via anonymous ftp from , in the directories pub/usenet/comp.ai.neural-nets and pub/usenet/comp.ai.genetic. If you don't have access to ftp, these FAQs may be obtained by sending email to using the following format : to get a list of all the FAQs stored at the above address in the directory pub/usenet/news.answers, and the FAQ for comp.ai.genetic, for example, send the message : send usenet/news.answers/index send usenet/news.answers/ai-faq/genetic/part1 send usenet/news.answers/ai-faq/genetic/part2 send usenet/news.answers/ai-faq/genetic/part3 quit and similarly for other FAQs. The newsgroup comp.theory.cell-automata also has a FAQ which is available via anonymous ftp at , in the directory /incoming as 'ca-faq.tar.Z'; it is supposed to be mirrored at but seems not to have made it there yet. Changes to one/both of the above paths will be announced on comp.theory.cell-automata and (hopefully) reflected here as well. FAQ is way cool, with lots of references and places to get software. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- BIBLIOGRAPHIES o There is a collection of bibliographies on the various subsets of complex systems such as Artificial Life, Chaos, Fractals etc available via anonymous ftp from , in the directory /pub/complex_systems/biblio. This is also available via gopher from the same address. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- o last modified 931208 This file is being maintained by Alex Mallet. Please email ale@seas.upenn.edu with corrections. Disclaimer: This document in no way represents the University of Pennsylvania. All opinions and errors are mine alone.