Artificial Chemistries: Overview and Computing Aspects

Artificial Chemistries (ACs) are man-made virtual or physical systems
where objects are transformed in interactions, like molecules in
chemical reactions. The field of Artificial Chemistries started as
spin-off of Artificial Life, motivated by a desire to pinpoint and
understand the emergent phenomena driving the transition from
nonliving to living matter, and to create new forms of synthetic life
from the bottom up, in vitro or in silico. The applications of ACs
range from chemistry and biology to nuclear physics, economics, and
computing. Following the recent publication of our book on the topic,
this talk will give an overview of Artificial Chemistries, with focus
on computing applications. It will also introduce the PyCellChemistry
software package that accompanies the book. The package is written in
Python and is freely downloadable. It is intended to allow everyone
interested in Artificial Chemistries to program their own ACs.