The Center for Fundamental Living Technology (FLinT) at University of Southern Denmark (SDU) will host the 12th International Conference on Artificial Life on August 19-23, 2010; the conference will be organized around the theme of identifying and synthesizing the critical properties of living and life-like systems (e.g., self-replication, self-assembly, self-organization, metabolism, adaptation, evolution). The meeting will reflect all of the main areas of artificial life research, including “wet” systems based on carbon chemistry, “soft” systems realized in software, and “hard” systems consisting of autonomous robotic agents, integration of the above areas, as well as a variety of social and technical systems that embody the critical properties of living systems.

The conference will have broad interdisciplinary interest, because “living” processes are found virtually everywhere. Some sessions in the conference will be devoted to detailed discussion of specific subjects. There will be a variety of smaller forums, which will address such topics as the chemistry of assembling protocells, the energetics and mechanical implementation of robots, or software and social issues for collective intelligence platforms. In addition, a poster session will give the opportunity to discuss selected work peer-to-peer. In this manner, the conference can increase both the depth and breath of the scientific work presented.