About me

I am a scientist, historian, author, and coder of artificial life technology, based in Edinburgh, Scotland. I have particular interests in open-ended evolution, web-based artificial life, and the history of artificial life.

In 2020 I wrote a book (with Alan Dorin) on the early history of thinking about machines that can reproduce and evolve.

In late 2023 I launched Enchanted Bit, a publishing house for books and software relating to Artificial Life. The initial focus of Enchanted Bit is to create new editions of very early fiction and non-fiction books about the creation and evolution of artificial life.

Over the years I have held research positions in various universities in the UK and Australia. In recent times I have generally worked part-time on specific contracts while leaving some time for me to pursue my own research and writing interests as an independent researcher.

Currently I am working as a Senior Research Fellow (external contractor) for Monash University in Melbourne, Australia (remotely from Edinburgh, Scotland), along with developing two new book projects for Enchanted Bit, a project to translate the first publication describing simulations of evolutionary artificial life (by Nils Aall Barricelli in 1954) from Italian to English, and as an independent researcher developing some new experimental systems.

I am an elected board member of the International Society for Artificial Life. Over the last few years I have co-organised a series of workshops on open-ended evolution. Full details of these and other academic organisational and administrative activities can be found here.