Sewall wright meets artificial life: the origin and maintenance of evolutionary novelty

A decade ago, Langton coined the term Artificial Life (A-Life) to identify the new field of research that is attempting to create and characterize open-ended evolving systems using diverse computer-based methods. Fruitful interactions between A-Life research and that of conventional biological sciences (B-Life) are rare. Using the framework of molecular and evolutionary genetics, we discuss some of the reasons for this lack of conceptual cross-pollination between the disciplines and we identify some potential areas for interdisciplinary collaboration.