iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Tim Taylor @drtimt.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

Hi! It's taken a while, but I'm glad to say that the new physical paperback versions of A Mexican Mystery and The Wreck of a World will be published within the next few weeks. See www.enchantedbit.com/books/ for further info. I'll be posting more about these over the coming weeks. 👍🚂

enchantedbit.com

Enchanted Bit / Books

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Enchanted Bit @enchantedbit.bsky.social · 01/08/2026

🚂📚 Coming soon from Enchanted Bit! What if some of the earliest "AI takeover" stories weren't about computers—but steam locomotives? We're publishing brand new editions of two remarkable and long-overlooked Victorian sci-fi novels by W. Grove. More: www.enchantedbit.com #scifi #AI #HistoryOfAI

enchantedbit.com

Enchanted Bit

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Tim Taylor @drtimt.bsky.social · 29/07/2026

I'm very excited to have got my hands on this, a surprisingly hard-to-find copy of the English translation of Émile Souvestre's 1846 dystopian sci-fi novel "Le Monde tel qu'il sera", complete with the beautiful original illustrations.

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Tim Taylor @drtimt.bsky.social · 03/07/2026

Cover art not quite finalised yet!

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Tim Taylor @drtimt.bsky.social · 01/07/2026

I'm now back working on both books. I've completed post proofread edits on the WOAW text (& already done that for MM). Still doing a bit of fine tuning of the typesetting. I'm now working on the forewords for both books. Still a bit more work to do but things are progressing 👍

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Tim Taylor @drtimt.bsky.social · 09/06/2026

I'm so very sad to hear of the passing of Inman Harvey. He was my PhD examiner in 1999 (I'm glad to say he passed it!), and was a mentor, inspiration and friend not just to me but to a whole generation (and more) of Artificial Life researchers. He will be very sorely missed, but his legacy lives on.

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Tim Taylor @drtimt.bsky.social · 22/05/2026

... Along with the translation, we've also written an in-depth commentary about Barricelli's paper, its context, his other papers on symbiogenesis and evolution and the significance and legacy of the work today. Both have today been submitted to the Artificial Life journal 👍🎉 [2/2]

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Tim Taylor @drtimt.bsky.social · 22/05/2026

It's taken way longer than I had originally anticipated (about 18 months), but I'm super excited to say that the project to translate Nils Aall Barricelli's groundbreaking 1954 paper on computational evolution and artificial life - "Esempi Numerici di Processi di Evoluzione" - is now complete! [1/2]

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Tim Taylor @drtimt.bsky.social · 17/05/2026

It'll be on demand with both Amazon KDP and IngramSpark

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Tim Taylor @drtimt.bsky.social · 17/05/2026

Yes, I agree. I think separately is definitely the better way to go.

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Tim Taylor @drtimt.bsky.social · 17/05/2026

Yes, indeed. I'm hoping it will sell more than a previous book I published (www.enchantedbit.com/books/the-pr...), and these ones will be published more widely than Amazon, but I don't think it'll make me rich 🤣

enchantedbit.com

Enchanted Bit / The Prots

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Tim Taylor @drtimt.bsky.social · 17/05/2026

To clarify, do you mean PG is planning a print version of A Mexican Mystery? I didn't know they did print versions 🤔

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Tim Taylor @drtimt.bsky.social · 17/05/2026

Separately at first. I might do a single volume of them both later on. Which would you prefer?

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Tim Taylor @drtimt.bsky.social · 17/05/2026

Yes, I've always found it strange that The Wreck of the World has been republished and is online, whereas A Mexican Mystery is not

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Tim Taylor @drtimt.bsky.social · 17/05/2026

Ooh, I have not seen that before. That's great! Thanks very much for pointing it out.

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Tim Taylor @drtimt.bsky.social · 17/05/2026

Unfortunately I've had another project that has taken months longer than I'd anticipated, but that will finally be finished next week. Top of the agenda after that is to finally get the print versions of the two Grove books finished and published. I'll post on Bluesky when they are done!

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Tim Taylor @drtimt.bsky.social · 17/05/2026

Oh dear, I'm sorry to hear about your wasted effort. It's weighing on me that I've still not published the book. The editing and typesetting of the print version of this and The Wreck of a World are both done - I've just want to write a short preface to each one... [1/2]

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Tim Taylor @drtimt.bsky.social · 22/04/2026

Wonderful to see @librarycongress.bsky.social's restoration of George Méliès' long-lost 1897 film "Gugusse et l'Automate" (Gugusse and the automaton). This is the first depiction on film of an automaton (or robot, to use a term that wouldn't be coined until 1920) blogs.loc.gov/loc/2026/02/...

blogs.loc.gov

Lost 19th century film by Méliès discovered at the Library | Timeless

Library conservators recently made a startling discovery in a batch of decaying film reels -- a long-lost 1897 film by early cinema icon George Méliès. The French magician-turned-filmmaker's

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Tim Taylor @drtimt.bsky.social · 25/03/2026

Does anyone else get review requests from @plosone.org for papers in subject areas that have nothing whatsoever to do with your expertise? I've had two of these in the last month, the latest today from a Dr. Margubur Rahaman. It's basically spam and very disappointing to see PLOS behave like this 😒

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Tim Taylor @drtimt.bsky.social · 23/02/2026

Two amazing opportunities to work in Helsinki in Christian Guckelsberger's wonderful group, and collaborate with equally amazing researchers in Japan and Australia!

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ALIFE Conference @alifeconf.bsky.social · 16/02/2026

📢 Call for Papers: #ALIFE2026 Waterloo 🇨🇦 & online | 17–21 Aug 2026 📝 Full Papers & Summaries: 30 March 2026 📌 Special Sessions, Workshops & Tutorials proposals: 20 Feb 2026 Theme: Living and Lifelike Complex Adaptive Systems 2026.alife.org

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ALIFE Conference @alifeconf.bsky.social · 21/01/2026

Save the date! The annual #Conference on #ArtificialLife - #ALIFE2026 will take place in Waterloo (Ontario, Canada), 17-21 August 2026. More details coming soon!

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ALIFE Conference @alifeconf.bsky.social · 22/01/2026

📣 #ALIFE2026 Call for Workshops, Tutorials & Special Sessions at the Conference on Artificial Life, themed “Living and Lifelike Complex Adaptive Systems.” 🗓 August 17–21, 2026 | 📍 Waterloo, Canada ⏰ Deadline: 20 Feb 2026 (AoE)

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Tim Taylor @drtimt.bsky.social · 15/01/2026

Thanks for the heads up. You say it's a weekday diversion, but the Lothian website doesn't say anything about it just being on weekdays?

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Tim Taylor @drtimt.bsky.social · 30/07/2025

On BBC Radio 4 yesterday @j-amesmarriott.bsky.social used a brilliant junk food metaphor to describe search results produced by AI chatbots, calling them "ultra-processed information, superficially nutritious but actually pretty empty." Listen at bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/... (starts at 2:47:42).

bbc.co.uk

Today - 29/07/2025 - BBC Sounds

News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.

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Tim Taylor @drtimt.bsky.social · 15/07/2025

In 1951, in between working on his application to visit John von Neumann's Electronic Computer Project group at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, Nils Aall Barricelli also found time to file a patent for "An Improved Chest of Drawers"! 😁 worldwide.espacenet.com/publicationD...

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Tim Taylor @drtimt.bsky.social · 05/07/2025

Super excited to have had a phone call and ongoing conversation with Nils Aall Barricelli's nephew. While working at IAS in Princeton, Nils would have discussions with Albert Einstein on the bus - the two of them were some of the few who did not have cars!

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Tim Taylor @drtimt.bsky.social · 03/07/2025

I'm currently regenerating the figures in the paper as the original ones were not very clear. This has entailed me rewriting Barricelli's simulations. I'm currently investigating a discrepancy in the results of the longest run reported in the paper. Either he or I have made a mistake!

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Tim Taylor @drtimt.bsky.social · 02/07/2025

Yes, the translation is in progress! I'm lucky to have found a team of three Italians to work with, including a professional translator. We are writing a commentary and will be submitting it to the Artificial Life journal soon. I will also make it freely available on my website when it is published.

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Tim Taylor @drtimt.bsky.social · 18/03/2025

I'm currently working with two Italian colleagues to produce a good quality English translation of Barricelli's 1954 paper. I didn't know that Luca Manzoni was interested in this - I'll get in touch with him! 👍

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Tim Taylor @drtimt.bsky.social · 18/03/2025

I'm looking forward to reading this novel, written by microbiologist Richard Goodman under the pen name Bonham Richards. Goodman was a friend of Artificial Life pioneer Nils Aall Barricelli, and George Dyson tells me that the character Angelo Kraakmo in the book is based upon Barricelli!

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Tim Taylor @drtimt.bsky.social · 14/01/2025

I love opening an old book in a library (this one from 1888) and wondering who was the first person to look at it? And who was the last?

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Tim Taylor @drtimt.bsky.social · 14/01/2025

I once again find myself lured back to the National Library of Scotland in search of stories about self-reproducing machines. This time I'm chasing up some leads that help fill the relative paucity of contributions covered in "Rise of the Self-Replicators" over the 1880s and 1890s. More info soon!

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ALIFE Conference 2025 @alife2025.bsky.social · 05/01/2025

Save the date! The annual #Conference on #ArtificialLife - #ALIFE2025 will take place in the heart of Kyoto, Japan, from 6-10 October 2025. The conference logo, official website launch, and more details coming soon!

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Tim Taylor @drtimt.bsky.social · 19/12/2024

The npj Complexity journal has an open call for a new collection topic "Unnatural Histories: Investigating the Improbable with Experimental Evolution and Artificial Life". Accepting submissions from now up to 12 Sept 2025 www.nature.com/collections/...

nature.com

Unnatural Histories: Investigating the Improbable with Experimental Evolution and Artificial Life

This collection invite submissions that employ experimental and theoretical approaches to investigate life's alternative possibilities. Through this ...

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Tim Taylor @drtimt.bsky.social · 09/12/2024

I'm happy to announce that the free online version of "Rise of the Self-Replicators" has now been updated to the 2nd edition of the author-formatted version of the book, which includes the 2024 afterword as an additional chapter. Find the online version at www.tim-taylor.com/selfrepbook/...

tim-taylor.com

Rise of the Self-Replicators: Early Visions of Machines, AI and Robots That Can Reproduce and Evolve

In Rise of the Self-Replicators we delve into the deep history of thought about machines, AI and robots that can reproduce and evolve. Although these might seem like very modern concepts, we show that...

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Tim Taylor @drtimt.bsky.social · 04/12/2024

Thanks! I've sent you a private message 👍

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Tim Taylor @drtimt.bsky.social · 04/12/2024

To be clear, I don't have any money to pay for a translation, but I anticipate we would get this published in a journal with an introduction authored by me (and the translator if they wished) and with the translator listed as a co-author.

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Tim Taylor @drtimt.bsky.social · 04/12/2024

My plan would be to have the English translation published in a journal

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Tim Taylor @drtimt.bsky.social · 04/12/2024

I've finally got a copy of Nils Barricelli's 1st paper on Artificial Life, in Italian (1954). Would be great to get it translated into English. My preference would be to have this done by a skilled human translator rather than AI. Any bilingual Italian-English folk out there who might be interested?

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Tim Taylor @drtimt.bsky.social · 14/11/2024

It looks like it's working now! I had tried using #ALife before but that didn't seem to work either, but maybe it just takes a while for tagged posts to appear on the list. But anyway, thanks @sinalana.bsky.social for sorting it out 👍

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Tim Taylor @drtimt.bsky.social · 13/11/2024

The #alife feed doesn't seem to be picking up messages with #alife hashtag 🤔 @sinalana.bsky.social

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Tim Taylor @drtimt.bsky.social · 13/11/2024

Here's an #ALife starter pack from @manuelbaltieri.bsky.social bsky.app/profile/manu...

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Tim Taylor @drtimt.bsky.social · 18/10/2024

I'm enjoying reading Mitchell Waldrop's venerable account of the origin and early years of @sfiscience.bsky.social, published in 1992. Wonderful to learn that John Holland developed his first classifier system in machine code (not even assembly language) on his Commodore computer at home 👏

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Tim Taylor @drtimt.bsky.social · 10/10/2024

I'm pleased to announce a new second edition of the author-formatted version of our book Rise of the Self-Replicators, which includes my 2024 afterword (originally published in the Artificial Life journal) as an extra chapter. More details & free download: www.tim-taylor.com/news/posts/2...

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Tim Taylor @drtimt.bsky.social · 23/12/2023

Many thanks for the shout-out about our book! I'm really loving the ALife advent calendar - what a great idea 👍😀

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