Dr. Frankenstein has gone electric. No more bubbling beakers of fluid. No more spare body parts needed from Igor. In fact, the misshapen and loyal assistant's holding back tears while plugging in a new computer. He knows his limb retrieval services are no longer needed.

The old days are gone, and Dr. Frankenstein has it easy: Create artificial life on your own computer.

What makes something alive? How do we grow, learn and evolve? Can a computer emulate living beings? What can computers teach us about ourselves? Difficult and important questions. This software may help us find answers. Ranging from university-level artificial life research tools to games illustrating evolution, learn and enjoy.

Game of Life
The Game of Life by mathematician John Conway is the first example of "cellular automation" (computers emulating life). He created a few simple rules for dots on a grid. All dots follow identical rules, but depending a dot's location, dot populations can grow and develop, or stagnate and disappear. Conway's research shows how simple life forms can develop complex patterns.

"Evolved Virtual Creatures"
Watch the MPG movie by researcher Karl Sims showing animal movement as designed by computers. Watch computer-designed techniques for swimming, jumping, walking and following. It shows how life as we know it – like a fish swimming by wiggling back and forth – is not the only evolutionary solution. There are many more ways to swim, some oddly complex, some simple.

Avida
Avida is specialized "evolution software". Define a type of life with certain characteristics. Watch that life grow and evolve with random mutations, and see it develop in skill and intelligence. Designed and used by researchers at Michigan State and the California Institute of Technology, the software is an emulation of evolution as well as Darwinian theory, a.k.a. "survival of the fittest".

Docking Station
Docking Station is a free game adorably illustrating concepts of artificial life and evolution. You're responsible for raising cuddly little creatures in their own habitat. Feed, entertain and hatch them, and watch them grow, evolve, and learn to talk.

Bitozoa 2
A computer emulation of life, you control populations of herbivores, carnivores and plants. The herbivores eat plants. The carnivores eat herbivores. From these simple rules, control over 20 different options for how the "Bitozoas" move, eat, interact and reproduce. The life simulation is just a screen of moving dots. Graphically unimpressive, but you can still watch a carnivore stalk, chase down and eat a herbivore, much like when I see a weak and unprotected egg roll.

Zooland
For more, visit Zooland, a gigantic repository for everything related to artificial intelligence, electronic life, cellular automation, and computer-based evolution research. Novices and experts will find research information, software for multiple operating systems, games, movies and hundreds of websites.

Other forms of life in your PC are often called "bugs". However, due to an experience with an actual creeping, crawling bug in a computer, I'll conclude with a warning: Buying used can sometimes be a BAD thing.