What is life? Like most great questions, this one is easy to ask but difficult to answer. The reason is simple: we know of just one type of life and it’s challenging to do science with a sample size of one. The field of artificial life-called ALife for short — is the systematic attempt to spell out life’s fundamental principles. Many of these practitioners, so-called ALifers, think that somehow making life is the surest way to really understand what life is.
生命是什么？像大多数伟大的问题一样，这个问题容易提出却很难回答。原因很简单：我们只知道一种生命形式，而以一种样本做科学研究是具有挑战性的。人工生命领域被称为ALife，是系统地尝试阐明生命的基本原则。许多从业者，所谓的ALifers，认为某种方式创造生命是真正理解生命是什么的最可靠方法。

So far no one has convincingly made artificial life. This track record makes ALife a ripe target for criticism, such as declarations of the field’s doubtful scientific value. Alan Smith, a complexity scientist, is tired of such complaints. Asking about “the point” of ALife might be, well, missing the point entirely, he says. “The existence of a living system is not about the use of anything.” Alan says. “Some people ask me, ‘So what’s the worth of artificial life?’ Do you ever think, ‘What is the worth of your grandmother?’”
到目前为止，还没有人成功制造出人工生命。这种记录使人工生命成为批评的对象，例如对该领域科学价值存疑的宣称。复杂性科学家艾伦·史密斯对这类抱怨感到厌倦。“问关于人工生命‘意义’可能完全错失了重点”，他说。“生命系统的存在并不在于任何用途。”艾伦说。“有些人问我，‘那人工生命有什么价值呢？’你是否曾想过，‘你的祖母有什么价值呢？’”

As much as many ALifers hate emphasizing their research’s applications, the attempts to create artificial life could have practical payoffs. Artificial intelligence may be considered ALife’s cousin in that researchers in both fields are enamored by a concept called open-ended evolution (演化). This is the capacity for a system to create essentially endless complexity, to be a sort of “novelty generator”. The only system known to exhibit this is Earth’s biosphere. If the field of ALife manages to reproduce life’s endless “creativity” in some virtual model, those same principles could give rise to truly inventive machines.
尽管许多ALifer讨厌强调他们研究的应用，但人工生命的尝试可能会有实际回报。 人工智能可能被认为是ALife的近亲，因为这两个领域的研究人员都着迷于一个称为开放式演化的概念。 这是系统创造无限复杂性的能力，是一种“新颖性生成器”。 已知展现这种能力的唯一系统是地球的生物圈。 如果ALife领域设法在某个虚拟模型中再现生命的无限“创造力”，那些原则可能会孕育出真正富有创意的机器。

Compared with the developments of Al, advances in ALife are harder to recognize. One reason is that ALife is a field in which the central concept — life itself — is undefined. The lack of agreement among ALifers doesn’t help either. The result is a diverse line of projects that each advance along their unique paths. For better or worse, ALife mirrors the very subject it studies. Its muddled (混乱的) progression is a striking parallel (平行线) to the evolutionary struggles that have shaped Earth biosphere.
与Al的发展相比，人工生命的进步更难以辨认。一个原因是ALife是一个中心概念 — 生命本身 — 是未定义的领域。ALifers之间的意见不一致也没有帮助。结果是一系列各自沿着独特路径前进的项目。无论是好是坏，ALife反映出了它所研究的主题。它混乱的进展与塑造地球生物圈的演化斗争构成了鲜明的平行线。

Undefined and uncontrolled, ALife drives its followers to repurpose old ideas and generated novelty. It may be, of course, that these characteristics aren’t in any way surprising or singular. They may apply universally to all acts of evolution. Ultimately ALife may be nothing special. But even this dismissal suggests something：perhaps, just like life itself throughout the universe, the rise of ALife will prove unavoidable.
未定义且不受控制，ALife驱使其追随者重新利用旧观念并创造新颖之处。当然，这种特征也许并不令人意外或独特。它们可能普遍适用于所有进化的行为。最终，ALife可能并不特别。但即使这种否定也暗示着一些东西：也许，就像整个宇宙中的生命本身一样，ALife的崛起是不可避免的。

1. Regarding Alan Smith’s defence of ALife, the author is.
   A. supportiveB. puzzledC. unconcernedD. doubtful
   答案：A

2. What does the word “enamored” underlined in Paragraph 3 most probably mean?
   A. Shocked.B. Protected.C. Attracted.D. Challenged.
   答案：C

3. What can we learn from this passage?
   A. ALife holds the key to human future.B. ALife and AI share a common feature.
   C. AI mirrors the developments of ALife.D. AI speeds up the process of human evolution.
   答案：B

4. Which would be the best title for the passage?
   A. Life Is Undefined. Can AI Be a Way Out?
   B. Life Evolves. Can AI Help ALife Evolve, Too?
   C. Life Is Undefined. Can ALife Be Defined One Day?
   D. Life Evolves. Can Attempts to Create ALife Evolve, Too?
   答案：D