Artificial life: sustainable self-replicating systems

Nature has found one method of organizing living matter, but maybe there are also other options -- not yet discovered -- on how to create life. To study the life as it could be is the objective of an interdisciplinary field called Artificial Life (commonly abbreviated as ALife). The word "artificial" refers to the fact that humans are involved in the creation process. The results might be completely unlike natural forms of life, not only because of their chemical composition, but even some computer programs exhibiting life-like behaviours interest ALife researchers.