What, is "artificial life," or alife for short? And why should economists cafe?" • -As-detailed in the entertaining, monographs by Levy (1992) and =Sigmund (1993), the roots of-alife go at least as far back as the work-of.John von-Neumann, in.the nineteen forties on self-replicating automata.. The establishment of.alife as a distinct field of inquiry, however, must be traced to the first alife conference,lOrganized in 1987iby'Chris Langton at the Los Alamos NationalrLaboratory; see Langton (1989). •