# The past, present, and future of artificial life Automata from the middle ages/renaissance were built from clockwork mechanisms. These could simulate specific predefined behaviors, but exhibited no emergent behaviors. In retrospect, it seems like this is due to the underlying technology lacking the capability for emergence. Each of the clockwork machines were a terminal creation. Vaucanson - built a duck that could eat, drink, digest and defecate. [[von Neumann 1951]] aimed to explore self-replication in a minimal environment.