1st Internatonal Conference on Artificial Immune Systems

Maybe the strangest thing about immune systems is the fact that we need them at all. The natural world has evolved such wonderfully intertwined ecosystems, with every living thing supporting or dependent on other forms of life. With such harmony, why should we need an internal security system as massively complex as our immune systems? The trouble is caused not by cooperative symbiosis, but by antagonistic symbiosis. Life tries to find every niche available in order to exist, and unfortunately there is plenty of space within us for parasites, bacteria, fungi and viruses to stretch their metaphorical legs. So, throughout our evolutionary history, in order to stay alive, we've had to fight. Somehow our bodies had to learn to detect and repair damage, remove invaders, and remember those invaders to make us immune next time. They had to learn to detect foreign forms of life within us that they had never experienced before, and indeed that had never existed before. And yet they must never be confused by the helpful bacteria in our guts, the food we eat, or the growing foetus within a mother's womb. Along the way, our bodies also learned how to detect malfunctions within themselves: cancerous cells proliferating wildly or immune cells attacking ourselves instead of our attackers. To achieve these marvels, evolution created a whole collection of chemicals, organs and cells distributed throughout us. We don't really understand how it all works any more than we understand how our brains work. But, like our brains, we do know enough to be very impressed at the capabilities of natural immune systems. We also know enough to create a diverse range of computer algorithms based on the workings of different aspects of our immune systems. So computer science meets immunobiology. The result is the young, but vigorous field known as Artificial Immune Systems. Inspired by the natural immune system, computer scientists now create evolving, learning and adapting computer systems that (amongst many applications) can recognise patterns, detect faults, keep computer networks secure, and optimise solutions. ICARIS 2002 is the first ever international conference dedicated entirely to the field of Artificial Immune Systems (AIS). In these proceedings you will find 26 papers written by the leading scientists in the field, from 11 different countries, describing an impressive array of ideas, technologies and applications for AIS. We couldn't have organised this conference without these researchers, so we thank them all for coming. We also couldn't have organised ICARIS without the excellent work of all of the programme committee, our publicity chair, Simon Garrett, and our conference secretary, Jenny Oatley. Finally, we wish to thank the following for their contribution to the success of this conference: European Office of Aerospace Research and Development, Air Force Office of Scientific Research, United States Air Force Research Laboratory and the International Society of Genetic and Evolutionary Computation (ISGEC). Whether you are new to the field, or are one of its established researchers, we welcome you to Canterbury, and hope you enjoy ICARIS 2002! Peter J. Bentley Jon Timmis Conference chairs