[RodgerTheGreat]

It's partially euphemism, but there's also more substance to it than you may realize.

The ratios in the Jansen linkages were originally developed through genetic algorithms in computer simulations. Jansen now builds multiple generations of machines at once and has them compete in various "survival" tasks on the beaches, prioritizing further development based on the success of each "mutation"; an ongoing human-assisted evolutionary process.

The Strandbeest machines are also capable of much more sophisticated behavior than may be evident: they pressurize air using wind power and store it in bottles, which in turn run pneumatic "nervous systems" made from logic gates, oscillators, and flip-flops. As the machines have grown more sophisticated they've gained the ability to sense the waterline (with ground-trailing hoses that detect back-pressure from water) and avoid it, to anchor themselves to the ground when it gets too windy, to steer around simple obstacles, and so on.

Strandbeest machines reproducing independently from humans would be a pipe-dream, but at the very least they should be understood as autonomous, biomimetic robots at the same time as they are sculptures.

[iterateoften]

I don’t care either way about this conversation, just thought it was interesting, but what you described is essentially every engineered thing.

A pocket watch has more complexity than what you are describing but isn’t any closer to “artificial life” then any other engineered thing that takes and stores external power.

[dr_dshiv]

The mechanisms of a pocket watch are specifically designed to avoid influence from the outside environment. A strandbeest has the added complexity of evolving to actual environments, which are pretty complex. The ability to survive is pretty life-like, even more than the ability to function.

[uberman]

I hear what you are saying but remember, many people did not think a computer would ever pass the Turing test.