Let Animats Live!

The author comments on the study by researcher Barbara Webb on the effectiveness of building models of existing animals rather than building ad hoc artificial creature. He agrees on the vitalness of an animat validation and proposes alternative validation criteria to guide comparison with an animal. He opposes the idea regarding the immunity of animats to criticisms of their validity as the only apparent advantage of their use and stresses that animats are of use for biologically relevant study.