We propose that bio-inspired algorithms are best developed and analysed in the context of a multidisciplinary conceptual framework that provides for sophisticated biological models and well-founded analytical principles, and we outline such a framework here, in the context of AIS network models. We further propose ways to unify several domains into a common meta-framework, in the context of AIS population models. We finally hint at the possibility of a novel instantiation of such a meta-framework, thereby allowing the building of a specific computational framework that is inspired by biology, but not restricted to any one particular biological domain.
full paper : PDF 248K | [ revised and extended journal version ]
@inproceedings(SS-ICARIS-04,
  author = "Susan Stepney and Robert E. Smith and Jonathan Timmis and Andy M. Tyrrell",
  title = "Towards a Conceptual Framework for Artificial Immune Systems",
  pages = "53--64",
  crossref = "ICARIS-04"  
)
@proceedings(ICARIS-04,
  title = "ICARIS 2004: Third International Conference
           on Artificial Immune Systems,
           Sicily, September 2004",
  booktitle = "ICARIS 2004: Third International Conference
           on Artificial Immune Systems,
           Sicily, September 2004",
  editor = "Giuseppe Nicosia and Vincenzo Cutello and Peter J. Bentley and Jon Timmis",
  series = "LNCS",
  volume = 3239,
  publisher = "Springer",
  year = 2004
)