Abstract
Alife has made fundamental contributions to our understanding of how evolutionary processes work. I will highlight a few of these instances, as well as ongoing work by my group and others embracing digital organisms within more traditional biological boundaries. However, there is a history of artificial life studies that are often overlooked by related disciplines. I don't mean this as a critique of either field. Instead, I would argue it's more of an opportunity. Artificial life has always been pushing the boundaries of truly interdisciplinary science, and as traditional fields expand their own horizons, old discoveries from the artificial life community are waiting to be newly embraced. This has been the promise of interdisciplinary fields, and Alife is well positioned to deliver.