[ODE] Neural Net Software?

[John DeWeese]

What kind of neural network libraries already exist out there that are  
suitable for virtual creature evolution? I see that Karl Sims designed  
his own software those 10 years ago, with some special purpose function  
nodes and signal generators.

I've found "annie" at sourceforge which I suppose implies that it  
implements ANNs, and a bunch of other half-implementations.

Found this comp.ai.neural-nets newsgroup.
FAQ here:
ftp://ftp.sas.com/pub/neural/FAQ.html

Google groups archive here:
http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF- 
8&group=comp.ai.neural-nets

... but I would appreciate any experience people have here, as a hotbed  
for the specific task of creature evolution. Thanks!

Also, thought you all might want to check out these fantastic Genetic  
algo/Alife/Evolution papers from Brandeis U near Boston:  
http://demo.cs.brandeis.edu/papers/. They make some big statements  
about the nature of neural nets encoding information, creature  
evolution, techniques for genome mutation, and especially techniques  
for speeding up evolution strategies and dynamics - coevolution,  
symbiosis, competition, generality of strategy, etc. I have yet to go  
to citeseer and cross reference these links, but it's good info none  
the less.


   - John DeWeese