Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!uunet!bu.edu!bucasb!reynolds From: reynolds@bucasd.bu.edu (John Reynolds) Newsgroups: comp.theory.cell-automata Subject: Re: What is it??? Message-ID: Date: 1 Jul 90 03:31:15 GMT References: <6196@helios.TAMU.EDU> Sender: news@bu.edu.bu.edu Distribution: usa Organization: Boston University Center for Adaptive Systems Lines: 14 In-reply-to: jsaxon@cs.tamu.edu's message of 27 Jun 90 22:04:43 GMT In mathematics, a technique for constructing or modeling very complicated systems or structures from a large number of identical single elements. These elements are allowed to develop according to a set of prescribed rules in which the development of a particular element is controlled by the behavior of its neighbors An everyday example is the growth of a snowflake or other crystal. This starts from a small nucleus and its structure extends by the deposition of more water molecules whose position and orientation depend on the precise pattern of molecules which have already been condensed. The ideas of cellular automata have been applied to biological systems, fractal patterns, complex non-linear phenomena such as turbulence, as well as to more abstract fields in mathematics, computation and formal language theory.