3 ms·
If you're interested in cellular automata, a must read is Greg Egan's short story _Wang's Carpets_, which later became a chapter in his novel _Diaspora_ (which
by david-given 9y ago
If you're interested in cellular automata, a must read is Greg Egan's short story _Wang's Carpets_, which later became a chapter in his novel _Diaspora_ (which is superb). It's not formally published on the interwebs but there are copies floating around everywhere.
Cellular automatons occur everywhere in nature. We don't really have the technology to explore them; I do find myself wondering if there are automata sophisticated enough to support complex structures, hiding in the higher-order interactions, which are completely invisible to us...
- dmd 9y agoHis "permutation city" is directly about cellular automata.
- dudeonthenet 9y agoHah.. beat me to it :) I was about to recommend Permutation City while seeing your comment. That was an intense book, to say the least.
- db48x 9y agoYea, Diaspora was an excellent book. Biology tends not to be much like the mathematical cellular automata; it's generally much messier. On the other hand, we're made up of lots of cells and all of those cells are just tiny machines following programs, so I guess it's true by definition. Still, it's nothing like the minimal automata everyone likes to play with.