Notes - Pages 23-115

Continuation of Ch1
not much to add, the entirety of the chapter is a mix of examples of cellular automata and the author explaining the initial experiments. A introduction to the numbering system he expands on in ch 3.
23-51
totalistic rules
average of the cells to determine color, rather than just neighbors, increasing the domain of initial conditions i.e. adding colors does not necessarily lead to more complex behaviors. Simple rules can generate all the same stuctures.
61-62
mobile automata and turing machines
mobile automata are automata that have an active cell that gets updated based on the state of cells around them, it can move left or right. Turing machines can be modeled based on the tape description as a mobile automata with multipl states. Although 4 states appears to be a limit of increasing complexity for increasing state.
81-82
Register machines rarity of complexity
two register machines, repeat behavior but no complexity, increasing operations lead to complexity in limited sets
90-93

Chapter 2, 3 - examples, categories of different machines which are similar to cellular automata but with features removed.

  • mobile automata
  • register automata
  • substitution automata
  • tag systems, sequential and cyclical
  • symbolic systems

The general idea is there is no inherent property of a system that leads to complexity arising, there is some universal complexity needed in the initial conditions or structure of the system to generate complex behavior... it is better to keep systems as simple as needed to generate that complexity and not add unnecessary components or conditions.