Information Processing and Transmission in Cellular Automata.
Abstract
A cellular automation is an iterative array of very simple identical information processing machines called cells. Each cell can communicate with neighboring cells. At discrete moments of time the cells can change from one state to another as a function of the states of the cell and its neighbors. Thus on a global basis, the collection of cells is characterized by some type of behavior. The goal of this investigation was to determine just how simple the individual cells could be while the global behavior achieved some specified criterion of complexity -- usually the ability to perform a computation or to reproduce some pattern. The chief result described in this thesis is that an array of identical square cells (in two dimensions), each cell of which communicates directly with only its four nearest edge neighbors and each of which can exist in only two states, can perform any computation. This computation proceeds in a straight forward way. (Author)
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jan 01, 1971
- Accession Number
- AD0717951
Entities
People
- Edwin R. Banks
Organizations
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology