Books

Short works

Books : reviews

J. Doyne Farmer, Tommaso Toffoli, Stephen Wolfram, eds.
Cellular Automata: Proceedings of an Interdisciplinary Workshop, Los Alamos March 7-11, 1983 (Physica D 10).
North Holland. 1984

(read but not reviewed)

Contents

• Norman H. Margolus. Physics-like models of computation. Physica 10D. 1984
• Stephen Wolfram. Universality and complexity in Cellular Automata. 1984
• Douglas A. Lind. Applications of ergodic theory and sofic systems to Cellular Automata. 1984
• Michael S. Waterman. Some applications of information theory to Cellular Automata. 1984
• Peter Grassberger. Chaos and diffusion in deterministic Cellular Automata. 1984
Encode the 1D CA state …s-2s-1s0s1s2… as the 2D point (0.s0s1s2…, 0.s-1s-2…) • "similar" states are "close" in space (with a bias to similarity near cell c0, consistent with the Cantor set topology explained in [Toffoli 1984a] below) •  time evolution is a trajectory in this space • some CA rules have dynamics that exhibit an "attractor"-like structure (although not completely identical) in this space
• T. E. Ingerson, R. L. Buvel. Structure in asynchronous Cellular Automata. 1984
asynchronous 1D CA investigations • random, and own clock • these models are more "natural" •  some self-organisin behaviour of synchronous 1D CAs comes from the synchronisation • some further interesting behaviour appears with asynchronous models
• Stephen J. Willson. Growth rates and fractional dimensions in Cellular Automata. 1984
• R. Wm. Gosper. Exploiting regularities in large cellular spaces. 1984
Optimisation algorithm for 2D CAs, using quadrant decomposition of cellular space, cacheing of results, and hashing to find previously used quadrants
• Gerard Y. Vichniac. Simulating physics with Cellular Automata. 1984
CAs exactly computable models, and non-numerical simulations • a naive CA implementation of a spin glass gives poor results
• Tommaso Toffoli. Cellular Automata as an alternative to (rather than an approximation of) differential equations in modeling physics. 1984
why CAs are appropraite for direct modelling of physical systems • Cantor set topology of infinite CAs
• Stephen M. Omohundro. Modelling Cellular Automata with partial differential equations. 1984
• Christopher G. Langton. Self-reproduction in Cellular Automata. 1984
requirement that self-replicator be a universal constructor is too strong: natural self-replicators (organisms!) aren't universal constructors • relax therequirement simply to: the "self-replicating" configuration must treat its stored information both as interpreted instructions and uninterpreted data • adaptation of Codd's 1968 universal constructor, with a different transition rule • states comprise instructions for constructing a new loop • instructions travel around the loop, memory - uninterpreted • instructions construct new loop - interpreted
• Stuart A. Kauffman. Emergent properties in random complex automata. 1984
N cells with boolean state, each getting input from K other randomly chosen cells, combined by a randomly chosen boolean function •  K = 2 dynamics properties : number of states = 2N, yet cycle length, number of distinct cycles (basins of attraction) ~ N1/2; cycles relatively stable to small perturbations •  canalising rules, and forcing structures - subgraphs that "crystallise" at their canalised values - and so partition the remaining graph into isolated subclusters •  as simple models of geneetic regulatory networks
• Christian Burks, J. Doyne Farmer. Towards modeling DNA sequences as automata. 1984
• Steven A. Smith, Richard C. Watt, Stuart R. Hameroff. Cellular Automata in cytoskeletal lattices. 1984
• Forrest L. Carter. The molecular device computer: point of departure for large scale Cellular Automata. 1984
• Tommaso Toffoli. CAM: a high-performance Cellular-Automaton Machine. 1984
support for "watching 2D CA evolution •  sequential processing, special-purpose hardware •  256x256 array of cells, periodic (toroidal) boundary conditions •  each cell with up to 256 states •  60 timesteps per second display
• Kendall Preston Jr. Four-dimensional logical transforms: data processing by Cellular Automata. 1984
• W. Daniel Hillis. The Connection Machine: a computer architecture based on Cellular Automata. 1984
• James P. Crutchfield. Space-time dynamics in video feedback. 1984

Christopher G. Langton, Charles E. Taylor, J. Doyne Farmer, Steen Rasmussen, eds.
Artificial Life II: proceedings of the workshop on the Synthesis and Simulation of Living Systems, Santa Fe, 1990.
Addison Wesley. 1992

(read but not reviewed)

The papers are gathered under the following headings: • Overview • Origin/Self-Organization • Evolutionary Dynamics • Development • Learning and Evolution • Computation • Philosophy/Emergence • The Future

Contents

• Thomas S. Ray. An Approach to the Synthesis of Life. 1992
A description of his virtual Tierra environment, for studying artificial open-ended evolution
• Christopher G. Langton. Introduction to Artificial Life II. 1992
• Charles E. Taylor. "Fleshing Out" Artificial Life II. 1992
• Christopher G. Langton. Life at the Edge of Chaos. 1992
• Richard J. Bagley, J. Doyne Farmer. Spontaneous Emergence of a Metabolism. 1992
• Richard J. Bagley, J. Doyne Farmer, Walter Fontana. Evolution of a Metabolism. 1992
• Walter Fontana. Algorithmic Chemistry. 1992
• Steen Rasmussen, Carsten Knudsen, Rasmus Feldberg. Dynamics of Programmable Matter. 1992
• Maarten Boerlijst, Paulien Hogeweg. Self-Structuring and Selection: Spiral Waves as a Substrate for Prebiotic Evolution. 1992
• Peter Schuster. Complex Optimization in an Artificial RNA World. 1992
• Kristian Lindgren. Evolutionary Phenomena in Simple Dynamics. 1992
• W. Daniel Hillis. Co-Evolving Parasites Improve Simulated Evolution as an Optimization Procedure. 1990
• Stuart A. Kauffman, Sonke Johnson. Co-Evolution to the Edge of Chaos: Coupled Fitness Landscapes, Poised States, and Co-Evolutionary Avalanches. 1992
• David G. Stork, Bernie Jackson, Scott Walker. "Non-Optimality" via Pre-Adaptation in Simple Neural Systems. 1992
• Mark A. Bedau, Norman H. Packard. Measurement of Evolutionary Activity, Teleology, and Life. 1992
• Martin J. de Boer, F. David Fracchia, Przemyslaw Prusinkiewicz. Analysis and Simulation of the Development of Cellular Layers. 1992
• David H. Ackley, Michael L. Littman. Interactions Between Learning and Evolution. 1992
• Richard K. Belew, John McInerney, Nicol N. Schraudolph. Evolving Networks: Using the Genetic Algorithm with Connectionist Learning. 1992
• David R. Jefferson, Robert J. Collins, Claus Cooper, Michael G. Dyer, Margot Flowers, Richard Korf, Charles E. Taylor, Alan Wang. Evolution as a Theme in Artificial Life: The Genesys/Tracker System. 1992
• Robert J. Collins, David R. Jefferson. AntFarm: Towards Simulated Evolution. 1992
• John R. Koza. Genetic Evolution and Co-Evolution of Computer Programs. 1992
• Bruce J. MacLennan. Synthetic Ethology: An Approach to the Study of Communication. 1992
• Gregory M. Werner, Michael G. Dyer. Evolution of Communication in Artificial Organisms. 1992
• Edwin Hutchins, Brian Hazlehurst. Learning in the Cultural Process. 1992
• Alvy Ray Smith. Simple Nontrivial Self-Reproducing Machines. 1992
• Eugene H. Spafford. Computer Viruses--A Form of Artificial Life?. 1992
• Elliott Sober. Learning from Functionalism--Prospects for Strong Artificial Life. 1992
• Steen Rasmussen. Aspects of Information, Life, Reality, and Physics. 1992
• Peter Cariani. Emergence and Artificial Life. 1992
• Louis Bec. Elements d'Epistemologie Fabulatoire. 1992
[in French]
• J. Doyne Farmer, Alletta d'A. Belin. Artificial Life: The Coming Evolution. 1992

J. Doyne Farmer.
Making Sense of Chaos: A better economics for a better world.
Penguin. 2024