Cellular Automata FAQ

Autobiography About this FAQ; What is the status of the Cellular Automata FAQ? Will there be a text version of the FAQ? Is the original FAQ still available? Why are Java applets stealing my CPU cycles? Will there be diagrams and applets all over the place? Is this the FAQ for comp.theory.cell-automata? Will this FAQ be posted to comp.theory.cell-automata? What questions can we expect to see answered by the FAQ in the future? What pages link to this FAQ? Generalities Definitions - and general references on cellular automata; What are Cellular Automata (CA)? How do I contribute bibliographic material to the FAQ? Where are cellular automata discussed? What should I work on in CA for my Ph.D. thesis? What are some good general references for CA? What is the Complex Systems Journal? What is the AMS classification for CA? Cellular automata software Packages for running cellular automata - and related systems; What general-purpose CA simulators are available? What simulators for the Game of Life are available? How can I make CA simulations run fast? What other CA software is available? References Cellular automata hardware Running cellular automata in hardware; What hardware implementations exist for CA? Are there any simulators for CAM? What about running CA's on parallel or distributed machines? References Conway's game of life All about Conway's Game of Life [life-specific software here]; Where do I start? Can I see the Game of Life in action? Where do I find a simulator for the Game of Life? Where do I find Game of Life patterns? Who is interested in Life? Is Martin Gardner's Scientific American article on Conway's life available? Can you do computations with the Game Of Life? Has anyone actually built a computer in the Game Of Life? How do you do computations with the Game of Life? Must one use all of the logical gates to perform computations in the Game of Life? Is the Game Of Life reversible? Garden-of-Eden patterns exist in Conway's Game of Life. Do they exist in other automata? What is the smallest known Garden of Eden in the Game Of Life? Where can I learn about Spaceships in the Game of Life? Are variable-speed spaceships possible? Has a variable-speed spaceship been constructed? What are the known spaceship speeds? Where can I find the meaning of terms like 'spaceships', 'blinkers' and 'beehives'? Are self-reproducing organisms possible in the Game Of Life? Has anyone built a self-reproducing organism in the Game Of Life? How big is a self-reproducing organism in the Game Of Life likely to be? What published work relates to the Game of Life? What is 3D Life? References Applications Applications in physics, biology, computer science and artificial life; Can CA be used to do image processing? Are there any CA models of urban development? Have CA been used to model ant behavior? What computations can CA do? Can CA be used to model ecological systems? Can CA be used to model reaction-diffusion systems? Can the universe be considered to be a CA? Can CA be used to encrypt messages? What is the CAM-Brain project? What do CA have to do with deformable materials? What are kinetic CA? Are CA really responsible for patterns on shells? What do CA have to do with biological computation? Can CA be used to construct random number generators? What links are there between CA and complexity theory What is the relationship between CA and neural networks? What are Byl's rules for a self reproducing CA? References Properties Reversibility, universal computation and construction, etc; What is the relationship between computation in CA and Turing computability? Is self reproduction possible in a CA? How are transients measured in CA? Can flocking behavior be observed in CA? What is Computronium? What are 'basins of attraction'? What is a Garden of Eden? How important is synchronicity in CA? Which computations can 1D CA perform? What about running a CA in reverse? What are some reversible rules? What is known about periodic orbits in CA? What are subshifts of finite type/sophic systems? What is the mean field theory? When is a CA injective, surjective? Where do I read about reversible cellular automata? What are the properties of CA when viewed as maps on the reals? What about mixing CA rules? What are 'kinetic' CA? What are some references on CA and symbolic dynamics? Which two-state, one-dimensional, reversible CA-rules produce non-trivial behaviour? Have CAs been used in real analysis? References Classification Organization of the space of cellular automata; What is Wolfram's classification scheme? What is Eppstein's classification scheme? What is the status of Wolfram's Class IV? References Lattice gas automata Lattice gas automata - as used to model fluid flow; What are Lattice Gas Automata? Waves in CA? How can I simulate wind in a CA? What are the commonly used rules of interaction between the cells in a lattice gas? Viscosity in LGA? Does the lack of symmetry in the HPP model have any obvious bad effect, other than to remove the inertial term? Are there unphysical conservation laws with HPP? What are the physical manifestations of anisotropy? References Particular rules For example, the hodge-podge rule, vants and the Fredkin rule; What is the Fredkin rule? Where can I read about the Gacs rule? What are filter automata? What's the Hodge-Podge rule? What are some good references on Eater rules? What are Vants? What is known about Hexagonal CA? What about other types of lattices? References Related systems Connections to other types of dynamical systems; What are coupled map lattices? What is the iterated prisoner's dilemma? What are Cellular Neural Nets? What are continuous spatial CA? What is known about mapping neural nets onto parallel machines? What are Gray Codes? What are Cellular Neural Nets? What are 'non uniform' CA? What are Fuzzy CA? What are movable finite automata?