Conclusion

    Cellular automata are abstract structures which make it possible to study virtual completely known universes. They help us to understand our Universe : "Thus complex physical and biological systems may lie in the same universality classes as the idealized mathematical models provided by cellular automata. Knowledge of cellular automaton behaviour may then yield rather general results on the behaviour of complex natural systems."³¹.

    The universal computation capability of some cellular automata, i.e. their capability to construct arbitrary complex structures, is not sufficient to prove the possibility of life apparition in these universes. Generalization of cellular automata behaviours to our Universe is not direct and its pertinence is hard to be proved. However, and as a conclusion, I let you think about the two following images.

Norman Packard's snowflake

S. Levy, Artificial Life, Penguin, 1992.

A real shell texture and its equivalent generated with a cellular automaton

Langton ed., Artificial Life an overview, MIT press, 1997.

31- Wolfram S., Idem.

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Jean-Philippe Rennard Ph.D. 12/2000.
http://www.rennard.org/alife
alife@rennard.org

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