ULTIMATE COMPUTING - Quantum Consciousness Studies

30 Toward Ultimate Computing
evolve to a fixed finite size, 3) they grow indefinitely at a fixed speed, 4) they
grow and contract irregularly. Type three, which grow indefinitely at a fixed
speed, are often found to be self similar in scale; parts of such patterns when
magnified are indistinguishable from the whole. Thus these cellular automata
patterns are characterized by a fractal dimension.
Wolfram notes that the mechanisms for information processing in natural
systems appear more similar to those in cellular automata which are highly
parallel than to conventional serial processing computers. The “results” are given
by the configuration obtained; the “medium is the message.” Further, “it is
common in nature to find systems whose complexity is generated by the
cooperative effect of many simple identical components.” Cellular automata are
sensitive to initial conditions and their behavior is characterized by the stability or
predictability of their behavior under small perturbations in initial configurations.
With a given set of rules, changes in a single initial site value can lead to
markedly different patterns. Such perturbations have characteristic effects on
Wolfram’s four classes of cellular automata: 1) no change in final state, 2)
changes only in a finite region, 3) changes over an ever increasing region, 4)
irregular change. Thus at least some cellular automata patterns are nonlinear and
deterministic.
Figure 1.13: Self replicating automata described by Edward Fredkin (Dewdney,
1985). “Off” states are shown as all black. Computer generation by Conrad
Schneiker.