Complexity Explorer Santa Few Institute

A mathematical or computational system in which simple elements ("cells") are arrayed in a regular lattice. At a given time step, each cell is in some discrete "state" (e.g., 0 or 1), and at each time step, each cell updates its state using a function of its current state and the states of its neighboring cells. To define a particular cellular automaton, one must specify the dimensionality of the lattice, the neighborhood of a cell, the set of possible states, and the state update function used by each cell. Plural is "cellular automata".