Inductive Explorations With Class 2 Systems
1994; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 5; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1080/0899340940050203
ISSN1744-5175
Autores Tópico(s)Evolutionary Algorithms and Applications
ResumoWolfram's Cellular Automata and Complexity, an anthology of some of his best work in the area, was published in 1994, and it seems fitting to attempt to explain how his seminal work can be put to good use in laboratory‐based computer science education. This article documents the advantages of using cellular automata (CA) to model complexity theory, chaos, and some aspects of the theory of computation. It explains how CA are constructed, it details the fourfold classification scheme advocated by Wolfram, and it explores in some depth issues associated with induction and Class 2 CA. Several CA are examined with an eye to determining what kinds of empirical evidence count for and against such classifications. The argument is that such lab explorations are pedagogically effective and engaging as an introduction to computer modeling, complexity theory, and related issues in the theory of computation. Software to run the CA simulations has been written by the author and can be downloaded from America Online and the Internet.
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