Wolfram's book "A New Kind of Science" is an interesting take on cellular automata as well, although readers should be warned that it borders on crank science, has tons of hyperbole in it's treatment of CA's potential impact on science, and waters down the contributions of others in the field.
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For more fun along these lines, wolfram provides as always:
http://demonstrations.wolfram.com/CellularAutomatonExplorer/
(Cellular Automata is the name for these constructs, langon's ant, the game of life, and so on.)
Wolfram's book "A New Kind of Science" is an interesting take on cellular automata as well, although readers should be warned that it borders on crank science, has tons of hyperbole in it's treatment of CA's potential impact on science, and waters down the contributions of others in the field.
Ray Kurzweil's review:
http://www.kurzweilai.net/reflections-on-stephen-wolfram-s-a...