Complex dynamics of elementary cellular automata emerging from chaotic rules

Abstract

We show techniques of analyzing complex dynamics of cellular automata (CA) with chaotic behavior. CA are well-known computational substrates for studying emergent collective behavior, complexity, randomness and interaction between order and chaotic systems. A number of attempts have been made to classify CA functions on their space-time dynamics and to predict the behavior of any given function. Examples include mechanical computation, λ and Z-parameters, mean field theory, differential equations and number conserving features. We aim to classify CA based on their behavior when they act in a historical mode, i.e. as CA with memory. We demonstrate that cell-state transition rules enriched with memory quickly transform a chaotic system converging to a complex global behavior from almost any initial condition. Thus, just in few steps we can select chaotic rules without exhaustive computational experiments or recurring to additional parameters. We provide an analysis of well-known chaotic functions in one-dimensional CA, and decompose dynamics of the automata using majority memory exploring glider dynamics and reactions. © 2012 World Scientific Publishing Company