Cellular automata machines

Cellular Automata (CA's) such as the Game of Life are well known, but if you want to look further into the subject then you should take a look at Cellular automata machines : a new environment for modeling by Tommaso Toffoli and Norman Margolus. The first part of the book gives a short overview of the field. The book then gets on to the different types of CA's and how they can be implemented, including a look at how to include randomness in your modelling. The third part of the book deals with different physical systems which can be modelled with CA's. These include diffusion, fluid dynamics and ballistic computers as well as collective phenomena such as Ising systems and spin glasses.

The book is based on a dedicated machine for running CA's called the CAM, running a version of FORTH. Nowadays Moore's law means that almost everyone would use a PC for such modelling. I didn't feel that this difference was a problem, rather the details of their machine gave a better idea of what was happening in the CA's and would be valuable for anyone who wants to program CA's themselves. The authors' consideration of reversible CA's and how they can show the consequences of reversibilty of microphysics is also very useful. This is a short book, but covers plenty of topics, and I'd recommend it to anyone considering using CA's to model physical systems.