ABSTRACT
In this book we have discussed a wide spectrum of ideas in computer science that were inspired by our understanding of biological processes. We focused on four main areas that introduced new computational models based on ideas and insights arising from biological research. Chapter 2 dealt with cellular automata in which computation is performed on a grid of cells, and every cell a¨ects only its neighbors. is model is somewhat reminiscent of a colony of single-cell organisms (e.g., bacteria), which presents a complex collective behavior, even though each cell’s behavior is based on a set of relatively simple local rules. We saw how to prove that a nonstandard computational model is universal (in the sense of being equivalent to Turing machines). We also saw how cellular automata allow us to formally study the conditions that are su«cient for self-replication, a fundamental aspect of living systems.
