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cellular automata
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cellular automata

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Also known as: CA, cellular automaton
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Stephen Wolfram

cellular automata (CA), model of a spatially distributed process that consists of an array (usually two-dimensional) of cells that “evolve” step-by-step according to the state of neighbouring cells and certain rules that depend on the simulation. CAs can be used to simulate various real-world processes. They were invented in the 1940s by American mathematicians John von Neumann and Stanislaw Ulam at Los Alamos National Laboratory. Though apparently simple, some CAs are universal computers; that is, they can do any computer-capable computation. The best-known cellular automaton, John Conway’s “Game of Life” (1970), simulates the processes of life, death, and population dynamics.

The Editors of Encyclopaedia BritannicaThis article was most recently revised and updated by Erik Gregersen.