Questions for Monday Ocober 13

Here's the plan for next week:

On Monday, I'd like everyone to submit written answers to the questions
below. They are discussed in the following links from our course webpage:

Von Neumann Cellular Automaton, power point slides by Zhiqiang Liu
Self Reproducing Cellular Automata and Programs, online article
by Shruti Parihar

You might also find chapter 3, Garage-Band Science, from Levy's book helpful.

On Friday, I'll attempt to go over some aspects of CA from Wolfram's book
or some other source we haven't looked at.

Also, I'd like to discuss with Kawalpreet and Amber what we should do the
week after next.  I'm sure we can find something related to Environmental
Science and Biology (maybe not dentistry).  Any suggestions will be helpful.

These questions don't have only one correct answer, so feel free to
express your opinions.

1. Repeating a question we've considered before, is there anything
special about von Neumann's self-reproducing automaton that is lacking
in other self-reproducing non-biological systems?

2. p. 73 in Levy's book compares the patterns of a shell and a 1-D CA. Can you
suggest a reason for the similarity?

3. Compare these three cellular automata, i.e., what are the important
similarities and differences:

a. von Neumann's CA
b. Conway's game of life
c. Langton's CA