Surprised no one has said "A New Kind of Science" by Stephen Wolfram. While not quite a new kind of science, it is all about cellular automata.
Ask HN: Looking for a Book on Cellular Automata
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Re: Ask HN: Looking for a Book on Cellular Automata
#12I believe it's out of print now, but if you can find it, check out "The Recursive Universe" by William Poundstone. It centers around Conway's Game of Life, but every other chapter branches out to draw connections with other topics, like biology, information theory, and thermodynamics.
Re: Ask HN: Looking for a Book on Cellular Automata
#13Not sure about books entirely about cellular automata, but Stephen Wolfram's "a new kind of science" has a LOT on cellular automata. Also check out his papers if you're interested in them
I'd strongly suggest not reading ANKOS until you already know what Cellular Automata are and how they work.
First because Wolfram is not actually very good at explaining things: he's a very smart guy, but very smart guys don't necessarily know how to lay new concepts out so that other people can grasp them. Second, a MAJOR problem with the book is that he does not admit any sources outside himself: the inventor of CA, John von Neumann, is _never mentioned in the main text_.
You come away understanding only what Wolfram thinks is important, which has a lot more to do with him than with the subject. It's a book worth reading, but it's not an introduction.
(I won't even get into his tortured writing style, for which he actually had to include a little apologia in the introduction.)
Re: Ask HN: Looking for a Book on Cellular Automata
#14Surprised no one has said "A New Kind of Science" by Stephen Wolfram. While not quite a new kind of science, it is all about cellular automata. http://www.wolframscience.com/nksonline/toc.html
ANKOS was in fact mentioned already, a couple of hours ago:
Re: Ask HN: Looking for a Book on Cellular Automata
#15My favorite one is, by far, "Cellular Automata: A Discrete Universe" by Andrew Ilachinski (2001). It goes deep into the juicy details and has only a limited amount of hand waving. You can probably find it in the local math/physics department library, or in the usual internet sources ;)
There are also some articles from Wolfram that make good introductions. Mostly those from the old days in which "I" wouldn't be the subject of every second of his sentences. In particular:
Universality and Complexity in Cellular Automata Physica D: Nonlinear Phenomena 10, no. 1–2 (1984): 1–35
Computation Theory of Cellular Automata Communications in Mathematical Physics 96, no. 1 (1984): 15–57
Re: Ask HN: Looking for a Book on Cellular Automata
#16https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/cellular-automata-machines
The greater part as I remember it is on ideas and applications; a substantial fraction covers their particular system.
Re: Ask HN: Looking for a Book on Cellular Automata
#17Surprised no one has said "A New Kind of Science" by Stephen Wolfram. While not quite a new kind of science, it is all about cellular automata. http://www.wolframscience.com/nksonline/toc.html
ANKOS was in fact mentioned already, a couple of hours ago: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11982034
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Re: Ask HN: Looking for a Book on Cellular Automata
#18Not sure about books entirely about cellular automata, but Stephen Wolfram's "a new kind of science" has a LOT on cellular automata. Also check out his papers if you're interested in them
I'd strongly suggest not reading ANKOS until you already know what Cellular Automata are and how they work. First because Wolfram is not actually very good at explaining things: he's a very smart guy, but very smart guys don't necessarily know how to lay new concepts out so that other people can grasp them. Second, a MAJOR problem with the book is that he does not admit any sources outside himself: the inventor of CA…
I feel the need to voice some moderation in response to this response.
ANKOS is sometimes painful to read for Wolfram's incessant self-aggrandising, and it is also frustratingly unstructured in parts. Nonetheless, many of the digressions are thought provoking in ways that you won't really find in any other book. Further, it is mostly non-technical and informal, so it can serve well as a very broad introduction to some of the curious corners of cellular automata research.
Re: Ask HN: Looking for a Book on Cellular Automata
#19Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'd strongly suggest not reading ANKOS until you already know what Cellular Automata are and how they work. First because Wolfram is not actually very good at explaining things: he's a very smart guy, but very smart guys don't necessarily know how to lay new concepts out so that other people can grasp them. Second, a MAJOR problem with the book is that he does not admit any sources outside himself: the inventor of CA…
I feel the need to voice some moderation in response to this response. ANKOS is sometimes painful to read for Wolfram's incessant self-aggrandising, and it is also frustratingly unstructured in parts. Nonetheless, many of the digressions are thought provoking in ways that you won't really find in any other book. Further, it is mostly non-technical and informal, so it can serve well as a very broad introduction to som…
>it can serve well as a very broad introduction to some of the curious corners of cellular automata research.
This is true. It's a substantial book, well worth reading despite its flaws. The thrust of my post was that it should not be the _first_ thing you read in order to begin learning about CA.
Re: Ask HN: Looking for a Book on Cellular Automata
#20I believe it's out of print now, but if you can find it, check out "The Recursive Universe" by William Poundstone. It centers around Conway's Game of Life, but every other chapter branches out to draw connections with other topics, like biology, information theory, and thermodynamics.
Dover started republishing it a few years ago and it's even available on Kindle.
Definitely a fun read and worth the $10 and the couple evenings it takes to read.