Abstract

Abstract — We are interested in simple cellular automata (CA) and their computational and dynamical properties. In our past and ongoing work, we have been investigating (i) asymptotic dynamics of various types of CA and (ii) different communication models for CA. In this paper, we specifically focus on the convergence properties of a very simple kind of totalistic CA, namely, those defined on one-dimensional arrays where each cell or node updates according to the Boolean Majority function: the new state of a cell becomes 1 if and only if a simple majority of its inputs are currently in state 1, and it becomes 0 otherwise. We have observed in our prior work that such CA tend to have relatively simple asymptotic dynamics: a short transient chain followed by convergence to a “fixed point”. We now provide solid statistical evidence for these conjectures, based on our recent extensive computer simulations of Majority 1-D CA. In particular, we study the convergence properties of such CA for two communication models: one is the classical, parallel CA model with perfectly synchronous cell updates, and the other are CA whose cells update sequentially, one at a time; we consider two variants of such sequential update regimes. We simulate CA whose sizes range up to 1,000 cells, and demonstrate very fast (in particular, sublinear), and very slowly decreasing with an increase in the total number of cells, speeds of convergence. Finally, we draw conclusions based on our extensive simulations and outline some interesting questions to be considered in the future work.

Citations