A cellular automaton approach to modelling a bacterium

摘要

A multitude of organising processes interact to create one of the most complex of all complex systems, the biological cell. We propose that new laws of complexity come into operation as the number of organising processes in the system increases. To discover such laws, it may prove essential to model all these processes simultaneously. To achieve this, the processes themselves must be identified and a system of cellular automata might then be constructed to study their interactions. The objective of this artificial microbiology would be to create an artificial cell, an 'artcell', that would approach a real cell in complexity and that would both survive and grow. Competition between artcells for growth and survival could then be used to.