Artificial Organisms and Autonomous Cell Rules
Richard Laing · Journal of Cybernetics · 1972
A formal system for representing features of biological development is defined and evaluated. Developmental rules by which a cell may differentiate or propagate as a consequence of its internal state only are shown to be sufficient to produce any given organism cell structure. Rules in which a cell may differentiate or propagate as a consequence of its internal state and the number of other cells impinging on it, are shown to be sufficient to produce an organism possessing universal computational behavior.