A Bridge Of Bits
Norman Margolus · 2005
Cellular Automata are discrete physics-like systems that can be exactly simulated by digital hardware. These systems can incorporate many realistic physical constraints and still be capable of performing digital computation. Such systems bridge the boundary between physical models and computational models, and so can play a central role in investigating the relevance of physical ideas to the theory and practice of computation, and computational ideas to the construction and use of physical models.