Date of Award

2014

Type

Thesis

Major

Computer Science - Applied Computing Track

Department

TSYS School of Computer Science

First Advisor

Rodrigo Obando

Abstract

Sir Isaac Newton studied the world around him. He observed unexplainable phenomena that the math of his time could not prove. With the help of Gottfried Leibniz, he created infinitesimal calculus to prove his theories. The new concepts he created revolutionized science, and opened new realms of science previously unthought of. In 2002, Dr. Stephen Wolfram published A New Kind of Science, He argues that the processes of understanding cellular automata can be applied to other aspects of science. Dr. Rodrigo Obando of Columbus State University took Dr. Wolfram's work and dissected it. By breaking down the rules, he started seeing patterns emerge in their ordering. He created a system for organizing the rules of the elementary cellular automaton rule space with 256 rules. From there, he guided me to the next rule space of size 4,294,967,296. 1 used his procedures to examine that rule space. My program takes a rule and displays all of the neighboring rules in that rule space. Essentially, I am taking a node of a 16-dimensional hypercube and showing all of the neighboring nodes. This design has not been publicly created to my or Dr. Obando's knowledge. Understanding the patterns of cellular automata and what makes one rule different from a neighboring rule can be applied to other forms of science. This is what Dr. Stephen Wolfram stated in A New Kind of Science, and I firmly agree with his statement. Any exploration of the next rule space will bring us closer to seeing Dr. Wolfram's theory come true.

Comments

Honors Thesis

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