| The Recursive Universe |
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| Type |
Book |
| Author(s) |
William Poundstone |
| ISBN |
978-0486490984 |
The Recursive Universe: Cosmic Complexity and the Limits of Scientific Knowledge is a popular science book that was written by William Poundstone in 1985. It deals with the nature of the universe, illuminated by parallels with the Game of Life. This book brought to a wider audience many of the results that first appeared in Lifeline. It also outlines the proof of the existence of a universal constructor in Life, which was first presented in Winning Ways for Your Mathematical Plays.
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No winners, no losers, and no end - the Game of Life, also known simply as Life, is no ordinary computer game. Created by British mathematician John Horton Conway in 1970, Life debuted in Scientific American, where it was hailed as the key to a new area of mathematical research, the field of cellular automata. Less of a game than a demonstration of logical possibilities, Life is based on simple rules and produces patterns of light and dark on computer screens that reflect the unpredictability, complexity, and beauty of the universe. This popular science journey explores Life's relationship to concepts in information theory, explaining the application of natural law to random systems and demonstrating the necessity of limits. Other topics include the paradox of complexity, Maxwell's demon, Big Bang theory, and more.
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| — Contemporary Books (publisher)
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Chapters
- Complexity and Simplicity
- The Life Universe
- Maxwell's Demon
- Gliders and Spaceships
- Information and Structure
- Unlimited Growth
- Physics as a recursion
- Recursive Games
- Big Bang and Heat Deat
- Random Fields
- Von Neumann and Self-Reproducing Machines
- Self-Reproducing Life Patterns
- The Recursive Universe
See also
External links
