title: The evolution of emergent computation.
abstract: A simple evolutionary process can discover sophisticated methods for emergent information processing in decentralized spatially extended systems. The mechanisms underlying the resulting emergent computation are explicated by a technique for analyzing particle-based logic embedded in pattern-forming systems. Understanding how globally coordinated computation can emerge in evolution is relevant both for the scientific understanding of natural information processing and for engineering new forms of parallel computing systems.
authors.affiliation: Physics Department, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA.
authors.forename: J P
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: Crutchfield
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Mitchell