The Computational Beauty of Nature

Each of the book's parts can be read independently, enabling even the casual reader to understand and work with the basic equations and programs. Yet the parts are bound together by the theme of the computer as a laboratory and a metaphor for understanding the universe. The inspired reader will experiment further with the ideas presented to create fractal landscapes, chaotic systems, artificial life forms, genetic algorithms, and artificial neural networks.
Contents

Preface

1: Introduction

I Computation

2 Number Systems and Infinity

3 Computability and Incomputability

4 Postscript: Computation

II: Fractals

5 Self-Similarity and Fractal Geometry

6 L-Systems and Fractal Growth

7 Affine Transformation Fractals

8 The Mandelbrot Set and Julia Sets

9 Postscript: Fractals

III: Chaos

10 Nonlinear Dynamics in Simple Maps

11 Strange Attractors

12 Producer-Consumer Dynamics

13 Controlling Chaos

14 Postscript: Chaos

IV: Complex Systems

15 Cellular Automata

16 Autonomous Agents and Self-Organization

17 Competition and Cooperation

18 Natural and Analog Computation

19 Postscript: Complex Systems

V: Adaptation

20 Genetics and Evolution

21 Classifier Systems

22 Neural Networks and Learning

23 Postscript: Adaptation

Epilogue

24 Duality and Dichotomy

Source Code Notes

Glossary

Bibliography

Index