Cellular automata are discrete models, typically on a grid, which evolve in time. Each grid cell has a finite state, such as 0 or 1, which is updated based on a certain set of rules. A specific cell uses information of the surrounding cells, called it’s neighborhood, to determine what changes should be made. In general cellular automata can be defined in any number of dimensions. A famous two dimensional example is Conway’s Game of Life in which cells “live” and “die”, sometimes producing beautiful patterns.
This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://blog.scientific-python.org/matplotlib/elementary-cellular-automata