Small universal cellular automata in hyperbolic spaces. A collection of jewels (Q1946776)

Leaving a few exceptions aside, the study and use of cellular automata (CAs) has been confined to different kinds of tessellations of a Euclidean space ever since their formulation by the renowned John von Neumann. The author is one of the few researchers in the field who explored CAs and their properties in hyperbolic spaces. Following a brief introduction to the history of hyperbolic geometry, he defines CAs on such a geometry, after which he brings the so-called railway model under the reader's attention. This model and its properties are the main focus of the remainder of the book. Indeed, the author explores the latter in much detail and pays particular attention to its (weak) universality properties. More specifically, he introduces weakly universal CAs in penta-, hepta- and dodecagrids. In the final chapter of the book, he also demonstrates how one can simulate them on a computer by means of the algorithms he provides to the reader. Although this book provides its readers with a comprehensive overview of CAs on hyperbolic spaces, he/she might still be left with the question ``In what is this useful?'', which the author mentions in the very beginning of the first chapter as one of the pertinent questions being asked to him at conferences. Answering this question could have been a true merit of this book, but unfortunately, it does not completely succeed in meeting this goal.