by Andrew Wuensche and Mike Lesser

The book introduces a powerful new global perspective for the study of discrete dynamical systems. After first looking at the unique trajectory of a system's future, an algorithm is also presented that directly computes the multiple merging trajectories that may have constituted the system's past. A given set of cellular parameters will, in a sense, crystallize state space into a set of basins of attraction that will typically have the topology of branching trees rooted on attractor cycles. The book makes accessible the explicit portraits of these mathematical objects through computer-generated graphics. (Book/disk package disk requires an 80286, or higher, IBM PC or compatible with 640K of memory, VGA graphics, and DOS 2.0 or higher.