This Brief is an essay at the interface of philosophy and complexity research trying to
inspire the reader with new ideas and new conceptual developments of cellular automata. Going
beyond the numerical experiments of Steven Wolfram it is argued that cellular automata must be
considered complex dynamical systems in their own right requiring appropriate analytical
models in order to find precise answers and predictions in the universe of cellular automata.
Indeed eventually we have to ask whether cellular automata can be considered models of the
real world and conversely whether there are limits to our modern approach of attributing the
world and the universe for that matter essentially a digital reality.
