HIGHER ORDER CELLULAR AUTOMATA

We introduce a class of dynamical systems called Higher Order Cellular Automata (HOCA). These are based on ordinary CA, but have a hierarchical, or multi-level, structure and/or dynamics. We present a detailed formalism for HOCA and illustrate the concepts through four examples. Throughout the article we emphasize the principles and ideas behind the construction of HOCA, such that these easily can be applied to other types of dynamical systems. The article also presents new concepts and ideas for describing and studying hierarchial dynamics in general.