CA-like error propagation in fuzzy CA

Abstract

We describe and analyze the surprising evolution of an overflow error which has occurred during the simulation of a class of continuous complex systems called ‘fuzzy cellular automata’. This error not only perturbs the global behavior of the system but it generates its own interesting dynamics; in fact, it propagates over the original evolution as a binary cellular automaton in a structured, fractal-like way, regardless of the underlying system evolution. The analysis of the errors behavior suggests interesting observations about the difficulty of detecting errors and verifying results using computer simulations.