Cellular Automata and Models of Health and Disease

Willem Nielsen, a researcher at the Wolfram Institute, shares his insights on cellular automata models of disease. He explains how single-cell perturbations can mimic diseases and discusses the limitations of traditional disease classification. The conversation explores the predictive power of simple metrics, emphasizing how data transparency can enhance disease modeling. Nielsen illustrates how evolving organisms under stress leads to robustness, paralleling biological processes, and highlights the fascinating concept of planaria as a model for understanding morphological competency and adaptability.