Thank you, the article is fascinating indeed. But your explanation is not very accessible for a layman. I will tell you the questions a typical programmer will be asking: Main question: suppose we have to build a heart from scratch. It has certain shape, at every point inside it, there's a specific type of cell (they are all certainly different). E.g., there's a complicated network of blood vessels inside, and what not. There's a process that builds the heart. Question: who tells this process that at point (x,y,z), it should add a cell of type T, and connect it to neighbors in a certain way? Is it something like cellular automation, where the property of cell at (x,y) is determined by properties of neighbors only? All neighbors? And how this function is calculated? And what is the CODE for calculation? Where is it stored? And where something that was formerly called "JUNK", and now looks like a master program, fits into this picture?

To explain it to a programmer, it's better to avoid the terminology and specifics, but focus only on functional relations - e.g. type of cell at point (x,y) is a FUNCTION of types (or something) of cells (x-1,y), (x+1, y) and maybe something else. I can't find it anywhere.

BTW, I am not a believer in cellular automation stuff a la Wolfram, just trying to frame the question in a way I could understand.

(just in case you don't want to reply here, my fake email address is in my profile)