1. A cell-based computation and communications system comprising: a memory system; a cell network defined within the memory system, the cell network including a plurality of cells, each cell being associated with instructions defining the behavior of the cell; the cell network including a plurality of linking cells defining structural links within the cell network, each linking cell having a plurality of forward link references to respective forward linked cells and a recession link reference to a respective recession linked cell; and a processing system to process instructions within the cell network which is capable of selectively processing instructions associated with different cells in parallel; wherein the cell network includes instructions for engendering parallel processing in conjunction with following at least some of the forward link references and instructions for controlling convergence of parallel processing in conjunction with following at least some of the recession link references; and wherein each of the recession link references is defined as part of the structure of the cell network and is established separately from following the forward link references.