These rules use very different principles than traditional cell-based rules - for example neighbor degree, number of connections, and eligibility criteria based on connectivity.

So in short, the cells are not becoming alive or dead based on the states of their neighbors, but rather on the topology of their neighborhoods.

The details are beyond the scope of a short write up, but are easy to explore in the rule-editor in the GUI of the code.

Here is an example of a rule that is markedly different from a typical "life-like" rule: https://videopress.com/v/lQ5Bghsj

The level of structure and self-organization is striking, to me at least.

Also in all the rules - the links are visible and can have binary or real-valued states as well as the cells. So this enables pretty rich topology which rules can utilize.