Cellular Automaton

A grid of cells with states that evolve according to a pre-defined set of rules.

Resources

• Cellular Automata | The Nature of Code
  • This is the best explanation and visualization of how different types of cellular automata work
• Cellular Automaton | Wikipedia

Links

Examples:

• Cellular Automaton Rules Category | Wikipedia
• Conway's Game of Life — most famous, the fact that it is Turing complete is fascinating
• Paterson's Worms — triangular/hexagonal
• Langton's Loop — information flow around the loop to an "arm"
• Langton's Ant — simple rules but emerge interesting behaviour

Games:

• Conway's Game of Life
• Pixpaint | Max Bittker — I find this fun to play. It's more human-friendly lol
• Game of Life | omio.io (HN)
  • Game of Life, simulating itself, infinitely zoomable

Articles

• Contents What Can We Learn about Engineering and Innovation from Half a Century of the Game of Life Cellular Automaton?
  • What's been made in game of life, oscillators, gliders, guns, etc.
  • Talks about computation irreducibility, like the nature of the game is unpredictable, but there is an idea to achieve some predictable and understandable outcomes from the unruly and unpredictable nature