![]() ![]() * Unless the universe is just a cellular automaton.Īt its simplest a 2D cellular automaton consists of a grid of Boolean values - on or off, which can be represented visually by two different colours. Nobody has (yet!) developed a cellular automaton as complex as you, me or the entire universe* but watching one run does give the very faintest inkling of emergence in action. Something that is still difficult to get your head round is the concept of emergence, or the idea that these basic forces of nature, acting on just a few fundamental types of matter, can produce things as complex as you, me and the entire universe. The central lesson of modern science since the days of Issac Newton has been that the unfathomably complex universe is actually governed by just a few simple rules, and the biggest challenge for science in the future is to simplify these even more into a single Grand Unified Theory. Ostensibly they do no more than provide relaxing and therapeutic patterns on the screen but they actually provide a tantalising glimpse into something much more profound. While elementary cellular automata are interesting 2D automata are in a different league. For this post I will add a whole new dimension and implement a 2D version. ![]() I recently posted my implementation of a one-dimensional or elementary cellular automaton in JavaScript. ![]()
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