Talk:Life-like cellular automaton

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This pattern if entered in Non-deterministic births(only),will result in chaotic glider world.

[0][x][0] 
[x][0][0]
[0][0][0]

[x][0][0] 
[x][0][0]
[0][0][0] 


[x][0][x]
[0][0][0]
[0][0][0]        


[0][0][x] 
[0][0][0]
[x][0][0]

[edit] Neighbourhood Notation

I added the info on the initial letter in the rule notation since this is the artical on "Life-like CA" and Life-like (chaotic with gliders) universes certainly occur in neighbourhoods other than Moore (Hex and Von Neumann). I'll add it back once, if it's still felt that it's nonrelevant we can go from there. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Alpha Omicron (talk • contribs)

I asked for a source. Where is your source? What software uses this augmented notation? I have been very tempted for a while to switch the article over to B3/S23 style as used in RLE by Golly, LifeLab, etc. [1] [2] [3]. I think it's better documented as part of a format multiple programs understand, and easier to read for humans too since the B and S serve as reminders for which numbers mean what. But perhaps this article could use a section describing different rule formats (e.g. also Wolfram's binary coded decimal). —David Eppstein 15:32, 28 March 2007 (UTC)

This notation is used by Life32, easily the fastest software for Life-like CAs. In Life32 the S and B are optional, though I usually find them superfluous. Maybe a vote should be held on what sort of notation to use, then have that notation implemented unilaterally across all CA-related articles. Alpha Omicron 14:28, 29 March 2007 (UTC)

That's still not a source. Is there an online manual that could be used as a source for this notation? —David Eppstein 15:31, 29 March 2007 (UTC)

You asked for a software source. That's it. After MCell Life32 is probably the most popular CA software. I think MCell supports that notation as well. I don't think Johann Bontes made up the notation for Life32, so some earlier documentation must be floating around somewhere. I'm fine with leaving that notation out until another source turns up though. Alpha Omicron 03:11, 31 March 2007 (UTC)

I agree with David, B3/S23 is far more legible than 23/3! Cyb3r 22:14, 11 November 2007 (UTC)

[edit] The Chaotic Universe

I miss a description of 23/37. This configuration might not be that interesting to structuralists, but for me - as a meteorologist - it is fascinating. "Chaotic growth" can be initiated with very simple patterns - try this one for example:

  xxx
  x
  xxx
  x

or this one:

  x
    xx
   x  x
    xx
  x    x

There are all sorts of interesting questions pertaining to this configuration:

  1. Is this growth boundless ?
  2. What is its asymptotic density (live cells / total ones) ?
  3. What is the minimum pattern to generate "chaotic growth" ?
  4. What is the "speed" of this growth (it is clearly sublinear) ?
  5. Do different patterns that initiate chaotic growth generate significantly different ones:
     a. In asymptotic density.
     b. In growth speed.
     ?
  6. Or is this an intrinsic property of the 23/37 configuration ?

—Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.93.67.168 (talk) 19:32, 29 May 2008 (UTC)

There are huge numbers of rules that exhibit chaotic growth not unlike this; B37/S23 isn't unusual in this respect. Since there's no way we can individually describe all the 262144 different life-like rules, and since we need to avoid original research here, we must limit ourselves to those that have reliable sources available elsewhere. If you can find such sources, please say so, but I don't know of any. (By the way, I do have a web site on this rule. But since this site also has a page for each of the 262143 other life-like rules, the existence of this page is not useful for deciding which rules to include here.) —David Eppstein (talk) 20:43, 29 May 2008 (UTC)