Cellular Automata: A Zero-Player "Game"
A cellular automaton begins with a grid or other representation of the automaton's cells. Each cell has a state — typically, alive or dead — and a rule for how that state should change as the generations of the automaton progress.
This generator demonstrates three different types of automata:
- Conway's Game of Life begins with a square grid. Under the original rules, live cells stay alive if they are surrounded by 2 or 3 live neighbors; dead cells become alive if they're surrounded by exactly 3 live neighbors. Otherwise, the cells die or stay dead. In this engine, however, you can change these conditions — observe how differently the automaton behaves under different rules!
- Rule 90 begins with a grid of tiled equilateral triangles and builds from the top down. The state of each cell depends on the state of the three cells directly above it. If 1 represents a live cell and 0 a dead cell, the eight initial conditions are:
- 111, 101, 010, 000 → 0
- 110, 001, 011, 100 → 1
Rule 30 is a variation on this idea, which you can try out as well with this engine.
- Hexagonal Game of Life is a variation on Conway's Game of Life that begins with a grid tiled by regular hexagons. Similar to the original GoL, live cells stay alive if they're surrounded by between 3 and 5 neighbors; dead cells come to life if they're surrounded by exactly 2 neigbors. You can adjust these rules, too, and see what happens!
