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Conway’s Game of Life: Difference between revisions
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{{a| | {{a|systems|{{image|conway|gif|Conway’s Game of Life, yesterday.}}}} | ||
The “Game of Life” is a [[cellular automaton]] — not really a game in a meaningful sense, since it plays by itself — invented by mathematician John Conway in 1970. | |||
It comprises an unbounded, two-dimensional grid of cells, each of which may be “live” (black) or “dead” (white). At each generation every cell interacts with its eight adjacent cells | It is a simple [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turing_machine Turing Machine]. It comprises an unbounded, two-dimensional grid of cells, each of which may be “live” (''black'') or “dead” (''white''). At each generation every cell interacts with its eight adjacent “neighbour” cells, as follows: | ||
# | # A live cell with two or three live neighbours stays live. | ||
# | # A dead cell with three live neighbours becomes live. | ||
# All other live cells die. | # All other live cells die. | ||
# All other dead cells stay dead. | # All other dead cells stay dead. | ||
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One interacts with the Game of Life by simply creating the initial configuration. Thereafter, one simply watches as it evolves following this simple algorithm. Each generation is a ''pure function'' of the preceding one. The rules continue to be applied repeatedly to create further generations. | One interacts with the Game of Life by simply creating the initial configuration. Thereafter, one simply watches as it evolves following this simple algorithm. Each generation is a ''pure function'' of the preceding one. The rules continue to be applied repeatedly to create further generations. | ||
If you let it go for long enough, or start with an interesting enough configuration, you start to get some quite impressive, and quite unexpected, patterns. This has led computer scientists and reductionists | If you let it go for long enough, or start with an interesting enough configuration, you start to get some quite impressive, and quite unexpected, patterns. This has led computer scientists, evolutionary biologists and like-minded [[Reductionism|reductionists]] to rejoice with a premature hosanna for it may illustrate, they feel, how intelligent life could evolve without [[Argument from design|assistance]] through simple cellular regeneration. | ||
Premature, because people have been running Conway models more or less continuously since 1970. None have yet deduced [[Rice pudding and income tax|rice pudding or income tax]], let alone achieved self-awareness. | |||
However you look at it, Conway’s game is by definition mechanical and [[deterministic]]. If you run it forward from the same place, it will always yield the same outcome. If you then run it backwards, you will get back to the original configuration. By its own terms there is no way to interfere with its operation, and you cannot change the rules. | |||
In this regard it is a [[Simple system|''simple'']] system. | |||
===Reductio ad absurdum=== | ===Reductio ad absurdum=== | ||
{{conway and complexity}} | {{conway and complexity}} | ||
{{sa}} | |||
*[[Rice pudding and income tax]] | |||
*[[Data modernism]] | |||
*[[Determinism]] | |||