
Chip - sgentle
https://samgentle.com/posts/2015-08-24-chip
======
fein
I really enjoy content like this on HN. No opportunity for vitriolic spats
between dissenting opinions; just a cool thing that we got to see today.

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frikk
This is a pretty fascinating pattern to watch once it settles. Does it have a
name yet?

Some observations:

* The basis of stability seems to be horizontal and vertical alternating black/white lines.

* There are two obvious areas of activity: A region of 'chaos' and a region of 'order' (parallel lines).

* The parallel line region supports various gliders of various sizes. The smallest is a single pixel of change moving across a line, changing white to black or vise versa), the largest takes up 7 pixels at a time (in an area of about 7x12 it looks like). Interestingly, the larger one "moves" faster than the others. I think I see gliders of 1, 3, 5, and 7 pixel height. There may also be a mutation of the 7-pixel glider that causes it to go even faster (looks like it has an extended head compared to the other)

* The gliders interact with one another, either combining forces, neutralizing each other, or changing states to a glider of a different size (usually to a size smaller than the larger of the two)

* The gliders originate from the merger of the horizontal and vertical areas, starting (and ending) their life where the two regions collide

* When two gliders of the same size perfectly collide with one another, they completely neutralize. Any offset in size or orientation causes a smaller glider to spin away (likely representing the 'difference' in 'energy' between the two, whatever that means)

* There's also a 'blinker' that occurs when two alternating lines meet one another

* It appears to be a class IV cellular automata ([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cellular_automaton#Classificat...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cellular_automaton#Classification))

Fascinating stuff. And so simple! Thanks for sharing the source.

~~~
twerkmonsta
Reminds me of some of the work Albert Omoss did for FITC Tokyo:
[http://albertomoss.com/work/fitctokyo2015](http://albertomoss.com/work/fitctokyo2015)

~~~
dmix
Amazing work, that is one multi-talented person.

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washedup
Looks like bismuth:
[https://www.google.com/search?q=bismuth&espv=2&biw=1242&bih=...](https://www.google.com/search?q=bismuth&espv=2&biw=1242&bih=593&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0CAcQ_AUoAmoVChMI5fPG_obKxwIVSTmICh0cdg7w)

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Animats
Everybody knows Conway's game of Life, right? [1][2]

[1] [http://www.conwaylife.com](http://www.conwaylife.com) [2]
[http://www.cuug.ab.ca/dewara/life/life.html](http://www.cuug.ab.ca/dewara/life/life.html)

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markbnj
Quite cool. Must not stare any longer. Must work.

>> Do you say "made" or "discovered" with cellular automata?

Discovered feels more appropriate, but I think they end up being the same
thing.

Have you documented the system's rules anywhere other than the source?

~~~
vectorjohn
It gets into a pretty philosophical area. What's the difference between that
and writing down an algorithm? Did you discover an algorithm or make it?

~~~
rch
I think this sums it up nicely:

"The time-span in which the MCL process and MCL algorithm came to me was no
more than five minutes. It was something that happened to me, not something
wrought by me. It feels like a nice discovery, a phenomenon of nature."

\--
[http://micans.org/mcl/index.html?sec_discovery](http://micans.org/mcl/index.html?sec_discovery)

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zitterbewegung
2d cellular automata is quite vast. golly is a good tool.

[http://golly.sourceforge.net](http://golly.sourceforge.net)

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pshc
It could be Snow Crash. Memetic hazard, avert thine eyes!

~~~
pavel_lishin
Relax, I don't see anything that looks like a parrot.

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api
Bet it's Turing complete. Many CAs are, and this one smells of it. :)

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orangea
The embedded video at [https://samgentle.com/posts/2015-08-21-universe-
tuning](https://samgentle.com/posts/2015-08-21-universe-tuning) doesn't work
(it says it's private)

~~~
sgentle
Oops! Fixed it. Unfortunately cellular automata looks terrible on video.

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alexholehouse
I'm currently building a 2D/3D simulation engine as part of my PhD - it's
uncanny how incredibly simple physical principles generated output that has
the _" look 'n feel"_ of organic phenomena.

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pavel_lishin
Can someone help me understand what the rel() function does?

~~~
unoti
It returns the value of a neighbor given an index, and an x and y delta value.
So rel(20, -1, 0) would return the neighbor to the left (x=-1, y=0) of the
20th cell.

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mccracken
Uncaught TypeError: Failed to construct 'ImageData': Illegal constructor does
not work

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valera_rozuvan
Looks to me like a constantly evolving maze. A shifting maze? Anyone watch the
movie Cube (Cube is a 1997 Canadian science fiction psychological horror film,
directed and co-written by Vincenzo Natali)?

This looks like a version of Cube, only in 2D.

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pavel_lishin
Anyone else notice the DNE?

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cpg
Try erasing the "Do not erase" sign by clicking it with your cursor "eraser".
Cute :)

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jsprogrammer
>Do you say "made" or "discovered" with cellular automata?

If it's your first time seeing it, then you have just discovered it. If you
selected the parameters and coded the algorithm, then you also made it.

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glax
It Gave me nausea watching it.

Should have epilepsy warning.

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vectorpush
I wouldn't be so sure... it is written in _coffeescript_ after all. God
forbid.

~~~
dang
Detached from
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10131731](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10131731)
and marked off-topic.

~~~
vectorpush
It was just a joke, but fair enough lol.

edit: i'd just add that even though it's only a joke, a comment regarding
(even if critical of) the language used to write the code is absolutely on
topic.

