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[GSGBen]

http://codegolf.stackexchange.com/questions/88783/build-a-digital-clock-in-conways-game-of-life/111932#111932

Follow those few steps and watch a digital clock in Conways Game of Life. Zoom in and look at each individual having no idea about the state of the system but creating meaning on a higher level. This is the kind of stuff that reeeeeeeeeeally gets me going

[AaronB]

So this inspired me to do a particle version where the number of connections dictates the individuals fate:

Code:

if (w.simulator_tick - particles[p].simulator_spawn_tick > w.framerate / 2)
{
    if ((particles[p].num_connections < 2 || particles[p].num_connections > 3) &&
         particles[p].remove_particle == 0)
    {
        particles[p].remove_particle = 1;
        particles[p].remove_ri = GetReactionID ("conway group", "life", "conway");
    }
    else if (particles[p].create_particles == 0)
    {
        particles[p].create_particles = 1;
        particles[p].create_particles_ri = GetReactionID ("conway group", "life", "create");
        particles[p].simulator_spawn_tick = w.simulator_tick;
        particles[p].do_flash = 20;
    }
}

In this example the "create" reaction is biased towards one direction only.

[J-Snake]

Zoom in and look at each individual having no idea about the state of the system but creating meaning on a higher level.

While individual cells have no notion about the state of the system its designer does. You can also build a clock on top of transistors, while each transistor has no notion about the state of the system.

Any turing complete system can pretty much simulate everything that is computable. But it is often just a cumbersome way of modeling systems. Not saying one can't enjoy this exercise, there is just nothing overly interesting about it.

[Luno]

Zoom in and look at each individual having no idea about the state of the system but creating meaning on a higher level.

While individual cells have no notion about the state of the system its designer does. You can also build a clock on top of transistors, while each transistor has no notion about the state of the system.

Any turing complete system can pretty much simulate everything that is computable. But it is often just a cumbersome way of modeling systems. Not saying one can't enjoy this exercise, there is just nothing overly interesting about it.

Yeah, I accept that...but I do think there's something interesting about the fact that a system like Conway's game of life is turing complete (is it?). I don't think that was his original intent, but I'm no expert so I could be sticking my foot in my mouth here. Would he have been surprised to learn that a clock like this was possible?

Anyways, I think we can all agree that the thing to marvel at here is the all the human dedication and inquiry that produced this work!

[J-Snake]

Would he have been surprised to learn that a clock like this was possible?

Nope, a clock is just a simple pattern, it is created on top of some wrapper mechanics which abstract the core rules away. It only looks that complicated because you see all the actions with their overhead at play. The more interesting questions are dealing with infinity while the system isn't bound to a particular pattern. A question of this type can be for example: "Will a given population live forever or die off?". In general, this type of questions cannot be answered, because how can you predict something that is unpredictable? This property of "no way of knowing" is manifested in the so called "halting problem", for example it is not possible to build a compiler that can take any program and decide in finite time whether a program will halt/stop after a finite time or run endlessly. But the halting problem is just the "popular" way of looking at it. Essentially, you cannot predict an outcome for an infinite happening that is not bound to a particular pattern. It is nothing special or magical once you start to look at it that way, and actually this is also reflected in your daily life.

Anyways, I think we can all agree that the thing to marvel at here is the all the human dedication and inquiry that produced this work!

Sure, the same goes to all the great works you can find in Minecraft, btw;)