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Cellular Automata
Picture a grid of cells:
Each cell is now given a set of rules: Each rule tells the cell to look at 4 of its nearest neighbors and count the number of white cells. If there are more than 3 white cells surrounding it, it should change its color to black.
Imagine that for the grid above you now ask each cell to count the cells around it and remember which color it should become; and when you give the signal “GO” all cells should change their color to the remembered color.
What will happen to the above grid when you yell GO?
Recently an RU student, Hrafn Þorri Þórisson, created a system for building cellular automata systems. He implemented a rule that Wolfram calls “Rule 30”. This rule produced a pattern like this:
Interestingly, nature seems to implement this rule in some ways too:
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