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W09. Emergence 03

Today we extend Conway's Game of Life into more dimensions and resolutions. The original GoL was simple enough to be hand-computed, and, amazingly, produced self-replicating patterns that seemed to go on "forever". However, the limitations of a large square grid and only two states are obvious, as are the possible extensions: what if we can make the grid so small that it becomes continuous spatially, and what if we can give the cells so many states that they become continuous state-wise? The further we push this, the more our cells produce things that look like real-world microscopic life forms. In this, we get a much clearer demonstration of emergence, where things that seem to have intentional behaviour and even "forces" are driven purely by unintelligent state transition rules. "Agents" emerge.

Pre-readings and Videos​

These are mosly simulations (videos sometimes available via the accompanying links) of generalizations of Conway's Game of Life.

Rocks​

Can a sufficiently complex simulation emerge into experience? XKCD Comic

Primordia​

Primordia is the answer to the question of "what if you made Conway's GoL discrete but have more states?". Code and paper here

SmoothLife​

SmoothLife is the answer to the question of "what if you made Conway's GoL continuous?". Code and paper here.

Lenia​

Lenia is the answer to the question of "what if you pushed SmoothLife to it's absolute limits?" Code and paper here

Summary of the Day​

Learning Goals​

  1. Be able to extend Conway's Game of Life by changing dimensions, resolution, and topology.
  2. Be able to to explain how different resolutions in a simulation can have different emergent effects.