5 ms·

Cellular Automata in the Browser

86 points by hardmaru 7y ago

lbj 7y ago
I also made an example of this years ago in clojurescript. Porting this from a java desktop app to the browser took less than 5 minutes http://bestinclass.dk/da/posts/brians-brain-optimized-clojurescript-html5 http://bestinclass.dk/da/posts/brians-brain-optimized-clojur...
phreeza 7y ago
After high school I spent a year in rural Zambia as a volunteer, and one of my tasks was setting up a computer lab with donated computers at the local high school. There was no internet of any kind, but the computers had Internet Explorer installed, so I was able to program JavaScript. One of the things I programmed for fun was exactly this, an implementation of Conway's game of life.
rytill 7y ago
Deep within a simple cellular automaton, patterns begin to emerge. Almost all patterns are fleeting and whisk away as quickly as they arose. Others are more sticky, whirlpool-like, and tend to survive. Of these, some consistently emit patterns. Some compute-aeons later, one will emit a pattern that leads to self-replication. Soon, these surviving, self-replicating patterns infest the grid like bacteria. Life must evolve and exist in the chasmic depths of some of these defined cellular automata. Some must evolve to the point of intelligence. Does it wonder about its place in the universe? What is the most minimal cellular automata that creates intelligent life earliest in its evolution?
- abraae 7y ago
  > What is the most minimal cellular automata that creates intelligent life earliest in its evolution? Truely emergent AI is an interesting prospect. Are big actors hurling resources at this now? How could the platform detect the emergent intelligence, if it did put in an appearance? Wouldn't the detection circuitry be way more work than the cellular automata modelling itself?
  - rytill 7y ago
    > Are big actors hurling resources at this now? I don’t think so. > How could the platform detect the emergent intelligence, if it did put in an appearance? Very interesting. I took this for granted. Divide and conquer anomaly detection? Inject “consciousness” which self-reports its intelligence in a third dimension with higher barrier to entry, requiring intelligent creation to break the smooth regular pattern of that dimension?
- blamestross 7y ago
  Sounds like you want to brute Force s boltzmann brain. Primary problem is: how could you tell? It is not like it would have intelligent behavior to observe. At a macro scale I doubt we do either.
- AllegedAlec 7y ago
  I'd like some of what you're on. EDIT: I love how this is the top post on this article, despite being basically a word salad.
  - martythemaniak 7y ago
    I found it cute and quite meaningful. If you spend a good deal of time on Cellular Automata, Dissipative Structures and genetics these things really start to jump out at you. Here's a starter pack: Cellular Automata and Computation: https://www.edge.org/conversation/stephen_wolfram-ai-the-future-of-civilization https://www.edge.org/conversation/stephen_wolfram-ai-the-fut... Origin of Life: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PqPGOhXoprU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PqPGOhXoprU Dissipative Structures: https://www.amazon.ca/Order-Out-Chaos-Dialogue-Nature/dp/0553340824 https://www.amazon.ca/Order-Out-Chaos-Dialogue-Nature/dp/055...
    - blacksmith_tb 7y ago
      Wouldn't we be watching AL here, and not AI? Of course its evolution should proceed at a faster pace than terrestrial life has, but I wouldn't expect it to ask us why it exists for a little while yet...
goldenkey 7y ago
I used WebGL 2.0 Compute to make a supercharged CA engine: https://github.com/churchofthought/Grautamaton https://github.com/churchofthought/Grautamaton
fit2rule 7y ago
Seems like the bold moves made by the EvoCell guys may prove fruitful soon .. http://evocell.net/ http://evocell.net/
- onemoresoop 7y ago
  Thats a nifty game!
bilekas 7y ago
nice write up and lots of nice details, but is this not just fractals ? Nature itself is very much represented through fractals, at least in some part of my amateur understanding, which would suggest a lot of really interesting research in to this area.
- AllegedAlec 7y ago
  > nice write up and lots of nice details, but is this not just fractals ? Nope. Cellular automata are another beast. > Nature itself is very much represented through fractals, Not really. There are some fractal-ish processes, but they're not as common as some media assert they are.
  - dkersten 7y ago
    I like the smbc-comics “translation” (or explanation): https://www.smbc-comics.com/index.php?id=3777 https://www.smbc-comics.com/index.php?id=3777
    - bilekas 7y ago
      Ahaha well I feel pretty silly now!
      - dkersten 7y ago
        Hah! Don’t, it’s a very common trope and you can’t know what you didn’t learn, right? I believed the media claims too for a long time
    - jameshart 7y ago
      This is a more detailed explanation of what fractals actually are, and what mathematics actually mean by 'fractals are everywhere in nature': https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gB9n2gHsHN4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gB9n2gHsHN4 It might help connect some dots. Short version: simple rules -> can create self-similar shapes -> which can have fractal dimension -> cellular automata can create fractals but nature -> creates shapes which have fractal dimensions does not mean that the processes that create fractal shapes in nature are based on simple rules or cellular automata (but that's not to say they aren't!)
bloat 7y ago
Here's a similar literate program I wrote some years back in (then very new language) ClojureScript. http://git.slothrop.net/automata/ http://git.slothrop.net/automata/
Gehinnn 7y ago
Cellular automata are a very interesting device to recognize languages. It is still unknown whether there is a language in NP that cannot be accepted by a Cellular Automata in n steps.
- AllegedAlec 7y ago
  > Cellular automata are a very interesting device to recognize languages. I'm going to require one hell of a source for this...
carapace 7y ago
http://maximecb.github.io/Turing-Drawings/ http://maximecb.github.io/Turing-Drawings/ > Turing Drawings uses randomly generated Turing machines to produce drawings on a canvas, as a form of generative art.

86 points by hardmaru 7y ago

lbj 7y ago

I also made an example of this years ago in clojurescript. Porting this from a java desktop app to the browser took less than 5 minutes http://bestinclass.dk/da/posts/brians-brain-optimized-clojurescript-html5 http://bestinclass.dk/da/posts/brians-brain-optimized-clojur...

phreeza 7y ago

After high school I spent a year in rural Zambia as a volunteer, and one of my tasks was setting up a computer lab with donated computers at the local high school. There was no internet of any kind, but the computers had Internet Explorer installed, so I was able to program JavaScript. One of the things I programmed for fun was exactly this, an implementation of Conway's game of life.

rytill 7y ago

Deep within a simple cellular automaton, patterns begin to emerge. Almost all patterns are fleeting and whisk away as quickly as they arose. Others are more sticky, whirlpool-like, and tend to survive. Of these, some consistently emit patterns. Some compute-aeons later, one will emit a pattern that leads to self-replication. Soon, these surviving, self-replicating patterns infest the grid like bacteria. Life must evolve and exist in the chasmic depths of some of these defined cellular automata. Some must evolve to the point of intelligence. Does it wonder about its place in the universe? What is the most minimal cellular automata that creates intelligent life earliest in its evolution?

abraae 7y ago
> What is the most minimal cellular automata that creates intelligent life earliest in its evolution? Truely emergent AI is an interesting prospect. Are big actors hurling resources at this now? How could the platform detect the emergent intelligence, if it did put in an appearance? Wouldn't the detection circuitry be way more work than the cellular automata modelling itself?
- rytill 7y ago
  > Are big actors hurling resources at this now? I don’t think so. > How could the platform detect the emergent intelligence, if it did put in an appearance? Very interesting. I took this for granted. Divide and conquer anomaly detection? Inject “consciousness” which self-reports its intelligence in a third dimension with higher barrier to entry, requiring intelligent creation to break the smooth regular pattern of that dimension?
blamestross 7y ago
Sounds like you want to brute Force s boltzmann brain. Primary problem is: how could you tell? It is not like it would have intelligent behavior to observe. At a macro scale I doubt we do either.
AllegedAlec 7y ago
I'd like some of what you're on. EDIT: I love how this is the top post on this article, despite being basically a word salad.
- martythemaniak 7y ago
  I found it cute and quite meaningful. If you spend a good deal of time on Cellular Automata, Dissipative Structures and genetics these things really start to jump out at you. Here's a starter pack: Cellular Automata and Computation: https://www.edge.org/conversation/stephen_wolfram-ai-the-future-of-civilization https://www.edge.org/conversation/stephen_wolfram-ai-the-fut... Origin of Life: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PqPGOhXoprU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PqPGOhXoprU Dissipative Structures: https://www.amazon.ca/Order-Out-Chaos-Dialogue-Nature/dp/0553340824 https://www.amazon.ca/Order-Out-Chaos-Dialogue-Nature/dp/055...
  - blacksmith_tb 7y ago
    Wouldn't we be watching AL here, and not AI? Of course its evolution should proceed at a faster pace than terrestrial life has, but I wouldn't expect it to ask us why it exists for a little while yet...

goldenkey 7y ago

I used WebGL 2.0 Compute to make a supercharged CA engine: https://github.com/churchofthought/Grautamaton https://github.com/churchofthought/Grautamaton

fit2rule 7y ago

Seems like the bold moves made by the EvoCell guys may prove fruitful soon .. http://evocell.net/ http://evocell.net/

onemoresoop 7y ago
Thats a nifty game!

bilekas 7y ago

nice write up and lots of nice details, but is this not just fractals ? Nature itself is very much represented through fractals, at least in some part of my amateur understanding, which would suggest a lot of really interesting research in to this area.

AllegedAlec 7y ago
> nice write up and lots of nice details, but is this not just fractals ? Nope. Cellular automata are another beast. > Nature itself is very much represented through fractals, Not really. There are some fractal-ish processes, but they're not as common as some media assert they are.
- dkersten 7y ago
  I like the smbc-comics “translation” (or explanation): https://www.smbc-comics.com/index.php?id=3777 https://www.smbc-comics.com/index.php?id=3777
  - bilekas 7y ago
    Ahaha well I feel pretty silly now!
    - dkersten 7y ago
      Hah! Don’t, it’s a very common trope and you can’t know what you didn’t learn, right? I believed the media claims too for a long time
  - jameshart 7y ago
    This is a more detailed explanation of what fractals actually are, and what mathematics actually mean by 'fractals are everywhere in nature': https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gB9n2gHsHN4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gB9n2gHsHN4 It might help connect some dots. Short version: simple rules -> can create self-similar shapes -> which can have fractal dimension -> cellular automata can create fractals but nature -> creates shapes which have fractal dimensions does not mean that the processes that create fractal shapes in nature are based on simple rules or cellular automata (but that's not to say they aren't!)

bloat 7y ago

Here's a similar literate program I wrote some years back in (then very new language) ClojureScript. http://git.slothrop.net/automata/ http://git.slothrop.net/automata/

Gehinnn 7y ago

Cellular automata are a very interesting device to recognize languages. It is still unknown whether there is a language in NP that cannot be accepted by a Cellular Automata in n steps.

AllegedAlec 7y ago
> Cellular automata are a very interesting device to recognize languages. I'm going to require one hell of a source for this...

carapace 7y ago

http://maximecb.github.io/Turing-Drawings/ http://maximecb.github.io/Turing-Drawings/ > Turing Drawings uses randomly generated Turing machines to produce drawings on a canvas, as a form of generative art.