7 ms·

I'm constantly blown away by the fact that such a simple rules can lead to complex systems such as this. Changed my perspective on a lot of things after that

• jeremy_wiebe 3y ago
  I read Code by Charles Petzold earlier this year and I feel like I had a similar realization. A simple switch can lead to such complex systems.
  • JohnFen 3y ago
    Right. A transistor (as used in most digital logic, anyway) is just a switch, and is what our most complex computers are made of.
• dclowd9901 3y ago
  Do we have an understanding yet of the minimum number of unique rules a system must have in order to be able to be Turing complete?
  • davidrupp 3y ago
    Not sure how this translates to "rules" in a cellular automaton, but: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One-instruction_set_computer https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One-instruction_set_computer
    • dclowd9901 3y ago
      This is exactly what I was asking about. Thank you!
      • riffraff 3y ago
        There's also a few "one instruction" CPUs https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/One-instruction_set_computer https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/One-instruction_set_computer
        • dclowd9901 3y ago
          Here’s a white paper on how one was implemented https://www.sccs.swarthmore.edu/users/06/adem/engin/e25/finale/ https://www.sccs.swarthmore.edu/users/06/adem/engin/e25/fina...
  • dnh44 3y ago
    You can build anything with AND and NOT gates or OR and NOT gates. https://www.electronics-tutorials.ws/logic/universal-gates.html https://www.electronics-tutorials.ws/logic/universal-gates.h...
    • deleted 3y ago
      [deleted]
    • JohnFen 3y ago
      You can build anything with just NAND gates.
  • gdprrrr 3y ago
    Well, we know that rule 110, which is like a 2d versions of Conway's game of life, is also Turing complete. So at least that simple.
• lamp_book 3y ago
  Growing Artificial Societies is an interesting book that extrapolates on this.