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What is it with all the Game of Life posts lately? There seems to be a new one every other day. Not that it's a bad thing, I think the GOL is a marvellous thing

by tsahyt 14y ago

What is it with all the Game of Life posts lately? There seems to be a new one every other day. Not that it's a bad thing, I think the GOL is a marvellous thing and the SmoothLife video was mesmerizing. I'm just wondering why they all pop up at the same time?

eranation 14y ago
I'm sure there is a "game of life" like biological algorithm that can explain this and the flow of articles in the form of "X in GO" or "Don't use MongoDB" or "Y in pure CSS" e.g. perhaps people see what's top on HN (a legitimate article) and search on the topic, and increase the probability of more posts in that topic, also, psychologically, if A is popular, then when seeing something that looks like A you might up vote it just by assuming it's popular too.
- pirateking 14y ago
  A Game of Life type visualization of this algorithm would be interesting. It might go something like: The seed of the system is a random cluster of N stories (cells) that represent the "front page". Each cell has votes and topics (Erlang, Apple, X in CSS, etc.). 1. Any cell with fewer than N votes, and fewer than two neighbors dies (due to lack of interest and/or promotion). 2. Any cell with two or three live neighbors, lives on to the next generation (riding along the front page wave). 3. Any cell with more than three live neighbors, that share the same topic dies (due to overexposure of the topic). 4. Any dead cell with exactly three live neighbors, becomes a live cell with a topic shared by one of the neighbors (the spread of interest of a topic). After any generation, votes and stories can be added. The low threshold of votes (N), is determined to be some percentage of all votes in the system. Tempted to make this for fun now...
saraid216 14y ago
Seeing one Topic-X post will trigger many people to think, "Oh, and I remember Y-related-to-Topic-X," as well as "Hey, I wonder if I could find out more about Y-related-to-Topic-X," and away you go. Also, http://www.amazon.com/Bursts-Hidden-Pattern-Behind-Everything/dp/0525951601 http://www.amazon.com/Bursts-Hidden-Pattern-Behind-Everythin... (even though it is not a great book; it is mediocre IMO).
lojack 14y ago
Well, I personally saw a game of life post earlier today. Upon doing a google search I independently discovered this search result (slightly later than the OP). If I were so motivated I would have posted it myself.

by tsahyt 14y ago

eranation 14y ago

I'm sure there is a "game of life" like biological algorithm that can explain this and the flow of articles in the form of "X in GO" or "Don't use MongoDB" or "Y in pure CSS" e.g. perhaps people see what's top on HN (a legitimate article) and search on the topic, and increase the probability of more posts in that topic, also, psychologically, if A is popular, then when seeing something that looks like A you might up vote it just by assuming it's popular too.

pirateking 14y ago
A Game of Life type visualization of this algorithm would be interesting. It might go something like: The seed of the system is a random cluster of N stories (cells) that represent the "front page". Each cell has votes and topics (Erlang, Apple, X in CSS, etc.). 1. Any cell with fewer than N votes, and fewer than two neighbors dies (due to lack of interest and/or promotion). 2. Any cell with two or three live neighbors, lives on to the next generation (riding along the front page wave). 3. Any cell with more than three live neighbors, that share the same topic dies (due to overexposure of the topic). 4. Any dead cell with exactly three live neighbors, becomes a live cell with a topic shared by one of the neighbors (the spread of interest of a topic). After any generation, votes and stories can be added. The low threshold of votes (N), is determined to be some percentage of all votes in the system. Tempted to make this for fun now...

saraid216 14y ago

Seeing one Topic-X post will trigger many people to think, "Oh, and I remember Y-related-to-Topic-X," as well as "Hey, I wonder if I could find out more about Y-related-to-Topic-X," and away you go. Also, http://www.amazon.com/Bursts-Hidden-Pattern-Behind-Everything/dp/0525951601 http://www.amazon.com/Bursts-Hidden-Pattern-Behind-Everythin... (even though it is not a great book; it is mediocre IMO).

lojack 14y ago

Well, I personally saw a game of life post earlier today. Upon doing a google search I independently discovered this search result (slightly later than the OP). If I were so motivated I would have posted it myself.