3 ms·
I would say there are 10 states. Any square can be empty or have an ant, and if the ant is there its direction is known. That gives 5 states of ant presence and
by burtonlang 12y ago
I would say there are 10 states. Any square can be empty or have an ant, and if the ant is there its direction is known. That gives 5 states of ant presence and direction, and since a square has 2 color states, that's 10 total states.
- throwaway_yy2Di 12y agoI'm counting "states" as the term's used in (tape) Turing machines, where you distinguish the internal states of the finite automaton (tape head) from the memory states of the unbounded tape (symbols or colors). So this ant would be analogous to a 4-state, 2-color Turing machine. The ant has four possible states; each cell of the grid has two.
- laumars 12y agoWhat about when the ant reaches the edge of his grid? (this part I couldn't find an explanation for on the wiki)
- throwaway_yy2Di 12y agoThe grid has no edges, it's infinite in all directions!
- laumars 12y agoI see. It would be interesting to see this on a finite universe - a curved universe where opposite edges join