Life In Life
May 23, 2012 7:49 AM Subscribe
Life in Life: Using something called an OTCA metapixel (Outer Totalistic Cellular Automata Meta-Pixel), which is a pattern in Conway’s Game of Life, someone has implemented the Game of Life inside of another Game of Life.
Neat! Needs a 'meta' tag ...
posted by carter at 7:54 AM on May 23, 2012 [2 favorites]
posted by carter at 7:54 AM on May 23, 2012 [2 favorites]
People mention games being Turing complete, but the complexity is usually such so that we never actually see the completeness being made. Surely it's been done before? But this is definitely the first time I've actually seen it. Very awesome.
posted by Phantomx at 7:54 AM on May 23, 2012
posted by Phantomx at 7:54 AM on May 23, 2012
Oh I see that the OCTA metapixel needs ~35k generations to turn on or off. I wonder how many generations were run to make this video. That's a whole lot of base pixels in the end result as well.
posted by Phantomx at 7:57 AM on May 23, 2012
posted by Phantomx at 7:57 AM on May 23, 2012
But this is definitely the first time I've actually seen it.
Previously
posted by DU at 7:58 AM on May 23, 2012 [1 favorite]
Previously
posted by DU at 7:58 AM on May 23, 2012 [1 favorite]
Gliders all the way down.
posted by schwa at 7:58 AM on May 23, 2012 [9 favorites]
posted by schwa at 7:58 AM on May 23, 2012 [9 favorites]
Are people still making those Xzibit jokes?
posted by box at 8:00 AM on May 23, 2012 [5 favorites]
posted by box at 8:00 AM on May 23, 2012 [5 favorites]
The nice thing about the OCTA metapixel (which was created more than 6 years ago) is there's a hell of a lot of repetition. So it runs super super super fast under a hashlife-like implementation.
posted by Plutor at 8:01 AM on May 23, 2012 [3 favorites]
posted by Plutor at 8:01 AM on May 23, 2012 [3 favorites]
Oh shoot, I thought Turing Complete only meant it can 100% emulate itself. woops.
posted by Phantomx at 8:08 AM on May 23, 2012
posted by Phantomx at 8:08 AM on May 23, 2012
"Great fleas have little fleas upon their backs to bite 'em,
And little fleas have lesser fleas, and so ad infinitum.
And the great fleas themselves, in turn, have greater fleas to go on,
While these again have greater still, and greater still, and so on."
- Augustus De Morgan, mathematician.
posted by fight or flight at 8:08 AM on May 23, 2012 [5 favorites]
And little fleas have lesser fleas, and so ad infinitum.
And the great fleas themselves, in turn, have greater fleas to go on,
While these again have greater still, and greater still, and so on."
- Augustus De Morgan, mathematician.
posted by fight or flight at 8:08 AM on May 23, 2012 [5 favorites]
I believe this was linked to in a related thread about Minecraft in Minecraft
posted by Petrot at 8:11 AM on May 23, 2012 [1 favorite]
posted by Petrot at 8:11 AM on May 23, 2012 [1 favorite]
....slow clap.....
posted by lumpenprole at 8:15 AM on May 23, 2012
posted by lumpenprole at 8:15 AM on May 23, 2012
GAH
posted by randomination at 8:15 AM on May 23, 2012
posted by randomination at 8:15 AM on May 23, 2012
But they can they implement this?
posted by East Manitoba Regional Junior Kabaddi Champion '94 at 8:16 AM on May 23, 2012 [4 favorites]
posted by East Manitoba Regional Junior Kabaddi Champion '94 at 8:16 AM on May 23, 2012 [4 favorites]
This takes me back to the moment when I stopped playing The Sims.
I was playing a game in which a similar version of myself was playing a game. My sim was sitting in his house alone playing a computer game in an attempt to improve mood stats. The meta of this, exploded my mind and I vowed to stop playing games of this type forever.
posted by Fizz at 8:16 AM on May 23, 2012 [12 favorites]
I was playing a game in which a similar version of myself was playing a game. My sim was sitting in his house alone playing a computer game in an attempt to improve mood stats. The meta of this, exploded my mind and I vowed to stop playing games of this type forever.
posted by Fizz at 8:16 AM on May 23, 2012 [12 favorites]
Rather than watching the video on YouTube, install the program "golly" and play with this stuff yourself! Remember, Life should be an ACTIVE pursuit, not a passive one.
posted by crazy_yeti at 8:16 AM on May 23, 2012 [2 favorites]
posted by crazy_yeti at 8:16 AM on May 23, 2012 [2 favorites]
Needs more BRRRMMMMMMMMMM
posted by seanmpuckett at 8:28 AM on May 23, 2012 [1 favorite]
posted by seanmpuckett at 8:28 AM on May 23, 2012 [1 favorite]
Next someone needs to implement Life on this Turing machine.
posted by localroger at 8:37 AM on May 23, 2012
posted by localroger at 8:37 AM on May 23, 2012
Nice, the zoom out to see all the packets(?) racing around was like something from Tron.
posted by EndsOfInvention at 8:40 AM on May 23, 2012
posted by EndsOfInvention at 8:40 AM on May 23, 2012
Are people still making those Xzibit jokes?
SPOILER ALERT, surely.
posted by yerfatma at 8:42 AM on May 23, 2012 [1 favorite]
SPOILER ALERT, surely.
posted by yerfatma at 8:42 AM on May 23, 2012 [1 favorite]
Saw this a bit ago. I love it. Game of Life projects are always fascinating.
posted by BlackLeotardFront at 8:55 AM on May 23, 2012
posted by BlackLeotardFront at 8:55 AM on May 23, 2012
I liked the use of the endlessly ascending tone for thematic reasons, but it's actually kind of a painful noise.
posted by Mars Saxman at 8:59 AM on May 23, 2012 [7 favorites]
posted by Mars Saxman at 8:59 AM on May 23, 2012 [7 favorites]
The slow zoom out is a really cool presentation; lets you appreciate the scale.
But now I want to start randomly flipping individual squares and see how robust it is. Will it repair itself, create a 'dead pixel', or will the damage spread over the whole organism?
posted by benito.strauss at 10:01 AM on May 23, 2012
But now I want to start randomly flipping individual squares and see how robust it is. Will it repair itself, create a 'dead pixel', or will the damage spread over the whole organism?
posted by benito.strauss at 10:01 AM on May 23, 2012
benito: the structure is pretty delicate. if you perturb it, unless your perturbation is just adding a cell that dies out immediately, you will wreak havoc with the whole thing. but it's quite interesting to watch the damage spread out. as i posted above: install "golly" and you can play with this yourself, rather than just passively watching on YouTube (the OTCA is in the bundled Golly pattern library, as well as tons of other neat stuff).
posted by crazy_yeti at 10:04 AM on May 23, 2012 [1 favorite]
posted by crazy_yeti at 10:04 AM on May 23, 2012 [1 favorite]
But now I want to start randomly flipping individual squares and see how robust it is. Will it repair itself, create a 'dead pixel', or will the damage spread over the whole organism?
crazy_yeti is right, these kinds of structures tend not to be self-repairing. And yes, golly is wonderful.
posted by JHarris at 10:17 AM on May 23, 2012
crazy_yeti is right, these kinds of structures tend not to be self-repairing. And yes, golly is wonderful.
posted by JHarris at 10:17 AM on May 23, 2012
Huh, I was digging for this just the other day 'cause I wanted to post it on /r/whoadude.
posted by egypturnash at 10:21 AM on May 23, 2012
posted by egypturnash at 10:21 AM on May 23, 2012
Awesome.
posted by doctornemo at 10:28 AM on May 23, 2012
posted by doctornemo at 10:28 AM on May 23, 2012
I think that's the same as a fractal.
posted by East Manitoba Regional Junior Kabaddi Champion '94 at 11:31 AM on May 23, 2012 [2 favorites]
posted by East Manitoba Regional Junior Kabaddi Champion '94 at 11:31 AM on May 23, 2012 [2 favorites]
That is it! It's over! There is nothing left to accomplish. We can just beam this into space and the aliens will say, "ah, the humans have arrived!" We are THROUGH THE FUCKING LOOKING GLASS.
posted by Peevish at 11:44 AM on May 23, 2012
posted by Peevish at 11:44 AM on May 23, 2012
OK, Wow, THIS has some amazing things in it (but mute the music, trust me!)
posted by rebent at 8:57 PM on May 23, 2012 [1 favorite]
posted by rebent at 8:57 PM on May 23, 2012 [1 favorite]
Life in Life: naa naa naa-na-naa.
I suffer; you suffer
posted by MartinWisse at 10:50 PM on May 23, 2012
I suffer; you suffer
posted by MartinWisse at 10:50 PM on May 23, 2012
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posted by Freen at 7:51 AM on May 23, 2012 [1 favorite]