Langton's ant colony eBook cover generator: each word in the eBook title seeds the initial parameters (location, direction) of an ant and the simulation is run for a large, constant number of steps, producing an interesting and reproducible generated cover.
Langton's ant
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Re: Langton's ant
#12How can it be Turing-complete with only two colors and one state? I thought you needed at least two colors and three states to be Turing-complete. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wolfram%27s_2-state_3-symbol_T...
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Re: Langton's ant
#13Langton's ant colony eBook cover generator: each word in the eBook title seeds the initial parameters (location, direction) of an ant and the simulation is run for a large, constant number of steps, producing an interesting and reproducible generated cover.
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Re: Langton's ant
#14I've been obsessed with Langton's ant for a good solid decade now. My latest creation is a few years old now, but occasionally I go back and add new commands. It's inspired by Langton's ant, but it operates in 45 degree increments, has the ability to fork, conditionally execute instructions, has colors, and a bunch of other interesting things. You can see it in action at http://demoseen.com/langton/#.FP$!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!~ and there's a simple instruction listing at the bottom of the page.
It's quite a departure from the original, but you can make absolutely gorgeous images with some simple instructions.
Re: Langton's ant
#15I've been obsessed with Langton's ant for a good solid decade now. My latest creation is a few years old now, but occasionally I go back and add new commands. It's inspired by Langton's ant, but it operates in 45 degree increments, has the ability to fork, conditionally execute instructions, has colors, and a bunch of other interesting things. You can see it in action at http://demoseen.com/langton/#.FP$!!!!!!!!!!!!!…
Wow! A suggestion: Adding some sort of inertia calculation. It might lead to very complex and yet smooth looking images.
Re: Langton's ant
#16But what happened to Langton himself? After leaving SFI and the Swarm corp he seems to have disappeared. I met him once - about 12 years ago - and he was the most charming, kind guy who spent three hours and a lunch with me just because I said I don't understand something he said. Then he warned me not to become too much of a generalist and specialise more. He was right, but I didn't listen to him, I was in my 20s and thought I can be a polymath :)
Re: Langton's ant
#17I'm looking for an algorithm that is as simple as Langton's ant but with X amount of ants that all compete in some way. Any pointers?
Re: Langton's ant
#18I've been obsessed with Langton's ant for a good solid decade now. My latest creation is a few years old now, but occasionally I go back and add new commands. It's inspired by Langton's ant, but it operates in 45 degree increments, has the ability to fork, conditionally execute instructions, has colors, and a bunch of other interesting things. You can see it in action at http://demoseen.com/langton/#.FP$!!!!!!!!!!!!!…
Beautiful. Thanks!
Re: Langton's ant
#19Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
I'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.
What about when the ant reaches the edge of his grid? (this part I couldn't find an explanation for on the wiki)
Re: Langton's ant
#20Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'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.
What about when the ant reaches the edge of his grid? (this part I couldn't find an explanation for on the wiki)
The grid has no edges, it's infinite in all directions!