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Cool and all that, but isn't this... practically and intellectually useless? Surely, you can build a computer using pebbles on the sea shore by aligning them in the specific order. How is that surprising?
I believe it to be a system based on collision-based computing [1].
My hunch is this: Matter and Energy have a duality that is analogous to code and data. Einstein likened the speed of light to the speed of information. Wolfram/Toffoli/Fredkin or well, any other Cellular Automata specialist, studied the rate of propagation in CA, Lyapunov exponents. [2]
Now it seems to me, that if we can create a digital system which provides for code data duality analogous to Mass–energy equivalence [3], then we should be able to get stable structures that hold data, and stable processes that process data. I have tried for many years on and off with various CAs. Many of the CAs have been unconventional, like cells containing arrays of particles, particles being objects rather than simple numbers or enum types. And CAs based on reals or complex numbers or associated vector fields.
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Experiments
https://github.com/churchofthought/ScatterLife (CUDA)
https://github.com/churchofthought/HexagonalComplexAutomata (WebGL 2.0)
https://github.com/churchofthought/Grautamaton (WebGL 2.0)
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Example of a Complex-valued Cellular Automata based on Sandpile dynamics
Big Bang (video): https://photos.app.goo.gl/K7fovThbvatpmGQy5
End result (image): https://photos.app.goo.gl/n5amaqn8ZLVocn1Z6
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[1] https://link.springer.com/referenceworkentry/10.1007%2F978-3...
[2] https://www.math.ucdavis.edu/~gravner/papers/AUTOMATA2014_15...
[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mass%E2%80%93energy_equivalenc...
I wonder what the most elegant Turing-complete universe is. I believe it to be a system based on collision-based computing [1]. My hunch is this: Matter and Energy have a duality that is analogous to code and data. Einstein likened the speed of light to the speed of information. Wolfram/Toffoli/Fredkin or well, any other Cellular Automata specialist, studied the rate of propagation in CA, Lyapunov exponents. [2] Now…
It’s reminiscent of what it feels like to dig deeply into a metabolic or reproductive process in a cell and be overcome with the sheer complexity of it, then look at the back of your hand and realize it’s all happening right there, now.
Basically it feels a bit like life.
But can it run Doom?
It’s interesting watching the messy complexity resolve into patterns and order as you zoom out. It’s reminiscent of what it feels like to dig deeply into a metabolic or reproductive process in a cell and be overcome with the sheer complexity of it, then look at the back of your hand and realize it’s all happening right there, now. Basically it feels a bit like life.
Even if the real world has a creator (or is a simulation), my money would be on it being impossible for the creator to know what is going to happen. Life would be the simulation.
But can it run Doom?
I remember seeing that video 3 years ago and being blown away. In case someone doesn't already know it, here is Conway's Game of Life simulated in Conway's Game of Life: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xP5-iIeKXE8
Previous discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24323011