Re: The Game of Life

From: Jerry Clark <Jerry.Clark.domain.name.hidden>
Date: Mon, 06 Dec 1999 13:04:21 +0000

More relevantly, it is posulated as highly likely that, starting with a random
Life
formation, SAS's will evolve of their own accord. One proves this by showing
that
our UTM is also a universal constructor (can take a coded blueprint and build
out
of it a machine at least as complex as itself). UTM is also a universal
destructor
and therefore mobile. Eventually you get evolution and SAS's.

This is "SAS's for free" and a much more interesting result than the fact that
one
can build a UTM in the life universe that simulates e.g. this universe.

Such 'Life' evolution raises an interesting question: These SAS's would build
universities and
study mathematics, computer science and physics. Some J.H.Conway of the Life
universe would discover the amusing and diverting Life game, and start
discovering
gliders, glider guns, space rakes etc. Sooner or later a physicists would hear
about
this new development and the realisation would be made that their universe
*is* a
Life simulation. Such a discovery would of course revolutionise the study of
physics
for these SAS's.

More interestingly still: when are *we* going to discover some CA or similar
which
turns out to be *our* universe? In my lifetime I hope.

Fred Chen wrote:

> hal.domain.name.hidden wrote:
>
> > Fred Chen, <flipsu5.domain.name.hidden>, writes:
> > > When this game is run, complex patterns can emerge from simpler ones in
> > > a dynamic fashion. So, my question is, can this game generate SAS's?
> >
> > It has been found that "Life is Universal", meaning that you can
> > construct a Universal Turing Machine out of the Life rules. It would
> > then be possible to program it to simulate any mathematical or logical
> > system, hence SAS's should be possible.
> >
> > Hal
>
> You are right. You can construct a UTM based on Life rules.
>
> Fred
Received on Mon Dec 06 1999 - 04:02:33 PST