Many, many years ago there evolved a simulation called the “Game of Life.” I think it was first popularized by John Conway in
Scientific American magazine (see:
Ibiblio Entry). Basically this game consisted of a two-dimensional
checkerboard of infinite dimensions in which each cell was either populated or
empty. When an initial set of populated cells is created (Garden of Eden
condition) with the placement of counters, then a sequence of moves is begun under a rigid set of genetic rules. These rules can change, but Conway’s were (quoted
from this article):
- Survivals. Every counter
with two or three neighboring counters survives for the next generation.
- Deaths. Each counter
with four or more neighbors dies (is removed) from overpopulation. Every
counter with one neighbor or none dies from isolation.
- Births. Each empty cell
adjacent to exactly three neighbors--no more, no fewer--is a birth cell. A
counter is placed on it at the next move.
When this game was programmed into a computer (I can’t
recall for sure, but I think maybe my son and I did such a program on the TRS-80),
fascinating patterns were created which often performed spellbinding
repetitions. The game ends with one of
three outcomes (again quoted from this magazine):
[F]ading away completely (from
overcrowding or becoming too sparse), settling into a stable configuration that
remains unchanged thereafter, or entering an oscillating phase in which they
repeat an endless cycle of two or more periods.
Obviously changing Conway’s
genetic rules within this same framework will create different outcomes. You
might want to play this game for yourself at one of many Internet sites or download
it (Google them). Here is one such on-line site:
Kongregate Games .
Now comes the real point of this
post … this game-of-life concept has just been brought into the physical world
by scientists at Harvard University. They have created simple robots (bots)
that can be made cheaply in great numbers and can communicate via infrared signals
with one another ... and live by an updated set of rules to form complicated and
often life-like learned patterns … see:
Wired Magazine Story. Such social behavior often mimics the motion of flocks of birds or schools of
fish and obviously may produce remarkable results. Although these Cantab scientists can (I
assume) mimic deaths in these bot populations .., they have not yet been able
to have them reproduce ... nor allow them to set their own objectives. Once this is accomplished, we may be in for some exciting and maybe even dangerous science-fictional outcomes.
