The Game of Life

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):

1. Survivals. Every counter with two or three neighboring counters survives  for the next generation.
2. Deaths. Each counter with four or more neighbors dies (is removed) from overpopulation. Every counter with one neighbor or none dies from isolation.
3. 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.

Ghosts

I sometimes wonder if any national name ever writes his/her own books.  Bill Ayers is generally thought to have written at least one of Barack Obama's pre-presidential pufferies. Now we learn that Hillary Clinton’s new book “Hard Choices” (is the title a homage to Bill’s many bimbos?) was written by Ted Widmer of Harvard and Brown Universities … see: Showbiz Story.  And that her previous pocketbook filler, “It Takes a Village” was written by Barbara Feinman of Georgetown University … for the paltry sum of $120,000.

In the old days such shenanigans were outed when we were treated to the “As Told to” revelation on the book jacket. Not anymore … our politicians have become such mechanized frauds that their ghoulish ghost writers generally remain apparitions.

Afterthought: There is probably also reason to question the "As Told by" process of this Hillary book. Would her posse of metrosexual spin doctors and Muslim Brotherhood wannabes (all paid for by the Clinton Foundation) collectively construct the content of this political propaganda? You bet your bippy ...