Add info on seeds
[cellular-automata.git] / seeds / README.md
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1Seeds
2=====
3
4https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seeds_(cellular_automaton)
5
6> Seeds is a cellular automaton in the same family as the Game of Life,
7> initially investigated by Brian Silverman[1][2] and named by Mirek
8> Wójtowicz.[1][3] It consists of infinite two-dimensional grid of cells, each
9> of which may be in one of two states: on or off. Each cell is considered to
10> have eight neighbors (Moore neighborhood), as in Life. In each time step, a
11> cell turns on or is "born" if it was off or "dead" but had exactly two
12> neighbors that were on; all other cells turn off. Thus, in the notation
13> describing the family of cellular automata containing Life, it is described
14> by the rule B2/S.[1]
15>
16> In Game of Life terminology, a pattern in which all cells that were on turn
17> off at each step is called a phoenix. All patterns in Seeds have this form.
18> Even though all live cells are constantly dying, the small birth requirement
19> of two cells means that nearly every pattern in Seeds explodes into a chaotic
20> mess that grows to cover the entire universe. Thus, in Wolfram's
21> classification of cellular automata, it is a Class III automaton, in which
22> nearly all patterns evolve chaotically.[1]
23>
24> However, some patterns are known to behave in a more controlled fashion,
25> repeating the same shape either in the same position of the grid (an
26> oscillator) or translated some number of grid units after several steps (a
27> spaceship). More complex rake and puffer patterns are known which move like
28> spaceships leaving trails of oscillators or other spaceships behind them.
29> Most of these patterns move at a speed of 1 cell per time step (the so-called
30> speed of light, or c/1)[4] including three commonly seen spaceships with four
31> on cells each, but slower-moving patterns are also known. A collection of
32> patterns for the Seeds rule collected by Jason Summers includes patterns
33> found by Stephen Wright, Mirek Wójtowicz, Noam Elkies, Mark Niemiec, Peter
34> Naszvadi, and David Eppstein.[5]
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