Cellular automaton is a collection of cells on a grid that evolves through a series of steps under simple rules governing their replication and destruction. https://monkeyscript.github.io/cellular-automata/
The Game of Life is a cellular automaton and a zero-player game devised by mathematician John Horton Conway. It takes place on a two-dimensional grid in which cells can be alive or dead, and is defined by a set of rules that jointly determine the state of a cell given the state of its neighbours. The initial states are random and can achieve stochastic patterns. You may get some cool ones if you're lucky :)
Wiki : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conway's_Game_of_Life
Rules :
- Any live cell with fewer than two live neighbours dies, as if by underpopulation.
- Any live cell with two or three live neighbours lives on to the next generation.
- Any live cell with more than three live neighbours dies, as if by overpopulation.
- Any dead cell with exactly three live neighbours becomes a live cell, as if by reproduction.
Langton's ant is another cellular automaton invented by Chris Langton in 1986. It is basically an ant sitting on a cell grid and the state of cells and movement of ant are governed by a simple set of rules. Unlink game of life, the patterns of this automaton are predictable and limited.
Wiki : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Langton's_ant
Rules :
- At a white square, turn 90° right, flip the color of the square, move forward one unit.
- At a black square, turn 90° left, flip the color of the square, move forward one unit.