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a cellular automata that never stabilizes (Read 1061 times)
sebastiano
a cellular automata that never stabilizes
May 5th, 2010, 11:19pm  
hello, i been making experiments with cellular automata in processing the thing i discovered is that after some generations every cellular automata tends to stabilize , i would like to know if there is any type of cellular automata that never stabilizes? or is there is a trick to make a cellular automata never stabilize?

thanks

Seb.
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TfGuy44
Re: a cellular automata that never stabilizes
Reply #1 - May 6th, 2010, 12:21am  
How stable is stable?
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PhiLho 
Re: a cellular automata that never stabilizes
Reply #2 - May 6th, 2010, 5:13am  
Quote:
after some generations every cellular automata tends to stabilize

That's not true.
For example, the most well known CA, the game of life, can generate entities moving across the surface, extending indefinitely, and so on.

Now, as TfGuy44, it depends on what you call "stabilize".
Somehow, you can also make a kind of noise field with your own pseudo-random number generator following whatever rule you want.
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Quark
Re: a cellular automata that never stabilizes
Reply #3 - May 6th, 2010, 7:03am  
I suspect that by stabilize Seb means that the game state repeats itself over a small number of generations.

As PhiLo points out in Conwy's Game of Life there are entities that move across the surface the simplest being the 'glider'.  There is another famous entity called the Gosper Gun which repeats itself over a number of generations each time producing a glider.

There are more complex versions but it proves that not all starting positions will lead to a stable state.

You can see the Gosper Gun in action here
Smiley
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