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What the hell is this? [X]

Try to explore a bit: zoom out, scroll around. Get a sense for the chaotic, fleeting structures—those seams of little "spaceships"—and for their more humdrum compatriots that linger unchanged on the outer diagonal.

They are all part of a machine, a one-dimensional cellular automaton with the power, unbelievably, of a universal computer. It is thought to be the simplest there is.

Eight rules determine every pattern on this page and its infinite extension:


That such a compact description of a world could seed the kind of genuine mathematical complexity required to (among other things) decide every recursively enumerable language is downright astonishing, and, I think, well worth a look.

1. The rules tell cell x what color he should be based on the three cells in the row above him (at 11, 12, and 1 o'clock). See the Wikipedia pages for rule 110 and universal computer to learn more.

2. Hit spacebar to generate more rows.